For anyone up in the early hours of Friday morning, Tablo was being interviewed on the BBC about Kpop and what influences him. The interview can be found on the BBC website or YouTube for those of you who, like me, ware asleep at the time. Sadly the clips have been getting some negative comments on the Korean portals Naver and Daum from Tajinyo members who clearly still need to get some sort of life.1
Big Bang hold their final trio of concerts this weekend – even the drummer from Busker Busker is proudly tweeting pictures of his tickets for what promises to be an amazing finish to the year long tour across the globe. As their tour ends, CNBLUE have announced they will have a world tour including Europe, so if you missed them in September last year you have a good chance of catching them this time round. Lead singer and songwriter Jung YongHwa is getting more and more requests for songs from other singers such as YunHo of TVXQ and a member of the boy band Z.EA as well as agencies making official enquiries.
Still on concert news, Teen Top promoters have heard of the complaints the ticket prices are too high after slow sales for their London gig. They’ve now introduced a budget ticket for the balcony area that is £37. It’s a nice gesture for sure, but one does have the vision of a full balcony and an empty floor… The band have recently been filming an MV in Hong Kong.
Two actresses have now been summoned to court for the alleged abuse of propofol, a charge both them and their agencies are denying. Lee Seung Yeon, who some might know from the Kim Ki-duk movie 3 Iron (from where the above-left image is taken) and the Yang Ik-Joon crime thriller Breathless, has said she has had the drug administered in relation to a fractured spine injury she received filming in 2003 as well as skin care, and that the medical procedures were legal and above board. Jang Mi In Ae who stars mostly in dramas (I miss you, Super Rookie) has also stated it was medical use and administered under anaesthetic and for skin treatment. Further celebrities are being investigated also.
JY Park is also out of luck – losing a plagiarism case over the song ‘Some Day’ that was used in the OST drama ‘Dream High’. He was ordered to pay the composer Kim Shin Il $54,000, whose song To My Man was the copied number. The high award takes into account royalties from the song since the start of the case last year. The initial damages when the case began were only $19,000.
Psy (@psy_oppa) has reached 2 million followers (including us) on Twitter – more than GDragon of Big Bang but less than Siwon of SuperJunior. He’s made over $8million from ad revenues so I’m sure that makes up for it! He recently wrapped up the filming for the Pistachio nut commercials.
4Men, Nine Muses, Monday Kiz, MrMr, Sistar, Leessang are all promoting new singles and albums, and JYJ releases an album in the summer. It seems to me there are a lot of new groups debuting this year already with a slew of less than familiar names in the listings – perhaps the infamously late part 2 of a guide to kpop will have to manifest itself soon.2
Lastly – a bit of news dear to my heart – Shinhwa will be releasing an album in March to coincide with 15 year anniversary celebrations and tour.