Reuters Life!) – Choi Si-won recalls that even on a rainy day, the Paris venue was bedlam, with thousands of screaming fans packing the street outside a concert hall.

They were all hoping to catch a glimpse of Choi, one of the most popular members of Super Junior, currently South Korea’s hottest boy-band, in the band’s first concert venture in Europe.

While the “Korean Wave” has swamped Asia, winning fans from Tokyo to Kuala Lumpur and beyond, it has had little impact in Europe so far — but that is about to change, the 25-year-old Choi told Reuters in an interview.

“It wasn’t just a concert in Europe. It was beyond the border, which gives me so much confidence and pride,” Choi said after his return to Seoul.

He has a right to his feelings.

The band’s June 10 and 11 Paris concerts attracted 14,000 fans each night in the first European event put on by SM Entertainment, South Korea’s leading band production house. Tickets sold out within minutes.

Although that’s still small change by the standards of divas such as Lady Gaga, Choi believes that Super Junior, whose 13 young male members perform highly choreographed songs and dances, can break onto the broader global stage.

“We do have lots of songs composed by Europeans. And our fashionable and powerful performances are appealing,” Choi said.

In one sign of the band’s broad popularity, the dance song “Mi In Ah,” or “Beautiful Person,”

a single from its fourth album, has spent a record 54 weeks at the top of the Taiwan charts.

While Korean pop, known as “K-Pop,” projects a wholesome image to its fans, it has also been criticized for an unsavory side, including controversies over the way it treats young talent such as excessively long hours and low pay until they prove themselves and make it big.

Choi, who was scouted in his first year of high school, has some experience himself of the harsh training methods the industry uses to produce its stars.

“Dancing all night and then vocal lessons right after was hard and not unusual — but I enjoyed it. The whole process to raise stars is very systematic,” he said.

Typical of this was the decision by his management firm to send him to Beijing in 2004 so he could learn Chinese — and broaden his appeal. Two years later, he landed a role in a film called A Battle of Wits with Hong Kong actor Andy Lau.

Like many other K-Pop stars, Choi is now making the transition to television and South Korean dramas, another format that has swept Asia.

He will star as the main character in a Taiwanese soap opera, “Extravagant Challenge,” a love and revenge story based on a Japanese comic called Skip Beat, which will start in November. Another band member will also take part.

A devout Christian who wants to be a missionary later in his life, Choi appears to be relishing his band’s leap to global fame, including interacting with fans.

“I’m not a native English speaker but do post tweets in English. But, interestingly, our fans are now learning Korean,” he said, smiling.

“Paris was a new road for us. I hope the entire Korean culture like films can be enjoyed by many others.”

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Super Junior Sold over 100,000 Albums for the First Run, The First-Ever Korean Group to Record the Highest Sales of Single Album.

The terminator of Korean-wave, Super Junior has been creating ‘BONAMANA’-fever in Japan.

Super Junior’s first Japanese single ‘BONAMANA (美人),’ released on the 8th, lands 2nd on the Oricon weekly chart in its first week of release following the Oricon daily chart. This result is proving Super Junior’s high popularity once more as an Asian superstar.

Especially, even though Super Junior didn’t have any promotion activity in Japan prior to the single album’s release, they took over outstanding singers such as Acid Black Cherry, AKB48, Ketsumeishi(ケツメイシ), FUNKY MONKEY BABYS and won 2nd place. Furthermore, Super Junior sold over 100,000 copies of this single for the first run. With this, it made people realize the intense interest of Japanese fans for Super Junior.

This single album is Super Junior’s first official single released in Japanese and contains Japanese version of their hit song ‘BONAMANA’ which swept Asia in 2010. In addition, Super Junior was picked as a model and sang the commercial song for the famous Japanese convenience store ‘CircleK Sunkus.’

Also, there will be a special expo event called ‘SUPER SHOW3~外傳~’ at the Tokyo International Forum hall in Japan on July 2nd and 3rd. Through the ‘SUPER SHOW3~外傳~,’ fans can experience once again the ‘Super Junior 3rd ASIA TOUR SUPER SHOW 3 in JAPAN’ which ended in great success by drawing 36,000 audiences. Furthermore, ‘SUPER SHOW 3D’ is also scheduled to be shown at cinema complexes throughout Japan from July 2nd to July 15th, which enables fans to meet the vivid scenes of concert.

Meanwhile, Super Junior is preparing their 5th full album.

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“I saw the French newspaper. Even I would get jealous.”

Super Junior, f(x) and SHINee returned to Korea through Incheon international airport on the 13th at 3pm after finishing SM Town live World tour in Paris. SM Town is a brand of collaborative tour of the singers from SM Entertainment. For the first time ever, a collaborative tour by a Korean management company was held in Europe for 2 days gathering over 14,000 audiences.

When we met Super Junior at the airport, even though they were tired, they didn’t lose their smile saying it’s going to be difficult to adjust to time difference. They felt pride in themselves for starting the fever. They did not hide their confident determination that they want to hold an European tour with their brand of concert called Super Show 4.

Below is the members’ answers.

▲ It was a k-pop concert first to be held in Europe. Is there really Hallyu?
Before leaving for the concert, even we were doubtful. When the concert started and we looked at the audience, there were people from all races that we couldn’t believe that it was our concert. What was unique was that there was a special feeling from European fans. It was only European people that followed our choreography from the start to finish. They were carefree that we felt like we went to a club and they were enthusiastic in expressing themselves. (Leeteuk)

▲What did they find charming about k-pop?
They said it was freshness that they haven’t felt from other music. I heard that they are passionate about singing and dancing and that they approach things emotionally. I met some fans who said that they heard k-pop incidentally, but they were drawn to it that they came to enjoy it with people around them. (Donghae)

▲ We want to hear your feelings on holding a concert in Europe.
It was different from the last year’s L.A. concert. L.A. has a Korea town and it felt close to us emotionally. But Europe was like a new world. It felt amazing and new to us who were performing and the fans who enjoyed it. I felt touched when the fans who only saw us through Youtube thanked us for coming. (Siwon)

▲ You must have had a busy schedule. How did you spend your time?
We saw the Louvre museum, Montmartre hill and Eiffel tower. Kyuhyun likes wine so he woke up early to look at wines. (Siwon)

▲Some French medias were critical of the concert.
I saw the reaction through a news article. If I was the French media, even I would felt the same. Isn’t it a country that has pride in their culture? I’m sure they did not expect so many people to go wild over it that it would have been a shock to them. They could not have directly expressed it so I think they reacted like that. (Leeteuk)

▲Is there a memorable moment?
People from the embassy and Korean people living in France visited us and said thank you. They said it was the first time that Korea received attention like this in Europe. It felt good when I thought we gave them encouragement. (Donghae)

▲It seems that you could do concerts in other countries.
Among the members, we talked about how we want to do Super Show 4 in Europe as part of our tour. I really hope that happens. (Leeteuk)

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Source: Sportshankook
Translated by Minnie @ SUJUISM.BLOGSPOT.COM

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SMTOWN LIVE WORLD TOUR in PARIS which is the first single brand concert in Europe by Korean entertainment company has been attracting an intense attention from local medias in France.

The popular French newspaper ‘Le Monde’ and ‘Le Figaro’ reported on June 10th and June 9th about ‘VISIT KOREA YEAR 2010-2012’ SMTOWN LIVE WORLD TOUR in PARIS concert, sellout of tickets, flash mob protest for an extra concert by French fans and K-pop targeting Europe.

‘Le Monde’ and ‘Le Figaro’ published articles entitled “Korean Wave Strikes Europe” and “The Korean Wave Hits Zénith.” Especially, ‘Le Monde’ reported in detail about S.M.Entertainmet which is leading the Korean Wave and its artists as well as the producer, Soo Man Lee.

In the interview with the CEO of S.M.Entertainment, Young Min Kim, he mentioned that the trainees who passed the audition involve intensive trainings in singing, dancing and acting as well as foreign languages for 3~5 years. He also added that all the processes are elaborately structured and S.M.Entertainment seeks appropriate strategy to create a group.

Furthermore, he mentioned that S.M.Entertainment which is aiming for globalization also tries to discover talented foreigners like VICTORIA (f(x)) who is a girl majored in classical dance in Ching tao, China.

Especially, he stated that K-pop fever began to spread in Europe through social networks and this allowed people there to listen to K-pop music which came from far country despite the nonexistence of advertisement about K-pop in Europe. So, he highlighted the influence of social networks and mentioned that K-pop is the best way to let the world know about Korea so Korea’s export of cultural products will grow larger.

Besides these popular news papers ‘Le Monde’ and ‘Le Figaro,’ on June 9th, French radio station RTL also introduced the concert by stating that TVXQ!, Super Junior, Girls’ Generation, SHINee and f(x) will feature performances and tickets for the concert were all sold out. It proved the attention of local media in France and European fans who showed enthusiastic responses by gathering over 1,500 fans at the airport when the artists arrived in France.

Meanwhile, ‘VISIT KOREA YEAR 2010-2012’ SMTOWN LIVE WORLD TOUR in PARIS will be held for two days at the ‘Le Zenith de Paris’ in France, Paris on June 10th and 11th and the concert will be broadcasted entitled ‘SMTOWN LIVE WORLD TOUR in PARIS’ on MBC on July 2nd.

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SMTown Official Facebook
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Due to the fact that they grew up in Korea, a world leader in internet, there are people in the entertainment industry whose gaming skills are above average. Super Junior’s Kyuhyun and NRG’s Noh Yoomin are such examples. There are many celebrities who relieve stress from their busy schedule by playing online games which have no time or space restrictions.

Kyuhyun, who is great at playing Starcraft is estimated to be in the same level as that of a professional gamer. His skills have been recognized by professional gamer Seo Kyungjong. Kyuhyun was called “the son of mom’s friend” for having being ranked number one in his high school class as well as having superb gaming skills.

*The son of mom’s friend refers to males who are good at everything.
Parts of the article were omitted.

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Source: Hankooki
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Seoul Central District Court civil court 30th division (head judge Noh Mankyung) made a ruling on December 20th in the case filed by group Super Junior’s Chinese member Hangeng against the management company SM Entertainment. The judge ruled in favor of the plaintiff in the lawsuit over the validity of the exclusive contract.

Hangeng filed a lawsuit in December 2009 against the management company SM claiming he cannot maintain his unfair exclusive contract.

The court ruled that, “The exclusive contract signed on Jan 2003, the edited contract signed on feb 2007, and the addtional contract signed on december 2007, all the contracts have been declared invalid. *

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Source: Newsis, *additional trans by windchime @ geng-bao.net
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Lee Soo Man, the founder and largest shareholder of SM Entertainment has sold 7.8 billion won ($6.75 million USD) worth of stocks on December 17th. The 500,000 shares were sold at a price of 15,671 won per share ($13.57 USD), aproximately 7% lower than the closing price of 16,850 won ($14.59) the previous day.

However, the founder still has 4,041,465 shares remaining, and is valued at 67 billion won ($58 million USD). He’s still the “Shareholder King” of the entertainment industry and the majority shareholder of SM Entertainment. It was previously reported that Lee Soo Man had sold his shares to a foreign long-term funds company.

SM Entertainment has released a statement expressing, “Lee Soo Man has sold his shares due to personal reasons.” No doubt, this will have some stockholders worrying, but not nearly as much as they would with another company. SM Entertainment has seen an enormous increase share prices, from an annual low of 4,180 won per share ($3.61 USD) in 2009 to a high of 22,800 won per share ($19.74 USD) on November 2nd due to the success of their popular artists, such as SNSD, BoA, Super Junior and SHINee.

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Koreaboo | Huangiu | Tohosomnia

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MTOWN LIVE In TOKYO – Confirmed!
It has been decided that 「SMTOWN LIVE in TOKYO」 will hold its first performance in Tokyo. The stages of SM ENTERTAINMENT’s artists, who are active all over Asia, will begin at SMTOWN LIVE and this is the only place where you can see collaborations between the artists. It is a large-scale music festival where you can enjoy all the diverse stage performances by all the artists.
Please be sure to come down.
Information on the concert and the purchase of tickets will be available at 9am, 8 December 2010 (JST), at the URL below, so please stay tuned.

http://tickebo.jp/201012-02_smtown/

Please understand that there will be no pre-sale ticket bookings for any artist’s fan club.

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Source: Bigeast
Translation credits: mandasoh@tohosomnia.net
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Han Geng will come out with a concept book revealing for the first time the 24 hours before and after going solo

The concept book to commemorate Han Geng having flown solo for a year, Han Geng 1221’s book cover was released today, along with the scheduling of a book signing/selling event on 12/21/10 at 2:00 in the afternoon at Shi Jing Shan Wan Da Plaza.

In the contents of Han Geng 1221, there will be exclusive pictures of the beginning of 2010 in the three months before he came out to the media. It will also include pictures of before Han Geng went solo on 12/20/09 that have not been published before, which really record what he went through in the differing 24 hours before and after he announced his decision to go solo.

12/21 was the major starting point of Han Geng’s fresh start in performing. In the year 2010, he came out with a CD, held a solo concert, filmed a movie, participated in various performances, and was honored in the 10th MTV-CCTV Music Awards with the Most Popular Male Singer award, and Han Geng, working as hard as before, used these products to gain the favor of the people.

According to the publishing company, this time the concept book will have a silver and gold edition, with the same price. The silver edition comes with an exclusive collector’s poster, while the gold version is limited edition with 12210 copies, and it comes with a postcard. The gold and silver versions will both be simultaneously available on Dangdang’s website on around 12/10, along with the autograph session that will be held on 12/21/10 at 2:00 in the afternoon at Beijing’s Shi Jing Shan Wan Da Plaza.

GOLD VERSION

SILVER VERSION

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Translation: hsupergirl @ GENG-BAO.net
Source: ent.qq.com

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Singer Defconn’s digital single Kingwangjjang has been censored from being played on national TV after it received a decision from the broadcasting regulation commission.

The management company Di Music revealed on December 2nd, “KBS prohibited the use of the word “Kingwangjjang.” They said the song was violent. MBC and SBS prohibited the song saying the lyrics “one punch, three teeth” illustrates violence.”

The management company said, “each broadcasting company has their own criteria on censorship. We feel it’s unfair to simply conclude a song as violent.” The management company has given up on repealing the decision of KBS censorship commission. The company will revise the parts that pose problems for the commissions and will resubmit the song to MBC and SBS.

Kingwangjjang has garnered attention for featuring Super Junior Heechul.

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Source: Newsen
Translated by Minnie @ SUJUISM.BLOGSPOT.COM

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