Girls' Generation's Concert DVD Reaches No.1 Spot in Japan

In August, 2010, Girls’ Generation broke records in Japan with the release of their DVD, “New Beginning of Girls’ Generation”. It reached the 3rd and 4th spots on the Oricon weekly music DVD ranking and the weekly DVD ranking respectively, making them the first female k-pop group to enter the Oricon DVD Top-5 ranking.

But a year later, Girls’ Generation have surpassed themselves, proving their popularity in the Japanese music industry once again. Tower Records’ newly released ranking of the week’s sales show that Girls’ Generation’s first concert DVD; “1st ASIA TOUR: Into The New World”, released on August 19th, has taken the top spot being the highest selling DVD between August 15-21st, despite being released more than halfway through the week.

The concert DVD shows footage of the performances from Girls’ Generation’s Korean encore concert in February 2010 in Seoul, and has been long anticipated and has already proven to be explosively popular amongst Korean and international fans.

SNSD’s Tiffany is a rocker for ‘Singles’

SNSD’s Tiffany has transformed into a feminine rocker girl for ‘Singles‘ magazine.

For the magazine’s September issue, Tiffany took on a darker look that held a modern, yet powerful style – a radical change from her usual cute image. Captivating the audience with her confident look, Tiffany was said to have caught the attention of not only her fans, but fashion industry representatives as well.

Representatives praised her for taking the punk look and turning it into something entirely her own. In her interview, Tiffany talked about various behind-the-scenes stories from the moment she set foot in Korea to her growth as a member of SNSD.

Be sure to check it all out in the September edition of ‘Singles’!

Jessica expresses her pride in Krystal’s achievements

SNSD’s Jessica recently showed her pride for her younger sister’s first place placing on SBS’s ‘Kim Yuna’s Kiss and Cry‘.

On August 21st, the last episode of ‘Kiss and Cry’ showed a behind the scenes look into the f(x)’s Krystal-Lee Dong Hoon team, who won the competition.

Jessica is nicknamed the “ice princess” but it was her sister who was the princess of the ice. Jessica expressed her happiness as she said, “[You won] because I went to cheer for you“.

Jessica also stated to Krystal, “I’m so proud” and hugged Krystal, while kissing her on the cheek. Krystal and Jessica shared the joy of sisterhood with the happiness of Krystal’s first place finish.

You can view their meeting in the video below.

SNSD's Jessica revealed cute selca on UFO

SNSD's Jessica shared a cute selca of herself on UFO!

She is seen lying comfortably on the bed,but it seems that she is not that happy with that expression.

But as expected,she received much praises for her cute expression,her pouted face garnered much attention from fans at the same time.

Hope that she will share more selcas in the future.

Tiffany goes rock-chic for 'Singles'

For a recent magazine photo shoot, Tiffany transformed into a rock-chic girl.

In the September edition of fashion magazine, ‘Singles’, Tiffany flaunts her natural cute image and chic-style charm in tough-looking and fashionable clothes.

Particularly in this photo shoot, the rock-chic’s funky mood concept was taken to a new level by Tiffany’s very own feminine characteristics, which made the pictorials more amazing.

The magazine also included an interview with Tiffany, where she revealed the behind stories from the moment she dreamed to be a singer at the age of 15 to the time she stepped on the South Korean soil and grows up with SNSD, as well as some other interesting stories that she talked about truthfully.

These awesome photos and interview can be found in the September edition of the ‘Singles’ magazine.

Girls' Generation Helps Support Earthquake Victims Through Niigata Show

Twelve popular music groups from Korea like Girls' Generation and KARA appeared at Niigata's Tohokuden Big Swan Stadium on August 20 for the "K-POP All-Star Live in Niigata" show. 43,000 fans were excited to attend the first large scale K-Pop festival to be held in this area. With the intention of aiding those affected, victims of the recent earthquake disaster in Japan were invited to the festival.

The nine member group Girls' Generation performed four songs including their hit single "Gee". All of the fans' eyes were glued to the girls' dance that was synchronized down to their breathing. Each time a member's face showed up on the jumbotron, cheers would reverberate around the stadium. Tiffany, Yuri, and Sooyoung were in charge of hosting the show. Sooyoung, who is proficient in Japanese, greeted the fans by saying, "Thank you to everyone who has given Girls' Generation and KARA a lot of love this past year (since debuting)." She also played a big part in translating the other two MCs' Korean speech.

The festival closed with the song "Arirang", where all 62 members who participated in the event gathered together to perform the piece.

At the venue t-shirts and other charity goods were sold. All proceeds and even ticket revenue were set aside to be donated. Also, with thoughts of "becoming the strength of children", around 300 junior high school students who are taking refuge in Niigata from the earthquake were invited to the festival. Prior to the beginning of the festival, everyone gathered to hold a minute of silent prayers for those lost in the disaster.

Girls' Generation's Taeyeon also left a message saying, "I hope even for a little bit that we can give those affected by the disaster a little bit of comfort through our music."

SNSD dominates K-pop hot issues of the year

A survey was conducted among 50 reporters from the Korean showbiz by SBS E!TV’s staff to find out the top 10 hot issues among idols in the first half of the year.

Out of these top 10 hot issues, five of the issues were related to SNSD, once again proving their popularity and attention in the country.

The ninth issue was on the topic ‘Separate and Together’ and the reason for SNSD not having sub-units was explained. The nine girls have been praised to have special and unique characteristics and many suggested that they should have sub-units. However, SM Entertainment wants to show SNSD as a whole, as a complete nine-membered group, perhaps due to sad memories from TVXQ’s separation.

Amazingly, Sooyoung’s talented and precise imitating skills, which attracted a lot of attention, came in 8th of the top 10 hot issues. Sooyoung’s well-loved, amazing imitating skills also became part of her charms and special characteristics.

Coming in third is the topic of ‘Bold Idols’ and Hyoyeon became the example of how idols boldly declare that they are in love. In the variety talkshow ‘Strong Heart’, SNSD’s dancing queen confessed that she had a crush on a male idol and she started to like him more and more, to the extend of having dreams of him. She hinted that the male idol does not have double eye-lid, is smart and dances well. To this, the media found five possible male idols, namely 2PM’s Wooyoung, BEAST’s Doojoon, Big Bang’s Daesung, MBLAQ’s Lee Joon and SS501′s Kim KyuJong.

The second topic was ‘Controversies on Suggestiveness’ and SNSD was an example of how K-pop idols’ performances and costumes are often considered suggestive. The focus of this topic is YoonA’s pole dance, which was performed in their recent concerts. The reporter commented that fans love YoonA’s pure and innocent image so when they saw her pole dance and does it perfectly, fans were shocked. However, they went on to comment that SNSD members, who are no longer in their teenage years, have grown up in confidence and the girls would now like to show a more mature image to others.

The top topic of the hot issue survey was ‘New Hallyu Wave’, in which the reporters named SNSD as the representative of the new Hallyu wave. They went on to comment that the Hallyu wave and influence have spread beyond Korea that even foreign fans held demonstrations and flash mobs to show their love for their idols. For this topic, the SMTown Live in Paris concert was the focus and it was said that the stars, especially SNSD, managed to grab European fans’ hearts.

Within one year of their debut in Japan, SNSD managed to capture a lot of attention, in addition to grabbing the top spot on the Oricon charts to create Hallyu history. During interviews with Japanese fans, they answered, “They are so cute that I was about to cry”, “I want to be like SNSD”, etc.

It was also mentioned that during the earlier stages of the Hallyu wave, actors like Bae YongJun and Lee ByungHun won the hearts of middle age women in Japan but there was a gap in the Hallyu wave in the country.

As K-pop advances into Japan, the music was accepted by the Japanese and K-pop was successful in Japan as a whole. With SNSD’s success in the country, many Japanese groups debuted with an image similar to SNSD and recently, a controversy arose when a Japanese young girl group with nine members debuted.

As of now, SNSD’s influence has spread beyond Korea and Japan, beyond Asia, all the way into Europe and possibly other corners of the world.

Jung sisters celebrate "Kiss and Cry" victory with endearing kisses

SNSD’s Jessica showed how proud she was of her younger sister, f(x)’s Krystal, for winning the first place in ‘Kim YunA’s Kiss and Cry’.

In the last episode of the programme, Krystal and her skating partner Lee DongHoon’s behind-the-show stories were revealed.

When Krystal informed her sister about her victory on the show, she also told her that she will be performing in an ice show. Jessica jokingly asked, “Why are you performing there?” and she continued to express her joy by replying, also jokingly, “You are performing there because I was cheering for you!”

The loving elder sister then said, “I am proud of you,” before hugging her sister and kissing her on the cheek. Likewise, Krystal gave her sister a kiss on the cheek and the two sisters continued to bask in happiness.