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Korea IT Times ([email protected])

SEOUL, KOREA – The Visit Korea Committee (Chairman Shin Dong-bin) is hosting the ’2012 K-POP Cover Dance Festival’ globally to commemorate the Visit Korea Year Campaign.

Cover Dance is a form of dance that reproduces the choreography of their favorite artist. Anyone who posts their User Created Content (UCC) of cover dance on the official website (www.coverdance.org) is eligible for the competition. Participants need to qualify preliminary online and local competition.

The online competition is beginning from April 26 through the festival website (www.coverdance.org) and people who are chosen from the online competition will have chances to participate the local competitions. Local competitions will be held between July to September in area such as Korea, Japan, Greater China, East Asia, North South America and Europe. The winners from each area will be chosen according to the popularity and expert evaluations. The final qualifiers will have a chance to participate in the festival in Gyeongju on September 21st, during the Hallyu Dream Festival. The Visit Korea Committee will appoint an idol group as its honorary ambassador. The girl group KARA was last year’s honorary ambassador.

Hallyu Dream Festival

Also, the Visit Korea Committee will invite the final qualifiers to introduce outstanding tourist attractions, and offer opportunities to meet Hallyu(Korean Wave) artists. Hong Ju Min, Secretary General of the Visit Korea Committee, notes that “The combination of K-POP and Cover Dance will help promote the Hallyu(Korean Wave) and share commonalities among different cultures.” He also adds, “The festival will ultimately promote Korea as an attractive tourist destination.”

For your reference, K-POP Cover Dance Festival was held for the first time in 2011, and 1,700 teams from 64 countries participated in the online competition. 55 winners of the overseas competitions held in Africa, Russia, Brazil, Spain, Japan, the United States, Thailand, etc. performed on the final round stage of Hallyu Dream Festival. They stayed in Korea for 7 nights and 8 days to travel to Korea’s famous tourist sites and to experience Korean culture. Those 55 finalists were appointed honorary ambassadors for Korean tourism.

Contact: Gyeong-hee Lee, PR Team (82-2-6272-7308, [email protected])

Hye Won Suh, PR Team (82-2-720-7361, [email protected])

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Lee Ha Yi, the runner-up on “SBS K-Pop Star,” firmly stated that she can sing high notes as well. ”K-Pop Star” contestants Park Jimin, Lee Hayi, and Baek Ayeon came out during the most recent recording for SBS “Strong Heart” and shared their stories. 

Lee Ha Yi stated, “Everyone thinks that I can’t sing high notes, but they’re wrong. I can reach high notes as well,”revealing her disappointment with the fact that viewers only paid attention to her bass voice.

Furthermore, she stated, “When I was younger, I learned how to sing children’s songs. However, everyone told me that unless I had a pretty voice, I shouldn’t sing children’s songs.” She proved otherwise by singing a children’s song with a soulful feeling and brought a lot of laughter to the set.

Lee Ha Yi also had a high notes battle with the guests and showed off her hidden ability to sing high notes. 

Be sure to catch this broadcast with “Kpop Star” Top 3 contestants on Tuesday, May 8 at 11:15pm KST.

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On May 7th, BoA took to her Twitter to express the emptiness she feels now that the first season of SBS‘s ‘ K-Pop Star‘ has come to an end.

She wrote, “My first week without ‘K-Pop Star’. I think I spent it safely without it. Almost went to Songdo but I woke up and got myself together! I guess I’ll start to get used to it all. Everyone else as well.”

Considering that she was a judge for the past six months on the show, it’s no wonder she misses the show and Songdo, which is the convention center in which the live broadcast is filmed.

Netizens commented, “I hope season two starts soon”, “My Sundays without ‘K-Pop Star’ are empty as well”, and “BoA unni, when’s your comeback?”

So who’s ready for a second season?

Source + Photos: BoA’s Official Twitter

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A common move with popular K-Pop groups on hiatus is to split themselves into other projects. In particular, the sub-unit concept has proven popular with members able to experiment to bring something fresh for fans. Girls’ Generation created the sub-unit Girls’ Generation – TTS (also known as Taetiseo) who this week became the highest charting K-Pop act on the Billboard 200 with their EP “Twinkle” — at No. 126 on this week’s Billboard 200 with 3,000 copies sold according to Nielsen SoundScan.

It was only March 17 this year that BIGBANG spent one week on the chart at No. 150.

The act also makes big moves on the Heatseekers Albums chart, debuting at No. 2, only to be bested by Human Nature who performed on “Dancing With The Stars” last week. The EP does top the World Albums chart with less than two days of its worldwide release sales counted for Billboard charts.

The act was tipped to be a hot one with over 10 million collective views of the three teaser videos featuring a different member in each. To possibly encourage orders, if fans bought the entire EP package, they would receive special tracks of the members introducing the EP songs. Additionally, if fans e-mailed an address associated with SMTown, the group’s label, with a picture to prove they bought the album, they were in the running to receive a special gift from Girls’ Generation – TTS.

The sub-unit is made up of three members: one of the group’s most powerful vocalists Taeyeon, the charismatic and English-speaking Tiffany, and the group’s youngest member Seohyun. They are also known as Taetiseo; a combination of their three names.

While Girls’ Generation is known for their sexy concepts and choreography (from the slick first English single “The Boys” to playing dress up on “Mr. Taxi”), the sub-unit sees a completely revamped girls with a focus on funky vocals and vibrant outfits.

In other K-Pop news, two boy bands make appearances on the World Albums chart with B.A.P. making their comeback this week with an EP titled “Power” as well as U-KISS debuting at No. 10 and No. 12 respectively.

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tving is the Korean HQ video service that provides live TV channels and VOD titles from various genres such as drama, sports, entertainment and movies.

Now you can enjoy popular Korean TV contents though K-wave tving from any place in the world!
 

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World No.1 K-pop chart show!  M-countdown

- The most cutting-edge K-pop music chart show where you can see the Korean music trend.

MUST by Do-hyun Yoon

- Concert of the most loved Korean songs with weekly themes

Variety of most-loved Korean TV programs such as K-pop, drama, reality programs and lifestyle shows are soon to be available in K-wave tving.
 

[Functions]

1) Viewing options available for magazine / thumbnail style
You can search for the contents with the ‘page-flipping-magazine style’ or the ‘at-a-glance-thumbnail style’ at your convenience.

2) Leaving coments available through Facebook or Twitter, while watching
If you find the video interesting, you can leave a comment or share the video with your friends through Facebook or Twitter while watching.

3) Find friends who’s watching what you’re watching! Above the player, you can see the friends’ faces who’s whatching what you’re watching! You can learn more about the people through their profile showing on the player.
 

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1. If the application gets slower or does not work, please completely shut-down K-wave tving and other activated applications that you’re not using from the task manager, and restart K-wave tving. 

K-wave tving officially does not support the following device.

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The annual Korean Music Festival 2012 greeting its historical 10th year sponsored by Korea Times took place at world’s best outdoor stage Hollywood Bowl with about 20,000 enthusiastic audiences.

The audience was filled up with Korean American immigrants as well as non-Koreans who have traveled from North America, South America and as far as Europe proving the event to be the recognized as an international festival leading the communication between different ethnicity, countries, and generations through K-Pop. The diverse audience proved distance and language wasn’t an issue in attending the concert.

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Korea’s leading artists performed with all their strength during the concert that lasted for four and a half hours showing their energetic and powerful performances that was responded by cheers and shouts of fans that echoed throughout the entire venue.

Korea’s most popular idol group’s MBLAQ , Brown Eyed Girls, Bobby Kim The Buga Kingz, including G.O.D’s member of Son Ho Young, Kim Tae Woo, Danny Ahn, Park Joon Hyung reunion for the Hollywood Bowl performance, and Lena Park delivered a powerful performances that heated up the venue with the shouts and screams of fans.

There were several friends Mark Clarson, David Kington, Sheila Kington, Max Wilson, and Cory Welburton from Salt Lake City, Utah that came to attend the concert. Clarson, who lived in Korea for 2 years, spoke fluent Korean shared excitedly, “I became immersed in Korean music and introduced many of my friends to K-Pop and heard about the large music festival taking place in LA, so we came out here to attend the concert.”

Justin Tunieth group of 5 friends also came to Hollywood Bowl all the way from El Paso, Texas. Tunieth shared, “I learned about ‘Korea Times Hollywood Bowl Korea Music Festival’ through Facebook and decided to take the trip out here to LA. Although this is our first year here at Hollywood Bowl, however the long distance travel is not a problem. Today’s performance was amazing that I will come here every year.”

Hollywood actress Jessica Alba expressed her interest for K-pop.

Last Monday Jessica Alba appeared on cable channel tvN talk show ‘Baek Ji Yeon’s People Inside’ and shared her stories.

As Jessica Alba shared about the purpose of visiting Korea and her interest in Korea, she mentioned about K-pop. She said, “All of my friends who are working in the art and fashion field listen to K-pop. There are many that play K-pop during the fashion party held during fashion week.”

MC Baek Ji Yeon asked if she knows any K-pop singer or song title, she answered, “I don’t know that well, but I enjoyed all the songs that my friends played for me.”

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She commented earlier, “Since I have many Korean friends, even my business partner is Korean so I have always been interested in Korea.”

Photo: tvN

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Digital Cable customers to have complimentary access to 20 Korean music videos starting May 1st

Los Angeles, CA (PRWEB) May 03, 2012

International Media Distribution, a leading provider of in-language programming in the U.S. and tvK24, a leading Korean broadcaster in the U.S., announced today that TVK-Pop On Demand, a video on demand service featuring top Korean music videos is now available to Cox Digital Cable customers.

TVK-Pop features the hottest Korean music videos in a variety of genres including electropop, hip hop, pop, rock and RB.

Each month, 20 new music videos will be available from the most popular Korean idols and groups from South Korea, including Girls Generation, Se7en, 2NE1, TVXQ, SHINee, Super Junior, Boa and much more. Many of these artists have also created a subculture of fashion and style amongst teenagers and young adults around the world.

“KPop is a phenomenon that has captured audiences around the world and we are pleased to be able to expand this offering to fans in the U.S.” said Eric Yoon, Founder and CEO of tvK24.

Cox customers can find the TVK-Pop videos from the On Demand menu under Freezone/Music/TVK-Pop.

TVK-Pop is also available nationwide to Comcast On Demand in the Music category under “K-Pop”.

K-pop is an abbreviation for Korean Pop, specifically from South Korea. Many of the artists and groups have also become popular in China, Japan, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Philippines, Thailand and others countries in South East Asia. The popularity of K-pop is often considered a part of the rise of the Korean Wave, the recent surge of popularity of contemporary South Korean culture in Asia. In 2011, Billboard officially launched the Korea K-Pop Hot 100, the second Asian Billboard chart after the Japan Hot 100.

About International Media Distribution:

International Media Distribution (IMD) has been a leading provider of in‐language programming in the U.S. for over a decade. IMD represents over 30 TV channels including two SVOD services with content from a variety of international sources: Antenna Satellite (Greek), ART (Arabic), ATV (Cantonese), Bollywood Hits On Demand (Hindi), CCTV‐4 (Chinese), CTI Zhong Tian Channel (Chinese), Channel One Russia, DW (German), Filipino On Demand (Tagalog), Life OK (Hindi), Mediaset Italia (Italian), MYX (English), Phoenix InfoNews (Chinese), Phoenix North America Chinese Channel, Rai Italia (Italian), RTN (Russian), RTN Plus (Russian), SBTN (Vietnamese), STAR India GOLD (Hindi), STAR India NEWS (Hindi), STAR India PLUS (Hindi), TFC TFC-E (Filipino), Tele5 (Polish), TV Polonia, TVP Info (Polish), TV Asia (Hindi), TV JAPAN, TVK (Korean), TVK2 (Korean), TV5MONDE (French), VIJAY (Tamil).

About tvK24:

Headquartered in Los Angeles, California, tvK24 is a leading Korean broadcaster in the US, owning and operating two digital 24 hour television networks. tvK and tvK2 aggregate and broadcast the best programming from Korea-based networks in combination with tvK24 original programming such as daily news, cooking shows, golf shows, auto shows, sporting events, weekly lifestyle and community related shows and local reality and documentary series. The majority of tvK24 sourced content is exclusive to tvK services. tvK24 is affiliated with International Media Distribution, a wholly owned company of NBCUniversal. For more information, visit http://www.tvk24.com.

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For the original version on PRWeb visit: http://www.prweb.com/releases/prweb2012/5/prweb9470521.htm

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By Jaeyeon Woo

Jaeyeon Woo / The Wall Street Journal

What do you think it would take to become a K-pop idol? A new documentary film “I Am.” by star factory SM Entertainment tries to answer the question.

Based on more than 10,000 video clips of SM groups like Girls’ Generation and Super Junior, the film shows the transformation of humble trainees to glamorous pop stars.

Last October, SM staged a sell-out concert of some of its acts at Madison Square Garden in New York – an event that symbolized the possibility of Korean pop’s global appeal.

Some of the label’s long-time stars say things have changed so much.

“I couldn’t even imagine performing in Madison Square Garden. Not even in my wildest dream,” Kangta, former leader of now-disbanded boy band H.O.T., told local reporters earlier this week. He joined the SM in the early 1990s when the company had only four employees.

“We had a tiny training place with no full-length mirror. At night we had to dance in front of a window to watch the reflection,” the 33-year-old said. “I am so proud of my juniors who worked so hard to make it this far.”

At the same press conference, the movie’s director, Choi Jin-sung, likened it to a coming-of-age drama like “Billy Elliot.”

“These young Korean boys and girls went through seven, eight years of a grueling training process to be able to make a debut, and even make it to Madison Square Garden, the stage of dreams of all pop artists,” the director said.

SM, like other South Korean entertainment management companies, has created a systematic process to train singers and dancers in its groups. In many cases, would-be idols enter the system at age nine or ten and live together in a house under tight rules. They attend school during the day and take singing and choreography classes at night.

At the press conference, some of the stars admitted they sometimes felt like giving up. “I lived in a dormitory since I was a fifth grader. It was really tough mainly because I wanted to go home and missed my mom so bad,” said Sulli, 17, from f(x), a five-member girl group.

The movie doesn’t, however, show what happens to the trainees who don’t make it into a pop group.

“Watching the movie, I was overwhelmed by old memories,” said Soo-young, one of the nine women in Girls’ Generation. “I was like, ‘yeah, I was like that,’ and ‘those hard exercise made me who I am now.”

She added, “The movie is like a present not only for fans but also for myself.”

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Park Ji Min after becoming the youngest winner has garnered all the attentions to have shifted to see which label she will choose to work with.

Park Ji Min beaten out Lee Hayi during the final round of SBS audition program ‘K-pop Star’ on Sunday evening. She was awarded $300,000 USD, car, and opportunity to release a worldwide album as prizes. She is also given an opportunity to release an album under the agency of her choice among the top 3 companies, SM, YG and JYP.

As people are interested to find out her decision, a poll is currently taking place on DAUM portal site has caught the attention of many of suggesting the best entertainment for her.

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Out of 16,000 votes so far, SM Entertainment received 38.2% of the votes, YG follows with 35.2%, 26.6% of JYP, poll is ongoing until May 6th.

A staff of ‘K-Pop Star’ commented, “Park Ji Min’s decision will not be a dogmatic approach. As it is important life decision she will make her decision after thoroughly discussing with the judges and production team of ‘K-Pop Star.”