Countdown Until Girls' Generation's First Japanese Album Sells a Million Copies Gets Underway

Girls’ Generation’s first Japanese album “Girls’ Generation” has sold over 850,000 units, becoming one of the top selling albums in Japan this year. However, with the recent announcement of a re-packaged album going on sale, the countdown to one million copies has officially started.

Pre-orders for the re-packaged album have already started today, which will arrive in stores on December 28. Two new songs will be present in the new album, one which will be the Japanese version of “The Boys”, which was released worldwide on October 19. The second of the two songs is titled “Time Machine”. Also included on the album will be the remixed versions of “Mr.Taxi”, “The Great Escape” and “BAD GIRL”.

Once the album reaches one million copies sold, it’ll be the first time any Korean group has ever accomplished this feat in Japan. With such an incredible milestone in reach, Girls’ Generation’s appearances at major shows such as the “FNS Music Festival” and the “62nd Kouhaku” are well deserved.

If Girls’ Generation’s album reaches the one million sold mark, it will be the first album to reach this difficult plateau in Japan this year.

SNSD performed on FNS Music Festival 2011!

Check out SNSD's performance on FNS Music Festival held in Japan,the girls performed their Japanese hit song Mr Taxi on the event,enjoy!

Girls' Generation tops K-pop sales chart and search ranking in Japan!

On December 5th, Japan’s Tower Records revealed the rankings of the yearly sales chart of albums and singles, calculated from the beginning of the year to November 30th. However, the exact sales amount were not revealed.

Girls’ Generation’s first Japanese album ‘Girls’ Generation’ came in 1st on the ’2011 K-pop Sales Ranking’, as well as 4th with their latest Korean album ‘The Boys’.

Second and third places in the ’2011 K-pop Sales Ranking’ by Tower Records go to Super Junior’s ‘Mr. Simple’ and Kara’s ‘Girls’ Talk’ respectively.

Besides that, Girls’ Generation also came in 5th in the overall search ranking by Japanese website BIGLOBE.

The website compiled the top search keywords in Japan in 2011 and the results were revealed on December 5th.

Many occurences of the year, including earthquakes and typhoons, were seen on the list and surprisingly, many Hallyu stars also made the list.

On the overall ranking, Girls’ Generation came in 4th while Kara ranked 8th. On the overall female celebrity ranking, Girls’ Generation took the top spot, followed by Kara.

Meanwhile, Jang Geunsuk and BEAST came in 1st and 5th on the overall male celebrity ranking and this showed the influence and popularity of K-pop in Japan.

(Updated) Girls' Generation to Release Japanese Re-packaged Album

Girls’ Generation’s Japanese mobile fansite just recently announced that Girls’ Generation will be releasing a re-package of their first Japanese album “Girls’ Generation”, which had originally been released on June 1st, 2011.

The re-packaged album will come with all new photo jackets and visuals. It will also come in three different versions: first press, limited and normal. The first press and limited editions will both come in a special case along with a 36page mini-photobook, and will contain a DVD with “The Boys” (English version) and “Bad Girl” music videos. The first press edition also comes with a two set coaster present, a white and blue version, that will be given out at random at participating stores.

The limited edition comes with a two poster set that is also available at participating stores. The re-packaged album will have a total of fifteen songs, three of which will be re-mixed versions from the Japanese album “Girls’ Generation”. Also included will be songs from the recently released “The Boys” album. As a special present, a song that has not yet been announced will also be included. Pre-order sales begin on December 7th.

[update]

Just released this past June was Girls’ Generation’s first Japanese album, also titled “Girls’ Generation”, which has now sold over 850,000 copies and continues to sell new copies everyday. Pre-order for the re-packaged album begins today December 7th, while the official release date has been set for December 28th.

On the re-packaged album will be 15 songs which include a Japanese version of “The Boys”, three new remixed songs and one song that was never released before. The three remixed songs are, “THE GREAT ESCAPE” remix by Brian Lee, “BAD GIRL feat. DEV” a remix by The Cataracsremix, and remix of “MR.TAXI” by Steve Aoki. The new song on the re-packaged album is titled “TIME MACHINE”.

The full setlist can be seen below:

「Re:package Album “GIRLS’ GENERATION” ～The Boys～」

[First Press edition]UPCH-29077 ¥4,390（tax included）

[Limited edition]UPCH-29078 ¥4,390（tax included）

[Normal edition]UPCH-20269 ¥3,000（tax included）

CD Setlist ★

1. The Boys (JAPANESEver.)

2. THE GREAT ESCAPE (Brian Lee remix)

3. BAD GIRL feat. DEV (The Cataracsremix)

4. Time Machine ※New Song

5. MR.TAXI

6. GENIE

7. Gee

8. I’m In Love With The HERO

9. 훗(HOOT)

10. Let It Rain

11. Beautiful Stranger

12. you-aholic

13. Run Devil Run

14. BORN TO BE ALADY

15. Bonus track “MR.TAXI (Steve Aoki remix)”

DVD ★First Press and Limited editions only

1 The Boys (ENGLISH ver.)

2 BAD GIRL

Sunny and Taemin to voice animated Korean film "The Outback"

On December 7, a representative from Lotte Entertainment reveals that SNSD's Sunny and SHINee's Taemin will dub an animated Korean film.

In the press conference, Lotte discloses that Taemin will voice the main character Johnny, a white koala turned hero, opposite to the character will be Miranda, which will be voice by Sunny. The animated Korean film "The Outback" will be in theaters early next year.

Directed by Lee Kyung-ho, "The Outback" is a story about Johnny who is an outcast from a circus and will tag along wild animals to save Australia's nature.

The English version for the carton will feature the voices of actors Yvonne Strahovski, Tim Curry, Alan Cumming and Rob Schneider.

SNSD tops ’2011 K-POP album sales ranking’ chart in Japan

Once again, the ladies of SNSD have proven why they are at the forefront of the Hallyu wave. They have sold more albums than any other K-pop idol star.

According to the ’2011 K-POP album sales rankings’ reported by major Japanese record distributorTower Records, SNSD’s debut Japanese album ‘Girls Generation‘ sold more albums than any other Korean artist this year. Furthermore, their most recent release of ‘The Boys‘ ranked #4 on the list. They were the only artist whose name arose on the list more than once, and their high fame in Japan was once again made all the more real.

Behind SNSD on the Tower Records list were Super Junior, who came in at #2 with their album ‘Mr.Simple‘. KARA came in at third place with ‘Girls Talk‘, while JYJ‘s ‘In Heaven‘ ranked at #5.

The results are based on the sum of album sales from the beginning of the year to November 30th. 37 genres of music were included in the total including K-POP, World POP music, Classical, Jazz, and more, however the detailed number of sales were not made public.

Additionally, SNSD ranked #3 on Yahoo! Japan‘s ’2011 Search Rank’ list, #1 for artist overseas and #2 for overall female artist.

Source & Image: Dispatch

Click below, or search for “Starcall” on either the iTunes store or Android Marketplace to download it and start receiving video calls from your favorite K-Pop stars!

SMTOWN to release first winter album in 4 years

SM Entertainment has just announced that a ’2011 SMTOWN Winter The Warmest Gift’ album will be released on December 13th!

This will be the label’s first winter album in 4 years since the last one in 2007, and will feature SM artists like Kangta, BoA, TVXQ, TRAX, CSJH‘s Dana & Sunday, Super Junior, SNSD, SHINee, f(x), Zhang Li In, and J-min.

Completing successful concerts in Seoul, L.A., Tokyo, Paris, New York, and Shanghai, SM’s global brand power and the immense popularity of its artists were cemented this year. To thank their fans all over the world, all the songs on this album will be in English.

Super Junior will be delivering a song called “Santa U Are The One“, an upbeat track with a festive melody that’s sure to bring happiness to all those who listen to it.

TVXQ’s “Sleigh Ride” has a lively swing rhythm and incorporates an orchestra as well as a big band, while SHINee’s “Last Christmas” has an electronic dance flavor.

“Diamond” is a standard pop song song sung by SNSD, and f(x) has once again teamed up withPeppertones to contribute a cute and lovable song called “1, 2, 3″.

SM’s veteran singers, BoA and Kangta, will contribute the songs “Distance” and “For The First Time”, respectively.