Pets!!We’ve gone to the dogs this issue, with a feature on Animal Rescue Korea

and a new regular article!

G-DragonTeen TopAZIATICS

PureGet to know one of thepurest new k-pop groups in Korea and Japan

Introducing...

Dream ConcertMusic Bank JakartaTwin Tower Malaysia

June 2013

IssueThis

Seoul Essentials

Global K-Pop

Interviews

Concert ReviewsG-Dragon “One of a Kind” G-Dragon began his first world tour

to a packed house at Olympic Park

Stadium

Page 27

Pure Get to know this new group with our very special “Meme Page”, with individual

hand written interviews with the members of Pure! Page 12

“Catch Me If You Can”This star studded musical

was so popular, it ran twice!

Be sure to check out k-

musicals!

Page 30

Twin Towers 2013 - MalaysiaK-pop mixed with major global pop stars for

this two night festival in Kuala Lumpor.

Page 31

Music Bank in Jakarta Music Bank continued their global tour with

the popular music show taking place in Jakar-

ta.

Page 35

Crazy for K-Pop: Teen Top In EuropeTeen Top stormed Europe with a week long

tour across four cities!

Page 39

AZIATIXIf you haven’t heard of this group before,

make sure to keep an ear open for them! Find

out why.

Page 44

Seoul’s Soul: GeoncheonggungLearn more about the palace

within a palace hidden in the

back of Gyeongbokgung.

Page 3

Dora the (Seoul) ExplorerWe introduce a new regular

article with “Dora the (Seoul)

Explorer” where we find

petfriendly places in South

Korea! - Page 9

Animal Rescue KoreaFor those staying in South

Korea long term, missing your

pet can be the most difficult

part of being abroad. But you

can help a pet in need during

your year here!

Page 6

Dream Concert 2013The biggest-concert of

the year takes the stage in

World Cup stadium once

again!

Page 18

LetterFrom the editorDear K-Soul Readers,

Long time no see! It’s been a while since we’ve had a full issue, because of so many delays going on with our staff. A million apologies. We hope that this doesn’t happen again, and hope we can become a more reliable source for you in the future.

Summer is well on its way here in South Korea. Longer days, hotter weather, and even more weather to battle with for expats arriving here in Korea. We know that people will be arriving here in South Korea for language exchange programs and vacations, so please feel free to let your friends know we’re always here to help out and answer your questions about living in South Korea as a fan of Hallyu culture!

As you can see, our staff continues to grow! We’ve got writers covering events all over the world, and we want to hear from you too! If you want to cover an event in your area for K-Soul, contact us through our site and we’ll be more than happy to see if we can fit you into our writing family.

Over the summer, we’re going to be working between vacations and rainy days to try make our summer issue be a comprehensive how to guide for people in Korea to get through music shows in Korea. Knowing the unwritten rules of these shows is essential for keeping the peace at these shows, so please keep an eye out for our next issue at the

end of the summer!

Make sure that you check out K-Soul Magazine on all your

favourite social media sites! You can find us on Facebook,Twitter, Tumblr, and Google+,

and we try to offer our give aways on most of our active communities! Check out Facebook, Google+ and Twitter for our giveaways this summer. Thanks again for all your support! We love you loads!

~Rebecca Bredin

Editor in ChiefRebecca Bredin

CommunicationsAlyssa Beyer

Contributing WritersRebecca BredinAlexandra YuEda Tseinyev

Faridah Hanim

PhotographersRebecca BredinEda TseinyevYe Eun Han

Lok Sze Szen

TranslationAlyssa Beyer

Merita IgnatiusAnais Kakrow

Graphic DesignWanda Trinh

www.ksoulmag.com

Seoul’s SoulFar in the back of the grounds of Gyeong-bokgung, another palace sits quietly and unsuspectingly. Missed by most of the tours and tourists, Geoncheonggung has a story worth telling, one that is one part humou-rous, one part heart breaking, with all the makings of a great story.

The story begins with the birth of King Gojong. He wasn’t born to inherit the throne. The reigning king at the time was King Cheoljong. There had been family feuding for decades before, with many of the

Korean kings of the 1800’s dying young. King Cheoljong was no exception. Passing away at the age of 32, Cheoljong had left no heir, like many of the kings before him.

Knowing that the kings of the past century had a rather short shelf life, Yi HaEung, later known as Crown Prince Heungseon Daewongun, led a low key campaign for years before. His son, born as Yi Myeongbok, had considerable chances of being chosen as the next king if King Cheoljong were to die before producing an heir. Yi HaEung spent years quietly networking and bribing those who would eventually make the decision. He was very careful to not only present his son as an ideal candidate for king, but to also make people believe he himself had no political interests.

The plan worked. Once King Cheoljong passed away, Yi Myeongbok was ushered in as King and became King Gojong at the young age of 9. Too young to rule by himself, Yi HaEung became the Crown Prince Geungseon Daewongun and the power was handed over to Daewongun until Gojong was old enough to rule.

It became very clear that the belief of Daewongun having no political interests was just an act. During his ten year rule, Daewongung ran the country ruthlessly, in a way that hadn’t been seen in decades. The long standing noble network in Korea was dispersed, and power was brought back to the royal family. He built up the army, and created massive building projects in Seoul, including extending Gyeongbok Palace. He was strict and controlling, even choosing King Gojong’s wife by picking a woman that he thought would have no political influence, being an orphan. That woman was Queen Myeongseong. This ended up being Daewongung’s downfall.

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While all of these reforms were taking place, King Gojong was growing up with an eye on everything that was happening. As he got older, King Gojong did not agree with his father’s decisions. Daewongung was a stern isolationist, wanting nothing to do with foreigners, while King Gojong and Queen Myeo-ngseong leaned more towards moderate moderniza-tion. Myeongseong and Daewongung clashed in their opinions about working with Japan. Myeongseong strongly advocated wanting nothing to do with the Japanese, seeing that Japan merely saw Korea as their next target in their growing empire. Daewongung, in contrast, was often accused of working with the Japanese, despite wanting to be isolated completely.

As King Gojong and Queen Myeongseong grew older and closer to being able to take power, the tensions between the king and his power hungry father became too much for King Gojong to bear. Geoncheonggung was built in 1873, which became King Gojong and Queen Myeongseong’s private resi-dence, distancing themselves from the Daewongung and his politics.

Gojong loved all things modern. He was entranced by things like phones and electric lights, and had both installed in Geoncheonggung, years before any other Asian country had them. He had plans for a tram system to be built in Seoul, and when he was older, he adored motor cars as well.

It is at this point that the history of Geoncheonggung can be seen as quite funny. While many fami-lies have arguments, and children threaten to run away and live in their treehouse in their back yard, many do not have the wealth or political power to actually act on these feelings. Of course, there is much more to this story than a simple family fight. However, when attempting to explain the terms of the creation of

Geoncheonggung quickly, the response of “The young king hated his father so built a palace in the back yard and held awesome parties” usually gets a few smiles and laughs. Geongcheonggung is the only building on the Gyeongbok-gung grounds to also have –gung added to the end, which means palace. King Gojong very clearly intended to make his palace separate from his father’s

This story doesn’t end happily here, however.

King Gojong and Queen Myeongseong were a perfect fit as king and queen. They clearly loved each other, and Myeongseong was Gojong’s main advisor in most major decisions. They had a shared vision of the future of Korea, seeing the country modernize within reason, keeping the monarchy and other traditional parts of their culture, while still keeping up with the times.

There was a huge problem for King Gojong though once he finally took power: Korea was weak. Espe-cially compared to the countries around it, Korea was seen more as a conquest than an equal, a future member of growing empires around the world. The only way Gojong and Myeongseong could keep major powers off their tails would be by befriend-ing them, outsmarting them, and making strong alliances. At first, China was a natural ally, and Myeongseong was a natural at charming people and making allies. However, when China was defeated by Japan in the Sino-Japanese war, the pressure coming

from Japan grew even stronger. Myeongseong continued to oppose working with the Japanese, and began making allies with Russia.

Japan was beginning to get sick and tired of being constantly held back by what they saw as a weak country. The centre of the resistance was Queen Myeongseong, in their opinion. Which meant she had to go.

In the early hours of October 8th, 1895, a group of Japanese assassins stormed Geoncheonggung. They were supported by some of the military still loyal to the Daewongung. Queen Myeongseong was brutal-ly killed, along with most of her handmaidens, and King Gojong was held prisoner in his own home. He fled and hid in the Russian Legation in Seoul for a year, fearing a complete coup d’etat. Returning to Gyeongbok-gung in 1897, King Gojong announced the formation of the Korean Empire.

He never stepped foot in Geoncheonggung again.

In 1909, Geongcheonggung was dismantled by the Japanese, and an art museum was built in its place. Once the Japanese were defeated, the museum became a folk museum until that too was torn down. In 2007, Geongcheonggung was rebuilt

Built out of family rebel-lion, abandoned after heartbreak, the story of Geongcheonggung reads like a good movie with a tragic climax. Many tours glance over Geongcheonggung, men-tioning it briefly, but the guided tour does not often go into detail of the palace within the palace. The next time you go to visit Gyeongbokgung, be sure to visit the quiet palace in the back, with its unassuming, colourless walls and electric walls, and imagine the modern Korea that could have happened if history had been different.

5

Animal Rescue KoreaWorking abroad is a great experience, but it doesn’t

go without its ups and downs. While technology has been able to connect us to family and friends like never be-fore, many English teachers working overseas leave be-hind beloved family pets. For those who have had a dog or cat in their family their entire life, this can be as big of a culture shock as adjusting to their new home. Since animals can’t speak, we can’t call them. And while your family means well when they hold your beloved pet up to the webcam, it can be torture to see your pets and not be able to pet them or hug them. But with most people working abroad on single year contracts, getting a pet is

a commitment that many realize is an unrealistic one.

On the other side of the spectrum, coun-tries like Korea are only just starting to take in dogs as pets over the last few decades. The pet culture is still growing, and many buy dogs and cats, not completely realizing that a dog or cat is a commitment that is often well over ten years. The Korean Animal Rights Ad-vocates (KARA) discovered that in 2010, 51% of dog owners said they got rid of their dogs within 5 years. Only 12% kept their dogs the entirety of the animal’s life.

So where are the rest of these animals? In 2007, it was found that over 75,000 animals had found their way into a shelter in one year. Of these animals, almost half died from health problems or being euthanized. Less than 1% were returned to their original owners, and only 25% of the animals were adopted. Ani-mals shelters across the country are overflow-ing with animals, desperate for homes. And only a very small number of these shelters are no-kill shelters.

While making a commitment to adopt a pet is a one that many English teachers can’t make, being a foster home for a dog or cat is an excellent way to make a difference in an an-imal’s life, and your own.

As one of the administrators for Animal Rescue Korea (ARK), Allison Young strongly encourages foreigners to take the opportuni-ty to foster animals during their time in Korea. “Once an animal is moved from a shelter into foster care, the adoptability of that animal skyrockets,” she explains. While ARK isn’t a rescue organization like KARA or CARE (The Coexistence of Animal Rights on Earth), they are an extensive network of English speaking people in South Korea who adore animals. On the site, you will find listings for animals across the country needing foster homes or adoption, as well as information about pet care in South Korea. With a very active com-munity on Facebook as well, their site has be-come a must read for all pet owners and lovers in South Korea.

Many people may worry that their apart-ments are not large enough to foster a pet. For many, the officetels we are provided are much smaller than apartments back home, so it’s hard to imagine keeping an animal inside as well. However, it’s not impossible. So long as

Clearly, we need each other.

your landlord allows pets, the only real con-cern is making sure the animals can get enough exercise, both mental and physical. “Of course, it does limit the kind of dog you can foster to a degree,” Allison explains, “but I have had people foster Jindos and Samo-yeds in small, officetel-style apartments with-out any problems.” So long as you can keep a schedule that’s good for the pet, and you can love it and care for it, your officetel will make a great home for one of the cats or dogs need-ing rescuing.

When you plan to foster a pet, the goal is that your foster home will be the last place they stay until they move to their forever home. Temporary fostering is not an option, however if you do return back home, another foster home will be found for the animals.

Fostering a pet is not easy. You care for the animal as your own, only to say goodbye when the time comes. However, in a country such as Korea, where the chances of going to a kill shelter or dog meat factory are real, you could make a huge difference in the animal’s life.

As a current pet owner in South Korea, I cannot express the difference in my own life personally since getting my dog. Having an animal to care for can help during moments of culture shock or loneliness that can hap-pen, and if you are able to foster or adopt an animal in South Korea, I cannot encourage it enough.

Take me to your Home Sweet Home!

7

Fostering a pet is not a rent-a-pet service – you do need to care for the animal’s health needs while taking care of it. There are many vets who do offer discounts to foster animals and adoptees, however, foster families are responsible for making sure the dog or cat is healthy and happy. The requirements for fostering an animal often depend on the shelter you would be adopting from. Many of the shelters do require that you have been to the shelter as a volunteer at least twice before taking an animal in. The main shelter for Seoul that ARK work with is the Asan shelter. Their requirements are as follows:

In a no-kill shelter down in Yangju, the situation is much different. Since there is a smaller foreign population down there, there is one person you would contact, Ula (their contact information can be found on the ARK profile pages for the Yangju animals.) Potential fosters are encouraged to come down to the shelter, because there are over 200 dogs at the shelter, however only 20 or so animals can be found on the ARK website, simply due to time constraints. You would then fill in an application. Once the application is reviewed, there will be a house visit to make sure that the foster animal will be safe and comfortable in their new environment.

If you do not live close by, this visit will take place when the animal is being dropped off. Foster animals are encouraged to update the ARK profile for the pet with photos and info weekly, to try keep exposure high. With the Yangju animals, most have not had their full health checks, simply due to financial restrictions. If the foster family wants the animal checked before taking it home, they will have to sponsor that health check first. While the animals are a larger financial challenge with their health bills, you will also be making a huge difference since these animals have even less of a chance of recovery and being returned to a forever home.

REQUIREMENT

S IN ORDER TO FOSTER A PET

Step 1: Fill out a copy of the fostering application.

Step 2: Once your application has been approved, you are required to visit the shelter in order to meet/interact with the animal you are interested in fostering.

Step 3: Once you and an adoption coordinator have decided that you are a good match for your potential foster dog, you are required to visit the shelter again to pick up your new friend. (In order to bring your foster dog/cat home, you must prepare a collar with I.D. tag, harness and leash for walking, carrying case for transportation if none are available for loan, and the 70,000KRW basic health check fee.)

ADOPTING FROM YANGJU

Hi everyone! I’m Dora. I’m a 5 month old shih tzu, and the newest regular article in K-Soul Magazine. Now that I’m old enough to go out and meet other dogs, I thought I would share my adventures with everyone.

If you’re a foreigner in South Korea, finding out about pet related things can be very difficult. The pet owning and pamper-ing culture is a new one, and there is not much about it in English. There’s nothing like PetSmart or any other big pet stores to buy all your supplies, and no such things as dog parks where we can run free. How-ever, there is something really special in Korea. These are dog cafes, where people can go to a special café that owns a collec-tion of dogs, and play with them. They’re mostly to help out people who can’t own a dog because of their own, but many dog owners bring their dogs to these cafes to help them become more social.

Dalkom Story is open 7 days a week, 10am to 10pm.Address: 544-9 Sangdong, Bucheon, Gyeonggi. 3rd floor.

Go out Sangdong station, exit 3 and go straight. Turn right at the pedestrian street, and it’s in the same building as the Baskin Robbins on the 3rd floor.

There is a sign outside that says 애견카페

cause the drink is a cover for getting to play with the puppies, the prices are high-er than normal, between 6-8000 won for a drink. 5000 for a Coke. It’s a much eas-ier pill to swallow when you remind your-self the drink is actually paying for their food and cleaning supplies and regular care.

On top of being a café where people can play with dogs or bring their own dogs, Dalkom Story also sells various items that you might look for in a pet shop, including very cute outfits and grooming supplies. If your apartment is more of a shoebox and the thought of cleaning your pet at home sounds like too much trouble, you can also use their self-service grooming centre. The prices depend on the size of the dog, but are rather reasonable. They have the top supplies there, with clippers and a big sink and even a massive drying booth that dries dogs in a flash. No more evil hair dryers!If your owner is going away for a bit, you might be put in the Dog Hotel. Dalkom Story offers Dog Hotel services, which is just a kennelling service with a cuter name. Once again, the price varies on the dog’s sizes.

For many foreigners, there are only a few well-known cafes, and they are found in downtown Seoul, which can be difficult to get to. However, there are dog cafes in many suburbs in Gyeonggi region as well! Today, I went to “Dalkom Story” in Bu-cheon with my owner.Dalkom Story is a really relaxing café with a cool atmosphere. The decorations are simple and pet friendly, but not stark or bare looking. There are lots of wooden walls and tables to help give it a very cozy feeling to it, and the dogs are allowed to go wherever they want. The smaller dogs will sometimes sit on the tables so people can pet them, while the larger dogs are supposed to stay down.

You would think that, in South Korea, most cafes would have the smaller dogs that pet stores seem to cater to, but there are lots of different sized dogs at the café, with different ages. There are tiny Maltese dogs, some golden labs, a huge standard poodle, and a young English Bulldog with a lot of character. There are often other dogs brought by their owners as well. To-day, I went to the café with Hangboki and her owner.

To be allowed to stay in the café, the people must order a drink. Of course, be-

11

If something about Pure sounds familiar to you, don’t worry, you’re not alone. There is a very familiar sound to this new group, and it certainly comes as a compliment. The CEO of Pure Enter-tainment was originally inspired by the sound and unity of the five member DBSK group, and wanted to create a group with the same kind of image and sound. While Pure are very much their own group, the strong vocals and dance moves are very reminiscent of the famous group.

Since December 2012, Pure have been perform-ing around Korea and Japan, building a small and devoted fan base at mini lives before com-ing out with their official debut this spring with “I Still Love You”. The most notable part to the live performance is most certainly the “magic stick dance”, where canes seem to appear from

midair for the chorus. A trick borrowed from magicians the canes were revealed to be spring loaded into a very small hand held container. Then with a push of a button, it springs to life.

If “I Still Love You” caught your attention, be sure to keep an eye on Pure this year. They want to be sure everyone knows they’re not nearly as dark as their debut song appears, as the hand written interview in the following pages show. They hope they can show their pure and sweet personalities in their upcoming singles.

One other thing that is important to Pure is helping others. Already they have released a single to fundraise for the Japan earthquake victims, and spend much of their time and energy in Japan raising money and awareness for the survivors. With this year already proving to be devistating for natural disasters, Pure are already wanting to do what they can to help. Check out page ## to see how you can join Pure in helping people around the world suffering from natural disasters and win a signed CD in the process!

Pure

12

Sushi,Kimchi Jjigae

Doraemon!

DREAM CONCERT

Dream Concert has, and always will be, more like a sports event or a festival than a concert. Yes, there is music, and it’s an oppor-tunity to see your favourite idols in a venue bigger than anything they’ve ever performed before. However, it’s also the only time that the entire k-pop community in Korea gets together in such volume to share their love for music. The seats are assigned in sections by group, and the fan clubs all sit in their fandom colours, their faces painted as they wave signs and pen lights in the massive stadium.

It’s definitely easy to see where the trends in k-pop lie when looking at the seating at Dream Concert. World Cup Stadium was able to hold up to 45,000 people, and it was as full as it could be. The third floor was made up almost entirely of fans of SM artists – SHINee, SNSD and Exo. Infinite fans, known as Inspirits, also took up three sections in the third floor. The surprisingly huge section was on the second floor, the five sections taken up by Beauties, which are Beast fans. Also on the second floor were Banas (B1A4), Kamilas (KARA), Kiss Mes (U-Kiss), IAMs (2AM) and most of the other artists that were performing. The ground floor was made up of people who were willing to pay much more than the normal 5,000 won a ticket that the fans pay for the fan club seats.

For many of the fans, Dream Concert is an all day event. Half of the fun is lining up and

waiting with your fan club, getting to talk about your favourites while waiting for the doors to open to get your seats. The grounds of World Cup Stadium are near chaos, espe-cially for those who dare go near the Home-plus to try get something to drink or eat.

Finally, at 6:30, the show opened. The MCs for the evening, SHINee’s Onew, KA-RA’s Hara and Beast’s Doojoon opened the show and introduced the first act, Rainbow. Their cute spring song, “Tell Me” helped get the audience dancing along. They then per-formed one of their more popular pieces, “A”.

Next up were the incredibly popular rookie group, Exo. Both Exo-K and Exo-M performed together through Mama and History, with in-tricate dancing, helping get the entire audi-ence excited for a comeback that would be announced a few days later. Following Exo was B1A4, another newer group that had seen incredible success since their debut. They performed their newest song, “What’s Happening?” and then performed their in-credibly popular “Sleep Well, Good Night”.

Huh Gak was next. Thought of as “Korea’s Paul Potts” because of his unassuming job as a repairman before entering Superstar K, he is very popular across the board now for his ballads. He performed “1440” and “Running in the Sky” while the entire audience sang along.

The ballads were just a brief inter-mission between the up-tempo music,

19

as Girls Day came on next to perform their latest single, “Expectation” with the famous suspenders dance. They also performed one of their most famous songs, “Twinkle Twinkle”, which got the entire audience of 45,000 danc-ing and singing along. Boyfriend were then up with their latest songs, “Janus” and “I Ya”. An-other newer group, BtoB, followed Boyfriend, with “Second Confession” and “Wow”.

Dream Concert veterans U-Kiss took to the stage next, with their subunit uBeat perform-ing their single “Should Have Treated You Bet-ter”. The rest of the members joined uBeat on stage for their second song, their latest single “Standing Still”.

After a long run of up tempo music, another ballad group took to the stage with 2am. Per-forming “One Spring Day” and “Can’t Let You Go, Even if I Die”, the audience once again was able to sing along with every line, both songs well loved by the general public.

Another very popular group, Secret, took to the stage next. Performing their current single, “Yoohoo”, they showed their cute side com-pared to their single before. They paired that song with “Shy Boy”, a song that is still incred-ibly popular despite the fact it came out a few years ago.

Up next were the infinitely popular Infinite.

Inspirits, their fan club, went wild as the group came out on the stage and sang their very popular current song, “Man In Love”. Keep-ing with the theme of using their happier love songs, Infinite went back almost two years in their releases to perform “Nothing’s Over”, which brought cheers from the entire crowd as everyone sung along. Kara, another incred-ibly popular group, followed up with their songs “Pandora” and “Step”, both which had the fans going mad.

Around this time, the sun was beginning to set, and the audience was beginning to show signs of just how long the day had been. The show switched over from high profile acts to some of the newer or lesser known groups. Z:EA, who have a strong fandom but don’t pro-mote as regularly as other groups, came out and performed “Aftermath”. Then, their sub unit, ZE:A5 performed “The Day We Broke Up”. They were followed by VIXX, a popular group that debuted last year, and they performed two of their singles, “On and On” and “Super Hero”. New group Evol followed with their unique sounding “Get Up”, catching many people’s at-tention. Speed then performed their singles “It’s Over” and “Pain”.After a break from the big names, the audi-ence was ready to get back on their feet. One of

the special stages was brought out, which was a combination of two of the most talented power vocals in k-pop: Changmin from 2AM and Hy-orin from Sistar. The two performed “When I First Saw You”, originally a duet between Jamie Foxx and Be-yonce. At this point, the audience knew we were at the final stretch of the concert, with a lot of big names coming up.

T-Ara’s subuit, T-ARA N4, per-formed their current single, “Jeon-won Diary”, to an energized crowd. The sound is quite different from T-Ara’s regular image, and they were really able to bring some energy into the crowd. Keeping the power-ful girl group image vibe going, Four Minute were up next. Despite Hyuna being absent, the girls powerfully performed “What’s Your Name” and “Hot Issue”. “What’s Your Name” has been hugely popular, and the cho-rus boomed around the stadium as the audience sang along. Last but not least in the girl power section, Sistar took the stage. After an in-credibly successful 2012, the girls owned the stage, performing their insanely successful singles “Lonely” and “Loving U”. With the warm early summer mixing with the cool sum-mer air, it was really easy to get back into the summer vibe that “Loving U” was able to bring last summer.

After taking a long break from the spotlight as a group, Beast returned to the Dream Concert stage with a massive fan section cheering them on. Singing their own summer an-them, “Beautiful Night”, Beast were able to keep with the warm weather late night party feel that was ring-ing through the stadium. Then going back through their single collection, Beast performed one of their most popular pieces, “Fiction.”

By this point, there were only a few acts left, and their fan groups were getting impatient. The shawols had been chanting SHINee’s name for the past hour, and finally they got their wish as an extended opening to “Why So Serious” opened.

The guys came out, Jonghyun still not returned from his recovery, and brought the house down with their funk rock sound, showing off every bit of vocal talent that the boys have in them. They then went into the equally catchy “Dream Girl”, both that had the crowds on their feet, screaming, dancing, and cheering along.

There was only one group left. And no mat-ter how people may feel about them, boy girl, young or old, like or dislike, there is something about when SNSD take the stage that is im-pressive. The command they have of the stage, and the confidence they show is admirable. And even if the songs come across as very re-petitive when it’s just audio, when performed, they suddenly become incredibly to take in. The girls opened with “The Boys”, which had everyone singing the lyrics along with. Last song of the night was “I Got A Boy”, which is one of those love or hate songs. However, with the energy in the crowd, and the way the girls performed, there was no way someone could sit there and dislike the song at that moment. It was too easy to be swept in.

For one last song, all of the artists returned to the stage to sing the classic Korean song “Bon Voyage (여행을떠나요)” and say goodbye to their fans while fireworks went off and the 45,000 fans went to struggle to deal with the last few trains that could take them home.

The rain began drizzling down at about 5pm, an hour before G Dragon’s first world tour, the One of a Kind Concert, was about to officially begin. It didn’t seem to dampen the spirits of the thousands waiting in line out-side. Olympic Park was filled with fans from all around the world; a growing standard for k-pop concerts, especially those put on by YG entertainment.

While this wasn’t G-Dragon’s first solo con-cert, it was heading off the beginning of his first world tour. With eight countries currently lined up (Korea, Japan, China, Indonesia, Ma-laysia, Thailand, Singapore and Taiwan) and more anticipated, it is a huge undertaking for G Dragon. Especially after just wrapping up the massive Alive tour with Big Bang, which managed to have 48 different concerts in 13 different countries. With a new single being set to released in days, the amount of work G Dragon must have been doing lately prepar-ing for both is unimaginable.

As VIPs ushered into the hall, videos of previous singles performed on the screens. The room was a buzz with energy as 6 ticked closer. Starting about 6:15, a video came on with G Dragon driving a car through a CGI uni-verse in a high speed chase. His car seemed to run out of control, and that’s when he burst out onto the stage in a futuristic car prop and began singing MichiGo, the brand new song set to release on Monday. Wasting no time, G Dragon went right into his very first single, “Heartbreaker”, which I personally was really excited to hear because it was one of the few G Dragon solo songs I hadn’t heard performed, followed immediately by “One of a Kind”.

The first 20 minutes were jammed packed with songs, with only a brief pause to intro-duce himself and thank his fans for coming out tonight. One of the highlights for many fans might have been the collaboration stag-es that took place. With collaboration stages, it’s always difficult to know who will be able to guest at a concert, but the fans in Seoul were very lucky, because there were three guest singers. The first collaboration song was “Light It Up” with Tablo. The audience went nuts, because Tablo doesn’t perform often in Korea any more, due to his unfortu-nate Stanford controversy with insane neti-zens. Straight away was the next guest per-formance, CL from 2ne1. Now, I won’t claim to be a fan of 2ne1 or CL (something about her eyes scares me) but I thought she looked INCREDIBLE tonight. Her hair was gorgeous, and the outfit she was wearing was beautiful and hip – a short off white dress with a slit up to the hip, with a cool jacket over it. They sang “The Leaders”, a song I wasn’t too fa-miliar with but quite liked. G Dragon and CL’s style mesh really well, and I’d love to see them work together more.

The next song up was “Obsession (악뭉)” from the GD&TOP colab album. This song had him climbing all over the stage, climbing up way over the audience and the band and running about. He did the entire song without a problem, but the way he went around the stage seemed exhaustive, and it showed later in the show. The next song was “She’s Gone”, which also had G-Dragon running around the stage a lot with the dramatic music. By the end of the two songs, there was a well

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deserved video interlude.From the 200 section, I could see rumblings from

the sides of the stage of what looked like props for the next song, and the mix for the interlude had me excit-ed well before G-Dragon came back out on stage in a white button down shirt and white pants for “Butter-fly”. All along the stage, huge silk butterflies suspend-ed on wires being held up by the back up dancers made their way around the side of the stage, filling the standing the area with huge butterflies. It was a gorgeous site, and was really relaxing to see. Butterfly is one of my favourite songs by G Dragon, so seeing it done so well was fantastic.

As the butterflies flew away, the whistling intro-duction of “Missing You” from the latest album began, and the really peaceful atmosphere continued. Kim Yuna from Jaurim wasn’t on stage with G-Dragon, however there was a video of her singing along.

While the peaceful tone continued with the next song, it didn’t keep the happy feeling with the song “That XX”. A large throne rolled out onto the stage, and G-Dragon sprawled out across the chair as his guitarist plucked at the acoustic guitar and the audi-ence sang along with the entire song. The seems to be a song that so many people seem to relate to, and you could really feel the emotion as the thousands of people sang every word to the song.

The next song was “Without You”. When the song was originally released, the female featured was just listed as question marks. Turns out it was Lee Hi, the new YG artist. I won’t use this review as my platform to talk about how much I dislike Lee Hi, but… she’s emotionless and I’m not a fan. So she came out on stage and sang from a balcony and never smiled or did anything. Her hair was nice though so I guess that’s okay. Then she came down on the stage and walked away from G-Dragon and once again never seemed to smile and the song was over. This is the nicest I can be about Lee Hi, lets move on.

By this point, D-Gragon looked and sounded ex-hausted. There were moments where he didn’t seem to sing lines, and he was using his towel a lot. I was quite worried, because he really hadn’t had much of a break at all in the whole concert, and must have been exhausted. The next song was “Today”, and a huge DJ set was brought out. G-Dragon climbed into it, and he DJed while the huge set was brought to the centre stage. It was lifted up, and it really lifted the energy of the crowd again. It led into “A Boy (소년이여)” right away. The song after was “This Love”, which is a cover of the Maroon 5 song. It was real-ly interesting to see the different reactions to this song. The vast majority of G-Dragon’s fans know this song, however newer fans, and some of the for-eign fans, might not be familiar with the older work,

so some people looked a little confused for a moment when the incredibly familiar opening notes of “This Love” began.

“One Year Station (1년 정거장)” performed next, and G-Dragon seemed to have regained all of the energy that he seemed to have lost mid show as we neared the end of the concert. He ran back stage as another video interlude happened, and then ziplined down across the stage with a TV on his head as the open notes of his most latest single, “Crayon” began. The crowd leapt to its feet and sung and danced along, but in the middle of the song, everyone on the stage stopped, and suddenly the mu-sic changed to… “Fantastic Baby.” Despite it being a solo song, G-Dragon was performing Big Bang’s mega hit of 2012, either singing all of the parts or letting the fans cover certain parts. The audience was really into it, scream-ing the words along and dancing along with their lightsticks. The mix was like the one on the 2012 MAMAs, but without the dumb mon-ster stuff. With a blast of lights and sound and fireworks, the song finished, and G-Dragon and his backup dancers walked off stage, leaving the arena in darkness.

We sat for a moment and waited, but then some realised that the show was technically “over” and began to chant encore. After a few minutes, G-Dragon came back out through the standing section and made a lap around the outside of the barricades as he sang “Breathe”. I personally found it ironic that he sung Breathe in a situation where he was be-ing mobbed and could be crushed at any sec-ond, but he seemed to be enjoying himself, so it’s all cool.

After talking for a second (literally, it was just a few seconds) he led into “Bad Boy”, another one of the singles by Big Bang this year. There was a hilarious moment in the song where G-Dragon impersonated TOP’s voice in one verse, and it sounded both very accurate and also badly done. Clearly, it was

done with the accuracy and caring that only a very good friend could do. Once he finished Bad Boy, G-Dragon FINALLY had a moment to stop and properly talk. He spoke to the fans about the tour, and gave his thanks to every-one involved. Literally, everyone. He named everyone in the band, he named the two dance crews involved as backup dancers, he thanked the camera people, the lighting peo-ple, the directors, the producers, his parents, YG family, his fans, and a bunch of other peo-ple I missed because I might have been try-ing to take notes and missed stuff. He spoke quickly at times. There was a big wind up and they all did their bows, and everyone was leaving the stage, and as they left the stage, G-Dragon kept looking back… and would walk a bit. Then he’d stop, and look back at the audience, and look at the backup danc-ers. They’d tell him to come on, and he’d take another step. He’d stop, turn back, and then he tried to run back to the stage. The backup dancers tried to stop him, but he broke free, and burst out from the stage as the band be-gan to play “MichiGo” again – a friendly re-minder of what the new song is like so we all would go get the single next week. Once that song was finished, he finally left the stage for some much deserved rest, and the fans left.

From what I’ve heard, there have been some changes to the line up on the Sunday night schedule. Due to the fact that G-Drag-on was, in fact, pretty exhausted half way through the show, he recruited 2ne1 to step in and do a bit of a half time show so he could take a break. The Sunday fans are going to be in for a treat then. I don’t know what the lineup will be like when he travels to other countries, but I think there will be guest performers for the next shows as well.

If G-Dragon announces that he is coming to your country, and you are able to go, I high-ly recommend going. G-Dragon is an incredi-ble showman, and put on a great show.

For those who are fans of k-pop in Seoul, going to the theatre may not seem like the natural place to look for your favourite idols. However, when “Catch Me If You Can” returned to Seoul this winter, K-pop fans were able to see representatives from seven different groups gracing the stage of the Seongnam Art Centre Opera House.

“Catch Me If You Can” tells the story of Frank Abagnale Jr, a con artist who forged $2.5 million dollars in forged cheques by the time he turned 21 years old. The story starts in Miami International Airport, where FBI agent Carl Hanratty has finally caught up to the young con artist after chasing him for years. Frank asks to be allowed to explain

to the people at the airport with him why he is being arrested, and the musical opens with the energetic song “Live in Living Colour.”

The role of Frank was rotated throughout the show’s run. Kyuhyun from Super Ju-nior and Key From SHINee returned for their second run of the show, as well as Um Kijoon and Park Kwanghyun returned to the role from the original run of the musical earlier in 2012. Joining the cast for the extended winter run was Song Dongun from B2ST and Kim Dongjun from Z:EA. With idols from four different music groups, as well as two seasoned musical professionals, the performances were able to fit all tastes.

Playing opposite to Frank is Brenda, a young nurse who manages to steal Frank’s heart. Returning to the role for a second time was Sunny from Girls Generation. As well, Dana from The Grace and JOO joined the cast, as well as Oh Sangeun.

The Korean production of “Catch Me If You Can” was as close to Broadway quality that you will find in Seoul. The ensemble cast was incredibly strong, both in vocals and dance. The set was a pleasure to look at, filling the entire stage with colours. Having the full orchestra on stage really brought energy to the songs, and really added to the showman attitude that Frank’s character sells through most the show.

Of course, the musical was entirely in Korean. If you can read Japanese quickly, subtitles often run along with most major musicals in Seoul. If you worry about keeping up with the story, the best way around this is to look up the story, or listen to the soundtrack before. While it might give away the story, it will certainly enhance your enjoyment of the story and let you really get into the show without worrying over if you’ll understand. Wikipedia can be a fantastic resource for plot summaries, right down to explaining when a song will be sung.

Musicals in Korea are a fantastic way to get to see your favourite idols in a much closer venue than many concerts, and you get to see them outside of their normal roles in their groups. Tickets don’t sell as quickly as concerts, so it’s also a more reliable option for those in Korea for a short period of time.

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TWIN TOWERS @LIVE2013 RETURNS FOR A THIRD INSTALLMENT

Twin Towers @ Live 2013 returned for its third installment and was held on March 22 and March 23, 2013 at Petronas Twin Towers, Kuala Lumpur or better known as KLCC, a famous shop-ping complex and office buildings in Malaysia. The first install-ment, Twin Towers @ Live2011, featured artists such as Yuna, The Azenders, Bunkface, wakaka dance group, Wondergirls, and Hoo-

bastank, while the second installment of Twin Tow-ers @ Live 2012 featured Nicole Scherzinger,

Girls’ Generation, Orianthi, Kelis, Faizal Tahir, Reshmonu and James Baum. This

yearly FREE concert was being held in conjunction of FORMULA 1 PETRO-NAS MALAYSIA GRAND PRIX race.

DAY 1 – 22 MARCH 2013

The first day of Twin Towers @ Live 2013 started up with a hot weather. The press conference was held at the Hilton Kuala Lumpur Hotel while the venue of the free concert was at the park of the tallest twin building in the world, Petronas Twin Towers. Upon arriving at the Ballroom A at the ho-tel, we could see the fans gathered alongside the hall and at the reception area just to get a glimpse of U-KISS, Demi Lovato and Backstreet Boys.

The press conference started with U-KISS on stage, being interviewed by the fun emcee Sere-na C. U-KISS introduced themselves, and the MC asked them about their Multilanguage skills. The audience sang the birthday song for the two mem-bers who celebrated their birthday in March, Soo-hyun and Eli. When asked about the possibility of having their full concert, Kevin answered that they have always wanted to have a full concert here as Malaysian Kiss Me have been waiting for a long time for it.

As subgroups activities are becoming a trend in the Korean music industry, U-Kiss were asked about the possibility of having sub-unit groups this year. Seeing that they did have solo and duet tracks in their recently released album, “Collage”, they said that it was very likely for them to have sub-unit groups later this year. When asked their favorite track form the album “Collage”. AJ and Eli chose their duet song “Party All The Time”, Sooh-yun with “Missing You”, Kevin chose his own solo song “My Reason” reasoning that he was drawn from his first love experience, Dongho with “Be-cause I Love You” while Kiseop and Hoon chose their title track “Standing Still”.

When the media mentioned of collaborations, they picked Backstreet Boys as one of the artist that they wanted to collaborate with. Showing their fanboy side over Backstreet Boys, Kevin said “We heard that Backstreet Boys is here. We actu-ally practice their songs a lot before debut. We are very excited to meet them but we heard that they are performing tomorrow. I hope that we het to meet them here (at the press conference). We’re actually big fans of BSB. Maybe in the future if we get a chance to collaborate”.

Demi Lovato came out after the session with U-KISS ended. She said that it was such an honor to be in Malaysia for Twin Towers @ Live 2013 event. When asked about her fans, she said that being a role model was something that she’d take very seriously as the things she did as an artist does gives impact to fans and people out there. When she was asked about her first impression of Malaysia and she said that the weather was extremely hot and the places were really clean. She also said that she loved spend-ing time with her family during her free time or just worked and running errands. The Backstreet Boys were the last one to come out at the press conference and their en-trance was greeted with a loud cheer from the media. 2013 will be the Backstreet Boy’s 20th anniversary in the music industry. The Back-street Boys felt great to be back in Malaysia and informed the media about their World Tour concert which will start soon, and dropped hints about their documentary program. One of the media asked them about their thoughts of how they grew how their team work was for the past 20 years as Backstreet Boys.

They said that they were still the same Backstreet Boys that the fans loved and they want to create pop music that can grow and at the same time can satisfy the fans.

Responding to the media’s question to describe The Backstreet Boys after 20 years in one word, Brian said “Timeless” which AJ burst out as he was thing of the same word too, then answered “Infinity”. Howie D said “Season”, Kevin with “Refined” while Nick said “Old”. They also felt honoured to be inspiring the young singers that chose them as a role model, and advised those you singers to try new things and sounds, not to be afraid of challenges as well as not to limit their creativities. To wrapped up their press con-ference session, they said that the fans could ex-pect a lot of fun and they will bring back the 20 years memories in 1 and a half hour show.

On the 22nd March, the first night of Twin Tow-ers @ Live 2013 started off with a powerful perfor-mance from a dance crew, Project Elementz with DJ Face playing remixes in the background. Next was Atilia, a powerful Jazz singer who performed her hit tracks including Sangkar, Indah and Se-lagi. Athilia also performed Mary J Blidge’s All Night Long. Next up on the list was K-Town Clan, who dominated the stage with their powerful hits such as Backstreet’s Back and Trap, instantly levelled up the crowd’s energy level.

The great Kpop sensation, U-Kiss wowed the crowd with their hit tracks including Neverland, 0330, Standing Still and Someday. KISS ME’s were singing along with the boys and did not for-get to recite the fan chanting during their perfor-mance on stage. The night’s last performer was a multi-talented singer, Demo Lovato who brought a spectacular performance on stage by perform-ing her hit songs such as Unbroken and Here We Go Again. Demi Lovato’s fans stayed at the venue even though it rained before Demi Lavato’s per-formance. The night ended with DJ Face playing his beats on the stage as the crowd continued to party and dance.

The weather for the second day of Twin Tow-ers @ Live 2013 was cloudy with a little bit of rain. However, this did not stop the crowd from queu-ing up at the entrance as early as noon to see big names such as 2NE1 and Backstreet Boys. They didn’t even move from their spot when rain was pouring down. The organizer was generous and provided the fans that were waiting in the rain with raincoats. The crowd was being entertained by the emcees, DJ JD and DJ Dilly, two very friendly DJs from a local Radio Station, Mix FM, while DJ Tat-suro played his remixes in the background.

The second day of Twin Towers @ Live 2013 was officially started with b-boy performances from the winner of dance show Showdown 2012, Dem Lepak Boyz (DLB) before they were joined by a local Hip-Hop act, Caprice. Their collabo-ration on stage brought up the atmosphere as the fans were en-joying their performances. Be-sides performing his own songs, Caprice and Dem Lepak Crew performed a remake of Gang-nam Style and Harlem Shake.

Twin Towers @ Live 2013 was not just another concert that only provided entertainment for the crowd as it too, joined the 60 minutes’ Earth Hour celebration with the rest of the world. The concert was held in the dark or minimal lights for the duration of 60 minutes to embrace the Earth Hour, and the crowd was still enjoying the perfor-mances to the fullest. During this time, Malaysia and Asia’s No.1 beatboxer, Shawn Lee entertained the crowd with his beat boxing skills, followed by UV Light dance and drum performance. Next up was One Nation Emcees. They took the stage by performing a few of their hit songs. Then, Malay-sia’s very own Mizz Nina came out to perform her latest single that featured Jay Park, Around The World, before continuing her performance with a few more of her hit songs.

The crowd went wild as 2NE1 members made their entrance on stage. The girls looked stunning on stage as they opened up their performance

with Fire. Blackjacks in Ma-laysia cheered and sang out loud alongside 2NE1 as they couldn’t confined their joy and excitementof being able to see the girls closely. Other than Fire, 2NE1 performed Can’t Nobody, Lonely, Ugly,

DAY 2 – 23 MARCH 2013I Am The Best and I Love You – a total of 6 songs all together. The most memorable moment was when Black-jacks made a surprise event by wishing a happy birthday to Park Bom. A small cake was brought up onto the stage for the birthday girl.

In conjunction with their 20th anniversary in the music industry, the longest running boyband in the world, The Backstreet Boys, was being honored as the last performer for Twin Towers @ Live 2013. They brought back the memory of many fans that grew up listening to their music by delivering a total of 11 songs accompanying by live instruments on that night. They performed (not in any particular order) The Call, Show Me The Meaning Of Being Lonely, As Long As you love Me, The One, Quit Playing Games (With My Heart), All I Have To Give, Drowning, Shape Of

My Heart, I’ll Never Break Your Heart, I Want It That Way and Everybody (Backstreet’s Back) as the encore song. Backstreet Boys’ showmanship was awe-some as always, as they picked 3 lucky fans and serenade them with two songs. The also sur-prised the audience when they danced to Psy’s Gangnam Style. The Backstreet Boys also an-nounced that their performance in Malaysia was a warm up to their upcoming World Tour.

Twin Towers @ Live 2013 wrapped up the night around

12:30am. It was an honour for us to be able to at-tend this concert as media as it was hard to see lo-cal artists performing together with such renown K-pop and International artists such as U-Kiss, 2NE1, Demi Lovato and Backstreet Boys in one event. Through this kind of concert, more people could see the power of K-pop and began to appreciate K-pop even more. We are sure-ly can’t wait to see which K-pop artists will perform at the n e x t installment o f T w i n T o w -ers @ L i v e 2 0 1 4 n e x t year.

Music Bank opened up its 2013 World Tour on March 13th by stopping at Gelora Bung Karno Stadium in Jakar-ta, Indonesia. The event was held in con-junction of the 40th anniversary of South Korea - Indonesia’s Diplomatic Inaugu-ration, and gathered tons of K-pop fans from Indonesia as well as neighbourhood countries such as Thailand, Malaysia, Sin-gapore, Australia, and even South Korea since this would the first time that Music Bank was being held in South East Asia. Jakarta was the fifth Music Bank World Tour’s stop after Tokyo, Paris, Hong Kong and Chile.

Korean idols that participated in this concert were TEEN TOP, SISTAR, Eru, IN-FINITE, BEAST, SHINee, 2PM, and Super Junior while from Indonesia, there were an Indonesian solo singer Afgan and an Indonesian idol boy group, S4. The event started at 8:05PM with a performance of one of Indonesia’s traditional dances, Ondel-Ondel. The MCs for Music Bank in Jakarta were Kyuhyun of Super Junior, Taecyeon of 2PM, KBS Announcer Jung Jiwon and Nadia Mulya, an entertainer from Indonesia. Kyuhyun and Taecyeon even tried to speak in Indonesian, which had delighted the fans.

Teen Top opened the stage by perform-ing their comeback song from their first official album, Miss Right, then greeted the fans before continuing their perfor-mance with To You, and Crazy. There was a technical error during Miss Right’s per-formance which resulted in Teen Top hav-ing perform the song twice. Next, SISTAR took over the stage by performing Alone and Loving You, while their subgroup SISTAR19 performed Gone Not Around Any Longer. Then the MCs came out on stage once again and Nadia Mulya asked Kyuhyun to teach her how to dance to SISTAR’s Alone. Kyuhyun complied and danced to the song cutely, which made the fans went wild.

The only solo artist from Korea in this concert, Eru, performed his hit sin-gles Black Glasses and I Hate You. Eru

Music BankJakarta

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surprised the audience by singing the rap part in I Hate You by himself, which was originally performed by BEAST’s Junhy-ung. He then brought the atmosphere up by singing Wheesung’s Insomnia. Indo-nesian solo singer, Afgan, took the next stage by performing his new song from his new album, Without You, and contin-ued with a song entitled Katakan Tidak (Say No).

Special stage performances could not be forgotten for a big event like this. The first special stage was a duet by Hyorin of SISTAR and Eru, and they sang an Indo-nesian song titled Kemesraan. The song was chosen as a symbol of South Ko-rea-Indonesia’s friendship and hoping for it to last for long. Fans were very surprised by how fluent Hyorin and Eru pronounced the lyrics in Indonesian, and sang along with them. Afterwards, INFINITE made their appearance on stage by singing The Chaser, said their greetings in Indo-nesian, and continued their performance with BTD and Be Mine.

The next special stage was a tribute to popular OST songs from popular Korean dramas. The chosen dramas for this spe-cial stage were “Full House”, “Dream High” and “Boys Before Flowers”. SISTAR’s Soyu took on the stage by singing Byul’s I Think I Love You, followed by INFINITE’s Woohyun singing Kim Soohyun’s Dream-ing and SHINee singing Stand By Me. The stage was heated once again with BEAST performing their hit songs Beauti-ful Night, Fiction and Shock. We could see BEAST’s leader, Dujun, interacted and teased fans a lot.

The last special stage for the night was a collaboration stage by Teen Top and an Indonesian idol boy group, S4. They did a joint Michael Jackson performance to-gether, dancing to Dangerous, and fol-lowed by S4 singing one of Teen Top’s hit song No More Perfume On You. Teen Top ended the special stage by singing S4’s song, She’s My Girl (Indonesian version). The fans went wild for this stage as Teen Top sang fluently in Indonesian language.

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SHINee, 2PM, and Super Junior were the last three artists who performed. Fans’ responses to their performances were awesome. SHINee performed Beau-tiful, Sherlock and their latest hit Dream Girl. 2PM who came to Indonesia three months prior to this event for their con-cert, performed Heartbeat, and followed by a talk session. Then, 2PM asked fans to sing an Indonesian Kid’s song with them titled Satu-Satu and took pictures with the fans. 2PM then sang Hands Up and 10 Points Out of 10 before leaving the stage. The last performer, Super Ju-nior, who had the largest fanbase among the performers, heated up the stage with Bonamana Remix version, before Dong-hae and Wunhyuk sang their song Oppa Oppa. The other Super Junior members joined Donghae and Eunhyuk on stage at the end of Oppa Oppa’s performance. Su-per Junior ended their performance per-fectly with Sexy Free and Single.

At last, all artists went back to the stage for a closing ceremony by singing DJ DOC’s Run To You. The performers did not forget to show their love everywhere in the arena before bidding their farewell. 2PM and Super Junior were the final two groups to leave the stage as they contin-ued to show their appreciation to fans who came to Music Bank Jakarta. The two groups were reaching to every cor-ner of the stage so that they could thank the fans. The concert lasted for about 3 hours. Feda & Lia

“CRAZY” FOR K-POP:

TEEN TOP IN GERMANY

Following in the footsteps of the powerful SM Enter-tainment Agency and established Korean Wave artists like Xiah (Junsu) and BEAST, who made early inroads into the European market, young idol group Teen Top set off on a 4-country, 5-city European tour in Munich, Germany on February 2, 2013. Organising promoters B7Klan have been bringing Asian acts to the European continent for several years, but until recently their focus has been on Japanese artists, primarily in the visual-kei rock genre. The Hallyu wave is changing the market for Asian music abroad, and Teen Top came in at its early stage to per-form before fans from multiple nations, many of whom had never seen a Korean pop group in person before.

Despite being signed with a relatively minor agency, TOP Media, who until 2012 represented only Teen Top and their mentor artist who hand-picked the six members of the group, Andy of the legendary K-Pop group Shinhwa, Teen Top have had a steady and sure rate of success at home in Korea as well as increasing international atten-tion since their debut in July, 2010. In fact, they were spot-lighted on the French television program “Le Grand Jour-nal” in early 2011, praised for their striking visual concept and knife-like precise choreography. Perhaps as a show of respect to this positive initial introduction to the con-tinent, Teen Top opened their European shows with the song which had been featured at that time, “Supa Luv.”

Outside the venues in Munich and Dortmund, hun-dreds of fans lined up and waited outside for hours in frigid temperatures, huddled under blankets and behind plastic sheeting to stave off the snowy winter weather. Fans came to Germany from all over central and eastern Europe.

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Among the countries represented were Germany, Austria, The Netherlands, Belgium, Croatia, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland, Russia and Turkey. Following the two shows in Germany, Teen Top headed out in a tour bus to venues in London, Paris and Barcelo-na, giving fans from every corner of Europe a chance to see idols from the other side of the world. Because most of the venues are ac-tually nightclubs, younger fans had to be es-corted by their parents. One mother from the Netherlands told me in Dortmund that she had driven her 14 and 15 year old daughters in that morning for not only their first K-Pop show, but the very first concert of their lives.

Fans organised projects at both German concerts to celebrate the arrival of Teen Top in Europe and to thank them for their perfor-mances. In Munich, during the ballad “Angel,” which was originally dedicated to Teen Top’s fans, fans held up signs decorated with the flags of their various home countries which said “thank you” in Korean and in their own native languages. The members noticed the paper signs gradually being raised through the course of the song, smiling and pointing to the fans to signal their appreciation for the gesture. In Dortmund, fans released a large number of lavender-coloured balloons (Teen Top’s official fan support colour) during the encore, passing them among the crowd and up to the stage, where the members various-ly batted them back, caught the balloons and gave them a kiss before returning them, or blew at them cutely to keep them afloat.

Despite the seemingly vast barriers of lan-guage and culture, fans sang and danced along with not only Teen Top’s promoted singles, but even their lesser-known album tracks. Teen Top did their utmost to meet Western fans halfway, speaking in both English and German as much as possible and preparing an entire set of Western pop songs especially for this tour, despite being in midst-prepara-tions for the imminent release of their crucial first full album. When asked at the Munich press conference what they felt the difference was between Korean fans and German fans, L.Joe replied, “just the hair colour is differ-ent.” Teen Top’s performances and the atti-tude both the group members and the fans

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brought to the tour showed clearly that the love of music and the appeal of well-trained but exuberant and sincere performance can bridge any difference in national background.

Teen Top opened the German shows with their electronic dance track “Supa Luv” and transitioned smoothly into the upbeat “Be Ma Girl” and playful “No More Perfume on You,” taking time to introduce themselves in halt-ing German and express their surprise and thankfulness that so many fans had come to see them for their first appearances on the continent of Europe. The small venues al-lowed for a very intimate feel, and from the start of the shows, fans tossed teddy bears and other small gifts on to the stage, while the members leaned forward or knelt down to reach their hands out to the screaming fans who had theretofore only seen these pin-up idols on a computer screen. As they continued the first set with the album tracks “Beautiful Girl,” “Baby U” and “First Kiss,” the members used plentiful amounts of English

to introduce the songs and attempt to ban-ter a bit with the audience, instead of mere-ly relying on the translator. Little comments like Ricky’s “very hot... verrry hot!!”, C.A.P’s “don’t forget me” or Changjo’s “I love-love-love you!!” gave rise to ecstatic responses from the delighted audience. Member L.Joe, who lived for several years in America, used English throughout. After the ballads “Brush-ing” and “Angel,” Teen Top asked the fans in Dortmund to take a keepsake photograph with them. Niel gave the fans in the front a lot of one-on-one attention and did cute “aegyo” gestures throughout, even making a heart shape over his head to loud screams. Mean-while, C.A.P and Changjo teased the crowd by flashing their abs. Small technical issues with the sound were sorted out by the second show, and the members, who were surpris-ingly full of energy and in picture-perfect form despite the long trip and difficult time change, were even more confident in the second show. Teen Top had the experience of doing a solo

“Clap” of 2013 illustrated Teen Top’s develop-ment as artists and performers eloquently.

In a cute moment of cultural exchange, the fans in Munich had spontaneously started chanting “sa-rang-hae! sa-rang-hae!” (I love you! I love you!), to which Niel responded in English, “me too.” To introduce the set of solo and collaboration performances, Teen Top invited the audience to call them “oppa” and cheer for the first “oppa’s stage,” a solo performance by lead vocalist Chunji, who covered “Count on Me” (Bruno Mars), a love-ly match for his sweet and clear voice with which the audience happily crooned along. At the press conference in Munich, Chunji indi-cated that he chose the song because it was one he personally liked and thought the fans would enjoy. Next was a dance performance by lead dancers Changjo and Ricky featur-ing rapper L.Joe. Wearing white masks and baggy hip-hop style clothes, they showed off dynamic and charismatic moves to dramat-ic electronic dubstep music, ending with a jumping-split by Ricky, which was met with loud cheers. Changjo explained that the num-ber was designed to show a masculine and mature image. Last up was the hip-hop song “BedRock” (Young Money featuring Lil Wayne and Lloyd) performed by rapper and group leader C.A.P and main vocalist Niel, whose sexy and unique style blend- e d well with C.A.P’s deep voice, getting the entire hall danc-ing and sing-ing along once again. C.A.P stated that he selected the number because he

concert tour in 2012 in Japan, performing at

mid-sized venues venues in Osaka,

Nagoya and Tokyo. The main differ-ence for this tour was the simple fact that Teen Top

had never set foot in Europe before

and never met their fans there, whereas they

have been performing in Ja-pan frequently since late 2010. How would European fans react to them? Were they real-ly Teen Top fans, or were they merely curious about K-Pop? Would the venues be decently filled? All these concerns were put to rest be-fore Teen Top even launched into the numbers designed especially for their Western fans.

While Teen Top covered the upbeat songs “Troublemaker” (Olly Murs featuring Flo Rida) and “Good Time” (Owl City & Carly Rae Jepsen), the audience jumped in time, danced and sang along enthusiastically. The members’ English pronunciation was good and the crowd screamed loudly as they final-ly left the stage for a brief video montage of Teen Top’s six promoted video clips. When Teen Top took the stage again after a costume change, it was for their debut song, “Clap,” which was met with an incredible reaction from the fans in Germany for its taut dance moves and emotional power. The members’ long training and dedication gave them the precise synchronisation for which they were recognised at the time of their debut. The two and a half years of experience Teen Top have gained since then have given them a new level of intensity and stage presence; the

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likes listening to foreign music and he wanted to choose a sexy song which would work up the crowd.

After a brief video intermission, Teen Top were back in new stage outfits for the song the German audience had named as their favourite at both shows when Changjo had inquired: 2012’s smoothly sensual “To You.” The song’s distinctive, demanding choreog-raphy and haunting melody had the audience screaming with excitement, singing along and even chanting the members’ names in time just as the fans in Korea routinely memorise. After a run of crowd-pleasing album tracks, “Girlfriend,” “Where’s Ma Girl” and “Shake It!”, the show came to a brilliant climax with the song that put Teen Top on the fast track, “Crazy,” their first collaboration with produc-er Brave Brothers, which earned them the coveted first-place trophies of KBS Music Bank and SBS Inkigayo as well as a Golden Disk Award for the best K-Pop single album of 2012. To the high-pitched screams of the European fans, who still seemed somewhat

in disbelief that Teen Top was really dancing on a stage before their very eyes, they end-ed the song jumping up and down, the en-tire hall shouting along the final English lines “Teen Top, Go, Go, put your hands up high!”

For the final encore, the boys changed into the tour t-shirts and came back on to bring things to a warm and suitable close with the Beatles’ classic “All You Need is Love.” After all, it was the international fans’ love for their music, their cute looks and their fun-loving and earnest personalities which brought Teen Top all the way to Munich and Dort-mund, and it was Teen Top’s love for music and performing which brought them, despite the difficult odds against surviving, let alone succeeding, in the highly competitive K-Pop market, to the top of the charts and halfway around the world to meet the fans who had waited so patiently for them, who screamed out their names and sang along with their songs. I’m sure the series of five European concerts will prove to be an unforgettable ex-perience for both the fans who attend and for the members of Teen Top themselves.

By Alexandra Yu

“We can’t wait to start promoting. In the United States and Asia- we’re going to be heating up everywhere,” said Nicky Lee during a CNN interview of AZIATIX. This February the group broke national and worldwide news by announcing of a contract of a whopping 11. 3 million dollars with American record company YMCMB. This is a stellar label to belong to, working among global stars like Nicki Minaj, Lil’ Wayne, Drake, Jay Sean part of the family. Aziatix is well positioned for further success with their upcoming activities in America. Their first single with YMCMB is due to be released soon.

AZIATIX is a Korean-American R&B/HipHop trio, composed of Nicky Lee, Flowsik and Eddie Shin and directed by the renowned producer Jae Chong, a former member of Korean R&B group SOLID. Besides AZIATIX, he has produced and composed for many other international Asian artists like Coco Lee, Boa, and JYJ, among other groups. Before the members came together as a group in 2011 each of them had already built their own solo careers.

Nicky Lee grew up in Los Angeles, but started his career in Asia in 1998 as a member of Korean R&B group “Voice”. He has also achieved great success in the Chinese music industry as a solo artist with five albums released and, moreover, he was awarded “Best Male Singer” at the Mandarin Pop Music Awards in 2007.

Rapper of the group Flowsik from Queens, New York is well known in the Hip Hop scene in the US. He collaborated with legendary rapper Ice-T and after coming to Korea Flowsik also worked together with K-Pop idols like JYJ.

Eddie Shin is an R&B singer/songwrit-er, born in Boston, but raised in Seoul. He

started composing at the age of 16 and debuted in Korea with his self-produced album “Just my way” in 2005. He studied music at NYU and also wrote for other Korean artists. With his multi-cultural understanding of music, Eddie Shin creates a unique sound of his songs.

In spite of working as a group for only two years, AZIATIX have produced truly impressive results. They earned the title of “Best New Asian Artist Group” at Mnet Asian Music Award in 2011, only a few months after releasing their debut album, which reached #4 on iTunes R&B charts. AZIATIX’s second album “Awakenin” also reached #1 on iTunes R&B charts not only in Korea, but in other countries like Japan and U.S.

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Joining YMCMB puts AZIATIX in an enviable position with that label’s experience, reputation and connections. At a pre-Grammy party on February, 9th the founder and CEO of YMCMB Ronald “Slim” Williams introduced AZIATIX to the public as a new member of the family. “They are very creative, they’re so special,” said Slim about the Korean-American collective. He continued, “We want to bring them out and be a part of this, so that people know about AZIATIX.”

AZIATIX has already gained a strong fanbase not only in Asia, but globally as well. Expectations about their new album are very high, because the group worked with truly outstanding people of the music industry. Their title song “Take it all” was recorded along with a Grammy- award winning producer Red One, who worked with world-wide stars like Lady Gaga, Backstreet Boys, Jennifer Lopez, Usher and lots of others. And for their new music video, AZIATIX worked with Jeff Panzer, a famous music producer, who has worked with such popular artists like The Rolling Stones, Lil’ Wayne, Nelly, Brian McKnight, etc.

While it might be too early to talk about global successes yet, the contract with YMCMB is the beginning of reaching worldwide popularity for AZIATIX.

In an EnewsWorld interview they shared about their expectations and future goals. “We want to make the Asian wave really big,” said Flowsik, “I dreamed of becoming the best rapper in America since I was little, and since I’ve found a stage on which I can try, I’ll definitely work hard to make it come true.” Nicky Lee shared, “We’re aiming for no. 1 on Billboard. If we really end up in that spot, it’ll mean our music has been accepted. We’ll be making hope into reality, so you can definitely look forward to that.”

AZIATIX is currently in MIami, preparing for their official debut in the US as a part of YMCMB family. Their new single, along with a music video, will be released very soon.

Giveaways!Since their formation, this issue’s cover artist, Pure, has had a very strong focus on helping those suffering during natural disasters. Their first release, “Standing Together” was used as a fundraiser for the Japan earthquake recovery, and has since been used during other disaster relief efforts as a message of working to-gether during difficult times. The video for “Standing Together” was inspired by the story of Sato Yumeko, one of the thousands who were lost during the Tohoku Earthquake. The Japanese version of the video has reached over 2 million hits on Youtube and is still rising.

During the time of our interview, 2013 was already showing signs of extreme weather and potential for more disasters in the future. When discussing potential promotions, there was one thing the members and staff of Pure wanted to do - they wanted to encourage the readers of K-Soul to help others around the globe. We have four signed CDs to give away this issue!

Natural disasters have already been making head-lines well before their normal season. Pure want to encourage you to help out others at your local Red Cross, and have a signed copy of their “Standing Together” CD for one lucky winner! Simply send in a screencap or photo of you donating in some way to your local Red Cross to giveaways@ksoulmag.com by August 1st, 2013. You can donate money, blood, clothing, volunteer - anything happening in your area that can help

make a difference. We’ll be in contact with the winner in the beginning of August!

Help Others, Win CD!

Retweet our web version post of the Pure article plus giveaway information to be entered for a signed CD!

“Share” the facebook link to the June 2013 issue of K-Soul Magazine to your friends list and be entered for a signed CD!

Click the 1+ link for the June 2013 issue of K-Soul Magazine to share to your timeline and be entered for a signed CD!

Social Media giveaways will be drawn July 5th!

IssueNextHow to... do everything

(If you’re a K-pop fan in Korea)

Concerts, live music shows, music streaming and fan signs. If you’re a k-pop fan living in South Korea, learning how to do these things could be as difficult as as learning Korean itself! K-Soul’s next issue is going to be dedicated to helping you learn the basics of what to do once you’ve arrived in South Korea!

Over the coming months, we’re going to do our best to become your go-to guide for functioning in Korea as a k-pop fan without having to fall back on being “a foreigner”. Learn how to sign up for fan cafes, fan clubs, buy tickets online, and learn the unwritten rules of live music shows (a growing form of tension between fans as of late.)

And of course, check out our regular concert reviews, interviews, and features

from around Seoul and Korea!