Girls' Generation is excited to perform in front of European fans

“We can’t wait to perform ‘The Boys’ and ‘Mr.Taxi’ for the first time in Paris,” revealed an excited Tiffany who couldn’t wait to deliver the performances of the new hit songs in front of the French fans for the very first time.
Tiffany met up with Sports Donga ahead of the KBS ‘Kpop Festival Music Bank in Paris’, which was held in Palais Omnisports Paris Bercy Stadium at 8pm on February 8th (Paris local time).

Tiffany said, “Since this is the first time that we will be performing ‘The Boys’ and ‘Mr.Taxi’, as well as other new songs in front of our fans in Europe, we are really thrilled and excited. As we have been making preparations for quite a long period, we hope the fans would enjoy our performances.”

Girls’ Generation’s participation in SM Entertainment’s first joint-concert in Europe ‘SM Town Live World Tour in Paris’ along with TVXQ, SHINee, etc in June last year, made huge headlines and garnered a lot of attention.

Tiffany added, “As Girls’ Generation’s album will be released on February 13th in France and followed by promotional activities after that, these performances are very important to us. This is our second time performing here, so we are determined to present better performances and we also wish to get even closer with our European fans.”

Besides KBS ‘Music Bank in Paris’, the girls are also scheduled to appear on French popular talk show, Canal+’s ‘Le Grand Journal’ on February 9th, as well as France2′s main news ‘Le Journal De 20H’.

In addition to these, Tiffany also expressed her excitement and joy as Sooyoung will be celebrating her birthday in France on February 10th.

All the representatives of the 8 groups who will be performing at the ‘KBS ‘Music Bank in Paris’ were present at the press conference which was held earlier. The representatives were – Tiffany (Girls’ Generation), JongHyun (SHINee), JunHo (2pm), KiKwang (Beast), JiHyun (4minute), Soyeon (T-ara), Kevin (UKiss) and Hyorin (Sistar).

The press conference was also attended by journalists and reporters from France and overseas media group such as Canal, France2, France24, Japan Life Style, Le Monde Magazine, M6, Paris Match, Radio France, RTL, TF1, TV5 Monde, etc.

The KBS ‘Kpop Festival Music Bank in Paris’ will be aired in 2 parts, each 80 mins (total 160 minutes) on February 18th, starting 11.05pm KST.

Girls' Generation's 1st Japanese album and repackaged version to be available in Korea on February 9th

Girls’ Generation’s Japanese album and its repackaged will be available on the Korean market starting February 9th.
SM Entertainment stated, “1st Japanese studio album ‘Girls’ Generation’ and the repackaged album ‘Girls’ Generation: The Boys’ will be available in Korea on February 9th, where each of the album will be available in 2 editions (CD only and CD with DVD).”

‘Girls’ Generation’ consists of 12 songs, which includes hits such as the Japanese versions of ‘Gee’, ‘Genie’, ‘Run Devil Run’, as well as other new songs such as ‘You-aholic’, ‘Let It Rain’, etc. In addition, the music videos for ‘Mr.Taxi’, ‘Gee’ and ‘Genie’ will be included in the DVD.

The repackaged album has 15 tracks in total where it consists of the Japanese version of ‘The Boys’ as well as new song ‘Time Machine’ and the remix versions of ‘Mr. Taxi’, ‘Bad Girl’ and ‘The Great Escape’.

Released in June last year, ‘Girls’ Generation’ went into the history book for being an album by a foreign artist which recorded the high sales in the first week of release on Oricon in Japan. Girls’ Generation is also the first Korean girl group to have taken the no.1 spot on Oricon Weekly Album Chart. Within just a month, the album which recorded sales of more than 500,000 copies and was certified ‘Double Platinum’ by RIAJ. Along with the repackaged album, 1 million copies of the album were shipped out as of December 2011. The girls’ 1st Japanese studio album broke another record when it was placed within the top 10 of Oricon Weekly Album Chart for 17 weeks.

SNSD uncle fans spotted in Music Bank in Paris Concert

Recently, SNSD along with other idol groups flew to Paris to perform at the KBS "Music Bank in Paris" world tour concert. Upon arrival in the airport, hundreds of fans warmly greeted the idol groups, However, a particular group of fans showed their support to SNSD in a different way.

On the concert venue, a group of "uncle fans" were spotted wearing proudly their blue SNSD shirts and even posed for the camera. These fans seems to be from Germany and took the opportunity to go to Paris to watch their idol's SNSD perform live.

It's nice to see that Kpop has truly proven to be a global phenomenon.

Over 10,000 fans celebrated and sung Sooyoung a Happy Birthday

Recently, SNSD flew to Paris to participate on the KBS "Music Bank in Paris" world tour concert and on the concert, over 10,000 fans who were present sung Sooyoung a Happy Birthday.

Sooyoung turns 22 on the 10th of February and since the concert was held only a few days before her birthday the fans decided to surprise Sooyoung and greeted her a Happy Birthday in advance.

Meanwhile, the concert was a success and the security did their job to ensure that everything was running smoothly and handled the fans well.

Taeyeon and Minho kissing scene in Salamander Guru?

Still cuts revealed from the new episode of "Salamander Guru and The Shadow Operation Team" has given fans quite a surprise.

On the 10th of February episode of "Salamander Guru and The Shadow Operation Team", still cuts teaser were revealed today and on the episode SNSD Taeyeon makes a cameo on the show. The still cuts show Taeyeon and Minho from SHINee almost kissing or perhaps a kissing scene in the full episode?

Fans are excited now and are anticipating to watch the full episode. The staff also shared that they had a great time working with Taeyeon even if she is not that experienced in acting in sitcoms. 

Meanwhile, aside from Taeyeon making a cameo, Jun Hyung from BEAST and L from Infinite also made a cameo on the episode.

少女时代与危险少年第8集节目视频公开！

K-Pop Singers Target Global Market

K-pop seems ready to take the world by storm this year to capitalize on the momentum of the resurgent Korean Wave, with leading bands such as Girls' Generation, Big Bang, and JYJ staging world tours or debuting overseas in the coming months.

Big Bang plan to launch their first world tour next month, with 25 cities in 16 countries packed into their whistle-stop itinerary. The group will return to the stage with their mini album "Alive" on Feb. 29, and will tour Asia, North and South America, and Europe after a concert in Seoul on March 2. 

Experts from around the world will participate in directing and producing their world tour as production agency Live Nation, which formerly managed the tours of Madonna and U2, has signed a deal with the band's management agency, YG Entertainment.

Furthermore, famous creative director and choreographer Laurieann Gibson, who has worked for the likes of Michael Jackson, Lady Gaga and Beyoncé, will help oversee their world tour. And Leroy Bennett, who has worked with Paul McCartney and the Eagles, among others, will be in charge of stage and lighting design.

Girls' Generation, which drew much attention with their recent appearances on CBS' "The David Letterman Show" and ABC's "Live! with Kelly," plan to release their first album in Europe on Monday. 

"The Boys" will be released by Universal Music Group's French label Polydor. This will be first album on the Continent by a Korean band since Koreana, a family act that gained worldwide fame by performing at the 1988 Olympic Games in Seoul, released a French-language single in the mid-1970s. 

The girls' agency SM Entertainment said their potential beyond Asia is now being recognized after they participated in a large ensemble performance of K-pop bands in Paris last year called "SM Town Live."

Meanwhile, boy band BEAST recently held a series of concerts in Brazil and England. The group will kick off their world tour on Sunday, which takes them to 21 cities in 14 countries including China, Europe, Japan, Singapore, Taiwan, and the U.S., starting with Berlin in Germany.

JYJ, the first idol group from Korea to hold solo concerts in Spain and Germany, will continue their extended world tour in Chile on March 9 and Peru two days later. 

Meanwhile, Super Junior recently gave concerts in Japan and Taiwan, and will head to the U.S., Europe and South America for more performances after staging a concert in Singapore late next week.

"Along with their word tours, K-pop singers should sharpen their skills and diversify their musical repertoires to sustain their popularity," said music critic Im Jin-mo. "Regardless of their commercial success overseas, they need to recognize that they can be cultural ambassadors to deliver Korean culture to the world."