TVXQ and Jewelry (pics) won the big prize at the 23rd Korean Golden Disk Awards, presented on Wednesday (Dec 10) at Seoul’s Olympic Park…
Sunye’s (from WonderGirls) wardrobe trouble seems to be grabbing the headlines though; and Big Bang’s fans are wondering how their favourite group managed to end up with nothing at all considering how red hot they are at the moment.
Daesang - TVXQ (Disk), Jewelry (Digital)
Bonsang (Disk) - TVXQ, Kim Dong-ryul, SG Wannabe, Rain, Brown Eyes, Shinhwa
Bonsang (Digital) - MC Mong, Brown Eyed Girls, Jewelry, Wonder Girls
NewComer Award - SHINee (Disk), Davichi (Digital)
Popularity Award - Son Ho-young, TVXQ (Disk) & F.T. Island, Tae Yeon (Digital)
Trot Award - Jang Yoon-jeong
Rock Award - Nell
Special Achievement Award - Kim Changwan
New Trend Award - Kim Jong-wook
Producer Award - Lee Soo-man of SM Entertainment
Hallyu stars are dominating the Japanese Oricon singles chart for the past two weeks. The Koreans claimed the top three spots at the singles’ sales chart last week, and keeping their momentum with three of the top four spots this week.
Pop group TVXQ (known as Tōhōshinki in Japan) tops the singles’ sales chart for two consecutive weeks with their 24th Japanese single “Jumon-Mirotic”. This is their 4th chart topping Japanese single in 2008.
Actor turn singer Lee Byung-hun claims the 2nd spot also for two weeks in a role with his debut single, “Itsuka”; while Ryu Si-won dropping from 3rd to 4th with his 8th single “Kimito Boku”.
To be frank, I’m quite puzzled how the songs managed to lead the charts. I can understand that Mirotic is appealing to some audiences (although not to my liking), but the other two are just so average. Anyhow, sharing all three music videos below…
Japan’s “CountDown TV” has recently concluded their annual poll for ‘the most wanted artist as girlfriend/boyfriend’ in 2008… with YUI and Jin Akanishi topping the girlfriend and boyfriend category respectively.
CDTV’s Japanese countdown video below which gives a fast glance on the trend setters in J-pop these days… [Hat tip to Thierry]
Top 20 Japan’s most wanted girlfriend 2008
1. YUI 2. Kaori Mochida 3. Ayumi Hamasaki 4. Ai Ōtsuka 5. aiko 6. Ai Takahashi 7. Ai Kawashima 8. Kiyoe Yoshioka 9. Maimi Yajima 10. Yui Aragaki 11. Nocchi 12. Namie Amuro 13. Ayaka 14. Kaela Kimura 15. Kumi Koda 16. Misako Uno 17. Hiroko 18. BoA 19. Mai Kuraki 20. Reina Tanaka
It seems like only singers are being shortlisted for this poll. Korean stars BoA and Jaejoong (from TVXQ) are the only two non-Japanese celebs that made the list.
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.
