One of my favourite Korean songs… “Start” (시작; Sijak), from singer Park Ki-young…
Park Ki-young - Start MV
Park Ki-young - Start MV
Today is the first day of Chinese New Year (2008). However, it’s not just the Chinese that are celebrating the new year… other ethnic like Koreans and Vietnamese are celebrating new year too, based on the lunisolar calendar.
Below is a music video of some Chinese New Year songs compilation, featuring celebs from Taiwan’s J-star agency; including members from popular boy-band 5566 and 183 Club etc…
A 2006 Chinese New Year music video, with New Year greetings in various languages
Korean pop group Big Bang with their “Last Farewell” music video, starring actor Lee Dong-gun…
Big Bang - Last Farewell MV
Big Bang was named the Artist of The Year at the 17th Seoul Music Awards on Jan 31. Last Farewell is a song from their mini-album “Hot Issue” which was released in Nov 2007.
Korean pop star and famous music producer Park Jin-young is set to wow the US audiences with The JYP Tour, featuring his protégés Wondergirls, J-Lim, Min and G-Soul.
The tour will kick start on Feb 9 at the Wamu Theater at New York’s Madison Square Garden, followed by Los Angeles’s Wiltern Theater on Mar 8. There are also plans for concerts at Atlanta and San Francisco, which are pending on announcement.
Besides the concerts, JYP will also hold auditions in NYC (Mar 9) and LA (Mar 15) to look for fresh talents to join his agency; more audition details from K-popped.
Korean actor Jang Geun-suk works with fame singer-producer JYP for this song, “Black Engine”. The MV is also a branded entertainment for Etude’s Black ‘N Jean, a men-styling-product.
Black Engine music video
The Recording Industry Association of Korea (MIAK) has announced that SG Wannabe tops Korea’s best selling album chart of 2007.
SG Wannabe’s “The Sentimental Chord” sold 190,998 copies, followed by Super Junior’s “Don’t Don” (164,058) and Epik High’s “Remapping the Human Soul” (120,301).
With South Korea’s 49 million populations, the sales figure is surprisingly low for a best selling album.
Japanese pop diva Kumi Koda is crowned the best selling Japanese artist in 2007 according to an Oricon report.
Kumi Koda
Kumi has a total sales of 7.35 billion Yen (~ USD65 million) from her CDs and DVDs, just above her arch rival Ayumi Hamasaki (7.05 billion Yen) for 2nd year in a role. The remainders of the Top 10 best selling artists are Mr. Children, Exile, KAT-TUN, Ai Otsuka, Kobukuro, KinKi Kids, Arashi, and L’Arc-en-Ciel.
The best selling album of the year belongs to Mr. Children’s “Home” with 1.18 million copies sold. Best selling single belongs to tenor singer Masafumi Akikawa’s Sen no Kaze ni Natte (千の風になって).
Korean singer-turn-producer Park Jin-young (better known as JYP) is making his comeback to the stage after 6 years of hiatus. He held a mini comeback party on Nov 15 in Seoul before performing on Mnet’s Korean Music Festival (MKMF) a day later.
I know some JYP fans will welcome his comeback, but I would prefer him to stay as a producer instead… he has been working wonders over the past 6 years as a music producer.
Besides, Korean music scene has changed quite a lot in the last few years… I am not sure if Korean fans would still accept the extremity of JYP’s music and performances.
Below is JYP’s latest music video, “Kiss”… not recommendable for underage.
Park Jin-young - Kiss MV