Saturday, January 22, 2011

Sunny and Tiffany praised for Live performance of 'Secret Garden' OST


On MBC Radio FM4U’s ‘This Morning it’s Lee Munse’ program aired on January 21st, Sunny and Tiffany greeted the listeners early in the morning with their sweet voices as they performed the OST of SBS Drama ‘Secret Garden’, ‘I Can’t’, originally by 4Men.
Despite having to attend the early morning schedule, the girls pulled off a great live performance. Listeners commented, “Indeed SNSD!”, “This is the reason why SNSD’s singing is Jjang!”, “High standard of main vocals” and “Their voices are good and they blended well too”.

2010 Top 10 JKpop Albums' popularity list with listeners.

2010 Top 10 JKpop Albums' popularity list with listeners.
1. Wonder Girls, 'Special Edition Album' - 23,194,791 (total album listens)
2. SNSD, 'The Second Album Repackaged Run Devil Run' - 13,161,851
3. Lee Hyori, 'H-Logic' - 9,408,110
4. Super Junior, 'The 4th Album Bonamana' - 8,965,528
5. T-ara, 'Breaking Heart' - 6,733,479
6. Baek Ji Young, 'Timeless: The Best' - 4,968,615
7. Lisa Ono, 'Asia' - 4,900,024
8. SS501, 'Destination' - 3,604,312
9. CNBlue, 'Bluetory' - 3,566,872
10. Ayumi Hamasaki, 'Love Songs' - 1,532,972

Factoring in also QQ Music's Top 10 Chinese & Western Albums lists (left sidebar)
Overall 2010 rankings will look like this (listing those with at least 10 million listens; respective album names omitted for brevity)

1. Jay Chou (Taiwan) - 73,710,960
2. Justin Bieber (USA) - 43,681,747
3. Show Luo (Taiwan) - 39,573,424
4. Jane Zhang (China) - 35,036,708
5. Happy Family (China) - 27,542,485
6. Wonder Girls (Korea) - 23,194,791
7. Ke$ha (USA) - 16,856,526
8. Michelle Li (China) - 16,393,569
9. JJ Lin (Singapore) - 14,206,429
10. Lala Hsu (Taiwan) - 14,176,751
11. SNSD (Korea) - 13,161,851
12. Taylor Swift (USA) - 13,098,568
13. Jolin Tsai (Taiwan) - 11,954,806
14. Usher (USA) - 10,003,554

Winners from the 2011 Asia Model Awards

Earlier, we reported that SHINee had won an award at the 2011 Asia Model Awards, but there were also other winners at the awards ceremony held at the Seoul Marriott Hotel on January 21st.

Fellow label mate SNSD was chosen as Asia’s Best Star, on January 21st at the 2011 Asia Model Awards, together with Kwon Sang Woo and Jerry Yan.

SNSD shared, “Thank you to all the fans in the world that have given us so much love. We will work harder for hallyu. Please give some love to other singers and the SM Town family.”

Since it was a global event, Tiffany impressed by sharing the speech in English as well.

The awards show, which is only in its sixth year, is already creating lots of buzz and congratulates people who have excelled in the fields of modeling, dramas, movies, music, and more.

Below is the full list of winners from this year’s show!

▲ Asia Star Award

SNSD


An SNSD Member Debuted From That Program!?


Despite Japan’s on-going music market recession, K-POP girl groups SNSD and KARA shined last year.

“Since KARA and SNSD both have success in Korea, when they debuted in Japan, they already had a lot of passionate fans. According to last year’s Oricon Yearly Ranking, the top domestic new comers who had their CD debut were #1 KARA and #2 SNSD. KARA had 2 singles, 5 albums and 1 DVD, 8 total things; earning 1.3 billion yen (~15.7 USD). SNSD had 2 singles, 6 albums and 1 DVD, 9 total things, they earned 880 million yen (~10.6 USD). #3 was the male 3 member band WEAVER who earned 130 million yen (~1.6 million USD).” (Music Magazine Reporter)

About their popularity in Korea, “It feels as if KARA’s season has passed, and SNSD’s popularity among young girls is high. It’s for that reason that KARA has increased their Japanese activities. Starting in January, the members play the lead roles in their TV Tokyo drama “URAKARA”.” (Journalist from Korea)

On December 30, 2010, SNSD was awarded the Best Newcomer Award by the “Japan Record Awards”. It feels as though SNSD are leading KARA by just a bit in Japan and it could be thanks to their valuable weapon, one member who is proficient in Japanese, Sooyoung. In August 2010, she was the representative member at Tokyo’s Ariake Coliseum and greeted the fans, “After this, I think there will be a lot of chances to meet with Japanese fans, so please support us!”. After this, she was proactive and she fluently spoke in Japanese at events and on TV programs. She learned this Japanese from her early years in Japan.

“When she was still 11 years old, she applied for TV Tokyo’s audition program “ASAYAN”’s “Japan-Korea Ultra Idol Duo Audition” that began in December 2001. There were around 15,000 applicants from Japan and Korea and she was selected among them. She was paired with Takahashi Marina, who has already retired, to form the female duo “routeφ”; produced by Kawamura Ryuichi. In April 2002, they released their debut single “START”. At that time, she went by her real name Choi Sooyoung.” (Record Company Officials)

“ASAYAN had already produced Suzuki Ami and Morning Musume. At the time Sooyoung passed her audition, the idol golden age was already in full force and the girls couldn’t keep up with it. “START” (R and C Ltd.) only sold 5,000 copies and entered Oricon at rank #62. By July 2003, they had already released 3 singles and 1 DVD; but still remained unknown. In March of 2003 “ASAYAN” stopped being broadcast and route0 broke up.” (Same Company As Before)

After the breakup Sooyoung returned to Korea. She took thorough singing and dance lessons. In August 2007, she was able to debut as a member of SNSD. They became big last year and she had her “triumphant return” to Japan.

Sooyoung doesn’t try hard to hide from her past. In 2008 a Korean entertainment program touched on her past activities in Japan and she thinks fondly of those times now. I have no doubt she will definitely be successful in her activities.

SNSD won ‘Asia Star Award’ at ‘The 6th Asia Model Festival Award’


Actor Kwon Sangwoo, SNSD and Taiwanese actor and singer, Jerry Yan received the ‘Asia Star Award‘ at ‘The 6th Asia Model Festival Awards‘.

The award ceremony which took place at 7pm KST on January 21st at the Millenium Hall in JW Marriott Hotel was jointly organized by Korean Model Association and Korean Federation of Pop Culture and Arts Industry.

‘Asia Is One’ was the slogan for this year’s award ceremony which was attended by models, famous singers and actors from 13 countries such as Korea Republic, China, Japan, Taiwan, etc.


List of other award winners:

BBF Popular Singer Award – Secret, Son Dambi, SHINee, Wheesung

Fashionista – Song Jungki, Seowoo

New Star Award – Joowon, Jung Somin, Lee Taesung

Fashion Model Award – Lee Hyunwook, Lee Hyuni

CF Model Award – Kim Soohyun, Seo Hyorim, Jung Eunchae

Model Star Award – Joo Sangwook, Cha Yeryun

International Cultural Exchange Contribution Award – Kim Youngmin, representing SM Entertainment


WGM Yonghwa-Seohyun “YongSeo” Couple Preview Text Ep. 41!


Seohyun, meets husband Jung Yonghwa’s childhood friends!
Last week, the YongSeo couple traveled to Busan, Yonghwa’s hometown.

This week, their trip continues with a sweet and chilling meeting with the seagulls at the Haewoondae beach followed by a meeting with Yonghusband’s childhood friends.

His friends have been with him for 10 years and have spent their school years together. While he turned quiet in front of his mother, the Yong choding returned with full force once he met his friends, and his native Busan friends quickly became friendly with Seohyun.

In particular, among his friends gathered that day was a female friend, which drew special attention. It is speculated that there is a special reason why Jung Yonghwa invited her along.

What will be his secret plan, and will she be able to make lasting memories among her husband and his childhood friends?

It will be revealed on the 22nd, on MBC’s “We Got Married” broadcast at 5:10 PM.

SNSD to perform ‘Run Devil Run’ on next week’s Music Station


The nine ladies of SNSD are set to return with their ‘dark concept’ for ‘Run Devil Run’ with their upcoming Japanese digital release on January 25th. Earlier in the week, a 30 second sample of the track was released and now it’s been revealed that the girls will perform this track on the January 28th edition of TV Asahi’s Music Station.


Can’t wait to see the girls perform, the production on Music Station is superb so it should be great.

SMTOWN LIVE Concert in Tokyo, Tickets Participants Exceed 400,000 People


The artists of SM Entertainment proved their popularity in Japan from the huge number of participants for the concert tickets.

SM Entertainment revealed on the 21st that participants to get “SMTOWN LIVE IN TOKYO” concert tickets which was held from December 8th, 2010 to January 7th, 2011 at their mobile site had exceeded 400,000 entries, showing the event’s hot response.

The ticket sales procedure for this concert will be in balloting process where interested participants have to apply through the mobile site.

“SM TOWN LIVE WORLD TOUR” had previously held successful concerts in Seoul, Los Angeles, and Shanghai, thus this overwhelming amount of participants for Tokyo’s concert is a guarantee to lead for another great performance.

The artists participating in the concert include BoA, TVXQ, Super Junior, Girl’s Generation, SHINee, etc and they will be performing their respective hits as per previous concerts. The artists will also include Japanese versions of some of their songs especially for the Japanese audiences.

“SM TOWN LIVE IN TOKYO” will be held at the Yoyogi National Gymnasium on January 25th and 26th 2011 (6pm JST).