The winners of the Korean Music Awards were announced on 30 March. Anna over at Indieful ROK has the complete list. A couple of the winning acts were highlighted by LKL contributors as leading lights of 2009. First, Anna herself voted Apollo 18’s Red Album as her Album of the Year: “the most amazing post-rock … [Read More]
Category: Music news (page 4)
Arirang sells French Connection
“This is The Woman,” opens a new ad for French Connection. “The Woman of All Women.” The voiceover is rather reminiscent of British children’s TV programming from the 1960’s (Watch with Mother), albeit with a French accent. The footage is in black and white, adding to the slightly dated feel. And in the background, we … [Read More]
Younee wins best songwriter at Musicaid awards
Congratulations to @youneelondon: Best Songwriter & nominated for best female solo artist in Musicaid 2009 Song Contest http://bit.ly/5azmbo. 9:14 PM Jan 4th from bit.ly [Read More]
TVXQ’s “slave contract”
“K-pop fandom going batshit crazy today,” says @suzyinseoul. “Will someone tell me what’s going on with TVXQ and SM?” Source: AllKPop and, for background, Korea Times # [Read More]
Nah Youn Sun wins French culture award
Congratulations to LKL’s favourite jazz singer, Nah Youn Sun, on her upcoming award from the French government. # A graduate in French literature from Konkuk University, the 40-year-old singer was famous in France before being recognized in Korea. Source: Chosun Ilbo [Read More]
Korea’s got talent
While Britons were focused on their own domestic talent competition last week, Korea was demonstrating the depth of its classical music talent at the Queen Elisabeth International Music Competition in Brussels. The venue was the Palais des Beaux Arts, where earlier this year the Smile of Buddha exhibition was held. The Queen Elisabeth competition traces … [Read More]
Youn Sun Nan [sic] on BBC World Service
![Thumbnail for post: Youn Sun Nan [sic] on BBC World Service](https://londonkoreanlinks.net/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/nys_laugh_sq.jpg)
While in London at the beginning of the week for the UK leg of her world tour, Youn Sun Nah found time to pop into the BBC World Service studio to meet Mark Coles of the Arts programme The Strand. Coles’s researcher had done some of the background work, having read the relevant press materials … [Read More]
Recent music award winners
March was a month in which a couple of music awards were announced. The awards which appeared from nowhere were AVIMA, the Asian Voice Independent Music Awards. And recognising the impact of Indieful ROK, its mastermind Anna Lindgren was one of the international judges of the awards. Anna was nice enough to mention her LKL … [Read More]
Saharial gets it spot-on
Congratulations to LKL’s K-pop pundit Saharial for correctly gauging the mood of a nation. Back in early December nominated Shinhwa’s JunJin as Artiste of the Year. “JunJin’s popularity soared with the launch of his solo album in May,” said Saharial. “Continued exposure on variety shows as participant and presenter along with promoting the song ‘Wa’ … [Read More]
Indieful ROK joins the Music Alliance Pact
It’s a sort of FTA for indie musician blogs, and it works like this. It’s all a great idea originating from The Pop Cop, and currently the pact consists of 21 fine music blogs from all over the world. Each month every blog selects a song from their own region to be posted on every … [Read More]
Patti Kim at 70
Congratulations to superstar singer Patti Kim on 49 years in the entertainment industry. Kim debuted in March 1959 before the US Eighth Army and has never looked back since. Using non-Western arithmetic, that makes her upcoming concert in Seoul at the end of April 2008 her 50th anniversary. Whatever the mathematics, I for one will … [Read More]
More Korean success on classical music stage
The triennial Gustav Mahler International Conducting Competition was held in April in Bamberg, Germany. 2004’s winner, Gustavo Dudamel, was recently appointed misc director of the LA Philharmonic, marking out the competition as an event which identifies the future stars. The 2007 competition featured 12 competitors from Germany, Egypt, Russia, USA, Britain. And Busan-born Sung Shi-yeon … [Read More]
The Classical Hallyu
Rain, BoA and their like are not the only singers to be known outside of Korea. In the classical music world, Jo Sumi has long been an international megastar. But there is an up-and-coming collection of Korean singers making their way in the highly competitive world of classical music. At the recent Maria Callas opera … [Read More]
An offer he could refuse
The Japan Times discloses Kim Jong-il’s love of Western classical music, and of one interpreter thereof in particular. Seiji Ozawa, formerly chief conductor of the prestigious Boston Symphony Orchestra, and now at the Vienna State Opera, received an approach from the General Association of Korean Residents in Japan (Chongryun), at Kim’s request, to become conductor … [Read More]
Sunwook Kim triumphs at Leeds piano competition
Thanks to Aidan Foster-Carter for the following: It was a notable night for Korea at the finals of the Leeds International Pianoforte Competition 2006. Held triennially, this is one of the world’s leading prizes. Past winners include Radu Lupu, Murray Perahia, Dmitri Alexeev, and Artur Pizarro. To those illustrious names, add Sunwook Kim (above): at … [Read More]
North-themed update
The Xinhua newsagency reports the cordial meeting between Kim Jong-Il’s brother-in-law Jang Song Taek and a member of the Chinese politbureau, as the DPRK’s tour of Chinese economic zones draws to a close. Meanwhile, Yoduk story, the musical based in a North Korean concentration camp, is a sell-out success. The BBC is now featuring the … [Read More]