Next Star Chat!!!

Wow... This has got to be some kind of record! We have Star Chats on two BACK TO BACK KPI's!!! Not even a week has passed since our last Star Chat with SECRET, but we already have another Star Chat for this upcoming KPI.

For some of our AVID listeners (by the way, let me take the time to send plenty of <3<3<3 your way...LOVE YOU GUYS!), if you've been keeping up with my twitter or DJ Young's twitter, you may already have a clue on who our next guest(s) will be. BUT, like always, I do have hints for you all...

1. They've got more testosterone than estrogen.
2. They sing about the same thing as our LAST Star Chat guests.
3. They can speak ENGLISH!!!! (Finally!!! I can put my horrendous interpreting skills aside for this one!)

I think I already gave it away, but GUESS AWAY regardless!

If you have any ideas for questions, post those up as well! I will take them into consideration for the interview. ^^

Your Two Cents: What k-pop song are you just SICK of hearing???

New week, new question! =)

Okay, so I thought I'd change it up a little this week. Actually, this was DJ Young's question. We're always harping about how good a song is, or how talented a certain artist/group is... Let's be real here. K-pop isn't ALL good. And even if it IS a good song, after the thousandth time or so of hearing the same songs played over and over again... it gets OLD! This question actually might help us out too because if a lot of you are saying the same songs, perhaps we should be a bit more careful with what songs we play on our shows. The last thing we want is to play songs that a lot of people are sick of over and over again! Haha So here's the question....

What k-pop song are you just sick and tired of hearing? Perhaps it's overplayed. Perhaps it's not overplayed, but you hated it from day one. Well, what song and by who?? It doesn't necessarily mean you hate that artist/group. It's just that song in particular!

It's a gloomy, wet and gray Monday here in Seoul, Korea. Hope the weather's a bit better wherever YOU all are! And even if it's not, don't let it get you down!

Meet you guys on air^^

Who Will Be On the Next Star Chat???

We have another Star Chat coming up this Sunday!

Now the question is, who could it be??
Hmmmm.....
Shall I give you all some clues???

Like last time, I'll give you THREE.

1. THEY'RE the opposite sex of our LAST star chat guests!
2. One of the members used to be in a group with other k-pop singers named "Yubin" and "UEE".
3. Both this guest and the American group 'NSYNC had the same titled debut song.

Guess away!!!! And be sure to catch the interview on SUNDAY'S KPI!!!

Your Two Cents: Which Artist/Group Collaboration Would You Like to See?

Hey all! It's another new week ahead of us which means another Your 2 Cents question! ^^
This week's question was acutally suggested by a loyal listener, Selene! So thank you Selene for your contribution =)
If you guys have any ideas for these Y2C questions, please let me know! Email them to me: angela@kbs.co.kr

Alright so here it is...

Which artists/groups would you like to see team up for a song?? It can be two Korean artists/groups OR one Korean artist/group and a NON-Korean artist/group.

These days, there's been a few American artist and Korean artist switcharoos. For example, Wheesung did his own rendition of Craig David's "Insomnia, Brian Joo did Jason Derulo's "In My Head", and 4 Minute and Amerie even did a song together. It's been interesting to see different artists and cultures come together through music!

Let the answering begin! I will try to read as many of your answers as I can on next week's Korean Pop Interactive (KPI) show on KBS World Radio!

Also, for any new listeners, let me remind you about our monthly CD Drawings! Just email me (angela@kbs.co.kr) your name, address, and which Kpop CD you would like to receive. At the end of every month, we take all the entries and draw out four winners and email them their FREE kpop CD to WHEREVER they are in the world!!! Please remember there IS a limit to the entries (one a week) so emailing anything more than that WILL NOT increase your chances of winning! =)

Even if you don't win for this month, keep trying! You never know when you'll one day be announced as one of the four winners!! Good luck!

Boyz II Men Concert With 4Men as the Opening Act!

So this past weekend in Korea, we had the LEGENDARY group BOYZ II MEN perform at Olympic Park! 4Men was the opening act .

I have just one word:
A.M.A.Z.I.N.G.

4Men fans, please don't take this the wrong way because the three guys did a great job. They can SING and their songs are absolutely beautiful.





However, you just can't compete with Boyz II Men who have like 20 years of experience under their belt! They're just a bunch of ajushis (Korean for older man), but MAN! Can they move!! And more importantly, CAN THEY SING! They simply just went from talking to singing in one breath and their voices are just silk. When they harmonized, you couldn't pick apart the separate voices singing different notes. It just sounded like ONE VOICE, but with different dimensions to it. Just DEPTH. Some singers are just album singers meaning they can't perform live. However, Boyz II Men ARE NOT one of them. They were even BETTER live. These men have been in the industry for this long for a reason! They were simply just amazing. Some songs they had us cheering our hearts out and some just left us speechless. There were several songs where at the end of it, I couldn't even get myself to cheer or clap. It numbed you. Wowed you. Literally took your breath away.





When they say music transcends all barriers (i.e. language), it's sooo true. Koreans love Boyz II Men despite the fact that it's in a language that most of them don't understand. And Boyz II Men even said that they're all about LOVE. Their songs are all about love and all the emotions tied with it. Let me just say, that you can FEEL the love through their songs. If love was manifested into sound, it's their music. =)

At the end, Boyz II Men invited 4Men on the stage to sing "It's So Hard to Say Goodbye to Yesterday" and it was kind of cute. They did this battle thing between the two groups where 4Men's Yong-jae did this fancy-shmancy vocal thing full of vibration and complex notes. Then Nathan from Boyz II Men went and copied it...and then some! Haha The guys of 4Men were all laughing in awe. It was cute^^

Like I said, 4Men is very talented too! There's no doubt about that. All in all, great concert!!!

DJ Young's Musical Feats

So, many of you may already be aware of the fact that DJ Young (who hosts KPop Connection with me on KBS World Radio, and also KPop Zone on Arirang Radio) used to be in the KPop scene even more intimately than he is now. He used to be in the group Sharp as well as Uptown for a little while. If you're anything like me, you're probably curious to know what he was like in these groups, what he sounded like, what he looked like, etc. Well, wonder no more! I have some VIDEOS (sooo much better than just pictures! :P ) from his past!






A couple of live performances of the group S#arp

Enjoy and leave lots of feedback so I can let DJ Young know how you all responded to his projects! It's taking me way to long to upload all these videos on this slow computer so I'm going to stop here for now. I'll have more updates and pictures regarding my Kpop Connection partner in crime very soon! ;)

****UPDATE MONDAY APRIL 12, 2010: OKAY SO I ACCIDENTALLY UPLOADED THE WRONG VIDEO. WHAT I THOUGHT WAS A MUSIC VIDEO WAS JUST ANOTHER LIVE PERFORMANCE. I'LL BE UPLOADING THE RIGHT ONE WHEN I GET THE VIDEO FILES AGAIN TOMORROW! CHECK BACK THEN PLEASE!!! THANKS!*****

Weekend Recap

How was everyone's weekend??

I must say, the weekend is really what keeps me going in life sometimes...haha
This past week was particularly tiring for me (simply because I've been dealing with a mild case of insomnia. sleep just doesn't want to come to me these days!) and so that made this past weekend that much more special...and necessary.

Saturday, I had this Westpoint Academy Founder's Day dinner with a friend of my who's a grad from there. He promised me good food so I tagged along. ^^


my friend chris and me

Sunday, I just slept in all day. It was GREAT! Haha Then me and a few friends went to top notch buffet dinner at Shilla Hotel! We all ate waaaaay too much...Ugh. Kind of sickening just thinking about it! Being away from family can make the life of an expatriate kind of hard at times, but friends become your family.


Robert Holley (Radio/TV personality in Korea. In fact, we work together on a show called "Travel Bug" on Arirang Radio too! Give us a listen sometime! ^^), Brian (no need for an intro there... ;) ), Kasey (super cool gal! love her!), Dorothy (Radio DJ/PR/a thousand other things! Haha one of the busiest women in Korea!), me, Eugene (another friend that also does some video producing/editing/etc.)

From all the sugar and chocolate from the dessert line, we became a little....delirious!



Haha...dork~!

We ended up needing to laugh everything off for another few hours...So tuned into some "Modern Family" at B's.



Jersey & Chester
Such cutie pies!!!

Well, hope you all had a great weekend too! Just wanted to share some pictures!

Don't forget to tune into KPC on KBS World Radio with me and DJ Young this week! ;)

Your Two Cents: What Korean Phrase Have You Learned From Kpop Songs??

Hi all!!

Hope you all are having a fabulous weekend ^^
As you all know, a brand new week is about to start so you know what that means....
NEW "YOUR TWO CENTS" question time!!!

You guys have honestly been SO great in answering these questions. I feel like I'm getting to know our KBS World Radio listeners a lot better, getting to know your taste in music, etc. I LOVE all of your responses. In fact, what started off as just a few responses have jumped up to a constant, steady flow of them that I can't even get to all of them in one show! Trust me, me and Sophia really tried to cram as much in there in the latter half of our KPI, but we could only read so many. =( Our apologies...

So here's this week's question:
Being that like 99% of our listeners AREN'T Korean, you probably don't speak Korean. But you listen to Kpop music! Is there a Korean word or phrase that you learned simply from listening to so many Kpop songs?? If so, which song/songs did you learn it from???

I'm looking forward to all of your answers! If you ARE Korean and CAN speak Korean, perhaps you can let us know the most meaningful or touching line in a kpop song!

Meet you guys on air! Don't forget to tune in! ^^

March CD Drawing Winners!!!

This past Sunday, on KPI, I announced our four lucky winners of the monthly CD drawing contest that we do for KBS World Radio! Here they are....



1.Michelle Lim

Malaysia

CD: Girl's Generation "Oh!"



2. Cynthia Lim Yie Poh

Singapore

CD: 2 AM 죽어도 못보내 Rather Die Than Let You Go (1st mini album)



3. Kathy Xiong

USA

CD: BEAST "Shock of the New Era" (2nd mini album)



4. Jinky Ravela

Philippines

CD: Any Baek Ji-Young album



For any new listeners, every month we pick FOUR winners and send them a FREE Kpop Cd OF THEIR CHOICE to WHEREEVER they are in the world!
Just email me your entries to angela@kbs.co.kr with your name, address, and which CD it is that you want! Even if didn't win this month, try and try again! Who knows? Maybe it will be YOU next month!

Thanks guys and GOOD LUCK!

Your Two Cents: What's your #18???

In Korea, a typical night out between friends would probably consist of dinner, drinks, and then going to the noraebang. Some of you may be thinking, what the hec is a "noraebang"?! Well, "norae" means song and "bang" means room. So essentially, it's a "song room". For westerners, simply put, it's karaoke!



Koreans LOVE going to noraebangs. And they range from just your typical karaoke room with just the screen and the machine. Others can be INCREDIBLY nice with really cute interior. The thing about westerners is that if you can't sing, you don't sing. That's that. However, in Korea, because noraebangs are so common, I've noticed that MOST Koreans are all fairly decent singers. Perhaps it's the practice they get from these noraebangs!

Well, if you go karaoke often, you probably have a list of songs that you typically sing. In Korean, we call the ONE song you HAVE to sing (the song you're most comfortable singing and feel the most confident singing) when you go your "number eighteen." For me, I'd have to say it's Wax's "Hwajang Eul Gochigo" or "Fix My Makeup".


It's an oldie but a goodie! ^^

Anyways, so my question to you all for this week is, "What's YOUR 'number 18' song at the noraebang??"

Answer away!!!