SM Entertainment, the Korean talent agency that boost the likes of BoA, Kangta, TVXQ, Super Junior, SNSD, Ara and Lee Yeon-hee etc. will be holding the “08 SM Entertainment Global Audition” in Sept/Oct 2008.
The auditions will be held from September 19 to October 25 in Hawaii, Los Angeles, Washington DC, Orange County (CA), New York, San Francisco, Toronto and Vancouver. Nationality doesn’t matters, but it seems like they are looking for Asian faces only.
It’s funny that SM is calling it a ‘global’ audition when in fact the locations are limited to US and Canada. Regardless, it’s a chance for young Asian talents to try their luck if they are interested with the entertainment business.
Set aside the publicity purpose, SM do mean business with the auditions. If not mistaken Tiffany from SNSD and Henry from Suju-M were discovered from previous auditions… there might be a few more that I’m not aware of.
Check SM’s website for details and updates. Good luck if there is any taker here.
lol, i remember when they came last year, 2 of my friends went, but just for the fun of it. they knew they didn’t really have much chance to be chosen. my sister’s friend went too and she was just 13 or 14.
i heard that you could either perform in a group or by yourself. there’s a few categories to choose from…singing, dancing, acting and modeling. my friends did a dance routine to a japanese song. my sister’s friend sang a jap song of boa. my friends told me that it was quite funny to watch some girls do modeling because all they did was try to look cute with the “v” sign, haha.
if you sing, you could sing either korean, jap, chinese or english. i heard that the judges don’t bother listening to you if you sing something other than korean or jap. but if you do sing korean or jap, they’re pretty strict about it too.
henry from sj-m was from toronto and some people in my highschool knew him. i don’t know what he performed for the audition though.
obviously, good looks is a huge factor that determines your chances. if you really became a trainee of sm, they’d train you like crazy and if you’re lucky, you’d probably rise to fame very soon. sm is a big company in korea, but there’s also been rumours that they don’t treat their artistes really nice. if you’re not korean, but got chosen in the end, then you’d need to prepare to learn korean and move far away from your home
There would be hundreds, if not thousands of people going for the auditions, and the judges would probably choose just one or two among them all… that probably shows how strict they are.
I read from some forums that some of the participants go there just to get the posters and freebies lol. Perhaps you should consider that too.
hmmm…global audition but for asians only…and the locations are in North America only??
isn’t it that sm entertainment is based in korea??which means whoever will they chose they should be speaking korean???it’s a tough thing to study a new language…aside from of course the training about dancing and stuff… i mean i don’t think teenagers in the west are all fond of dancing and singing at the same time…and the hair and outfiit…
the koreans are learning the ego-ness from the americans.. the americans like to call themselves world champions with their baseball and hockey leagues when they are actually just the american champions.
why always sm doing audition only.. other like yg and jyp should also try finding oversea talents and do a bit promotion along the auditions. korean market are too small, they need to expand.
Yeah, I went to the audition hold in Toronto last year just to get the free poster!!!
I got TVXQ’s and BoA’s poster….so happy~
But the audition in Toronto sucks, it’s in a really old and small place.
I don’t really think it’s so much a matter of ego that the Americans call themselves “world champions” in some of the sports leagues they have. You have to consider where these “leagues” existed at the time the term began to be used to begin with.
While it’s debated to as exactly where games like baseball for example actually began, it’s fair to say that the first ‘organized’ professional baseball “leagues” were in America. And it was the only place they existed in the ‘world’ for quite sometime. So, the term “world champions” is not really too inaccurate for the time period in which it was created. Now there are leagues all over the world…they just haven’t bothered to stop using the term yet. Mainly because it’s an “official” title that would have to be changed.
In other words, the term “world champion” is all relative in context to the time peroiod in which the term began to be used. Fo rexample, at some time or another the emperors of China, or Gengis Khan of Mongolia, or Julius Cesar of Rome all considered that their timely empires consisted of the “world”, as they knew it then.
yp… I believe it’s also a marketing campaign besides the audition.
I think they won’t mind non-Korean-speaking, they will train him/her to speak if it’s the right person.
kyon… JYP did have an audition in US last year during his concert tour. The Koreans will try to expand their influence overseas, no doubt about that. SM is the more aggressive firm because they are the largest perhaps… others probably don’t have the resource to do so yet.
carolz… going again this round?
cole… nice analysis. I like that.
the posters that they use to promote the audition are really nice. i’d like to get them, but don’t know if i should try out just for that. to be honest, i think singing is one of my best abilities, but i don’t think my bf will want me to go, lol. there’s a lot of sacrifices to make in order to be a celebrity. i wonder if they have an age preference. i guess sm likes to train their people when they’re really young, like 13/14. i’m 18 now…still young, but i can’t do anything besides singing…i can’t dance and i don’t play any instruments, haha.
they actually accept all asians, but prefer korean, jap and chinese more. you don’t need to be speaking any korean at all! but they will make you learn for sure. if they plan to make another band that targets the chinese market, like sj-m, then i don’t know if they’ll make you learn korean. but what they want mainly, are asian faces. good looks would definitely get you more chances, since they train you anyway.
i think sm highly promotes their activities because they are more ambitious. they know that just looking in korea is not enough to find a lot of talents. searching in north america is smart because there are a lot of asians here. but i’m sure there are great talents in the rest of the world too.
No harm trying bb… I think 18 is still a reasonable age from their perspective; don’t worry too much, just go and have some fun and grab some posters.
It’s actually very smart on their part. Think about it. If they get an Asian act from the United States, then it opens up a wider market for them to promote that singer. Great selling point for a wider audience in the west as well as in Korea.
In other words, instead of trying to market a native Korean or Asian act to the west, (which is hard to do) just pluck some Asain talent from the west and you’ve already got your gimmick.
I would like, please, to forward the e-mail of the SM entertainment.
thanks
Mirinel… you can find the audition info here…http://www.smtown.com/EventView.aspx?seq=171&PageNo=1/
I can’t find the email from the site. Why do you need the email btw?
The enquire email… 2008smhelp@smtown.com
It’s so tiring if you’re not accepted to be SM trainee. But I’ll say to all of you, there’s a little chance for us, thousands auditioners, can be chosen as SM trainees. Huh!!!! I’m so tired but I’m not giving up. Maybe I should try some other companies here in the Philippines. Then, I can proceed to my dream, to become SM trainee.
Zheren87… it’s certainly not easy to become a star. Appearance, talent and luck… you need at least two out of the three to make it (quite often 3 out of 3). Good luck pursuing your dream.
according to what i read in WiKi, SM did have audition in some parts of Asia..including Malaysia..so there’s nothing wrong on calling the audition “Global” probably they will held an audition in Asia on later date..
That was in 2006 if not mistaken… I think they were supposed to have one or two auditions in Asia last year too, but cancelled shortly after the initial announcement. No clue at all if they are coming again this year… the Asian fans and celebs-wannabe will hope to see them coming obviously.
Until then, it’s still quite an irony to use the ‘global’ word… not really a big deal though.
I was just wondering, how did Shindong from Super Junior get in? Did he audition for SM too?
I mean, you said that you need appearance, talent, and luck
(all 3 of those)
and not criticizing Shindong, but he is a little chubbier than the rest of the boys
so can you make it if you’re butt ugly but you’ve got talent and luck? haha
Yoojin… I said at least two out of three, and Shindong still fit the bill.
Shindong is not just ‘a bit’ chubbier than the rest; he is fat… and he needs plenty of talent to make up for that, which he probably does.
It’s good to see people like him making fame in entertainment world, it gives people hope. :)
My friend is going to audition, and I said I’m going to be there to support her. But really and truly, I want to audition myself. I’m just not confident in what I can offer SM. I mean, I’ve taken drama classes, I’ve had musical training, but I don’t consider myself “blessed” in the looks department; and if looks constitute the most, then I’m basically screwed. Quick question: Do you have to be pure Korean, Chinese, or Japanese? I’m 1/4 Chinese and the rest of me is Filipino, and I know they look for all Asian ethnicities, but if they look for those particular 3 the most.
pat… no worries about ethnicity; I personally believe that they are more than happy to have a mixed in their team.
Don’t worry too much about your look as well… especially if you are willing to do some plastic surgery lol :p Else, you will have to rely on your talent… if you are really talented, there’s always a chance. Good luck.