Pics From Star Chat With Miss A!!!

Did you guys enjoy DJ Young's Star Chat with Miss A?!?!
They're so cute! Definitely another step for globalized idol groups considering between the four of them they can speak Korean, Chinese, and English! Min's English was a lot better than I expected...

Who was your favorite member? If you guys missed it, rewatch the interview here!

P.S. Courtney from Hawaii, please email me your full name and address so I can email you your 2wins' CD from our last 2wins Star Chat. If you missed this past KPI, I announced that I drew a name from the SIX commenters on my two blog entries related to the talented hip hop duo 2wins. COURTNEY was the winner and so you get your FREE SIGNED copy of the guys' new mini-album. After a week, I'm going to have to pick a new winner though so PLEASE email me your information before then! Thanks ^^ angela@kbs.co.kr

Your Two Cents: What Stands Out In Korean Culture???

With each passing day, the world is becoming more and more globalized. I remember when I was maybe in elementary school, sushi was considered "gross". A lot of people in my country (the US) freaked out at the mere thought of swallowing raw fish. However, now it's loved by SO many people in the US including the rich and the famous. In fact, now it's considered "high class" food! I love that though! We're becoming much more open-minded to other countries and their cultures. It's a beautiful thing.

This week's question isn't really going to be just focused on k-pop, but in Korea and Korean culture.

What's one thing that really stands out to you in Korean culture? It can stand out in a good way where it makes you wish other countries did that too. OR it can stand out to you in a bad way where you wish that Korea didn't have that aspect mixed in its culture. Also, I'd like to know how you learned it. Perhaps it was through dramas, movies, songs, articles, the internet, etc. If this is too difficult of a question, then just answer with a type of Korean food or dish that stands out to you! Again, it can stand out in a good way where you want to try it or you think it's delicious. OR it can stand out in a bad way where you think it's disgusting!

Let's get to know each other's tastes, preferences, cultural backgrounds, etc.!

Also, don't forget to tune in for next week's KPI to see if your answers are read^^ And it's your LAST week to get your entries in for July's CD Drawings! Email me your name, address, the TOP TWO kpop CDs you'd like to receive to angela@kbs.co.kr.

Have a great week all!

Next Star Chat!!! Miss A!!!

Hey all!

Don't forget that we have a Star Chat in store for this week's KPI. It's with a group that is RISING (although they can't really rise any higher because they already hit number ONE! ^^), and rising FAST. MISS A~~~

They're babies of the mastermind JYP himself and he's proven that he still has "it" when it comes to producing hit groups. This girl group is made up of four girls, two Chinese and two Korean.

I wasn't able to match my schedule with the busy ladies so DJ Young will be the one conducting the interview. I'm sure he's not complaining... Haha! ;)

Well, enjoy the chat guys and tune into KPI!!!

Your Two Cents: THE Song for Summer 2010???

Man! Temperatures keep going up in Korea and it's enough to make the most patient of people a bit cranky. A lot of you have been tweeting me saying that it's winter where you are, or that Korea's summers are nothing compared to summers in other countries. LOL, props to you guys in Malaysia and other hotter countries because I don't know how you guys can stand it!

Well, summer time automatically invokes feelings of carefreeness, partying, just plain old FUN. What kpop song do you think sums up the summertime vibes best? What's the BEST summer song for you? In fact, let's make it more specific for what song best sums up your feelings and experiences for THIS summer?

And I love you guys for sending in so many different types of answers, but for this week, I'm only going to allow ONE answer for each of you! Haha You can only pick ONE song. The ULTIMATE summer tune!

Post up your answers and tune into next week's KPI to see if they were read!

Post-Star Chat With 2WINS!!!!

So we had another Star Chat for this past KPI as you all know...
And just like always, here's my post-interview "scoops" on them!

I have to say, that doing these Star Chats really allow you to see the "human" side to these "celebrities". I've said this in previous entries, but there are some really NICE and GENUINE stars out there. It's just the few jerks in the industry that give the rest of them a bad name I think. Granted, to be fair, I'm probably not getting an objective look at them because they're not going to be jerks to the interviewer who can "control" the coverage these stars will get! Hehe...makes me feel...sort of powerful. Muahaha...Okay enough of the corny evil laughter and onto the nitty gritty!

As you all know, 2wins are new. They're only JUST starting to get noticed so they are still in their "humble" stage. Believe it or not, this was their first radio interview/coverage since they debuted. TopBob has done interviews before but with his previous group TBNY, not 2wins. But he was still kind of nervous because it was going to be conducted in English. He kept asking, "Do I have to talk? Am I allowed to speak Korean?" LOL Bumkey was super nervous because this was his first radio experience. Haha it was kind of cute actually.

They were RIGHT on time! (I LOVE it when stars are punctual...I've had to wait over an hour for some of the previous Star Chats...cough *SECRET* cough!) They did the 90 degree bow and everything. I gave them a translated list of the questions I was going to ask and there was a Korean spelling error that TopBob pointed out. I laughed because it was my mistake because Korean isn't my most comfortable language. He pointed it out not in a teasing way, but kind of "aww that's cute" kind of way so it was all good! We got set up in the studio and TopBob asked me how old I was. I asked him, "How old do you think I am?" He answered, "You look young." LOL So I told him, and he looked surprised and said..."Wow. We're the same age" as a joke because clearly he wasn't the same age as me. I'm guessing early to mid 30's. He refused to tell me til the end. Haha Bumkey said he was born 1984 so you do the math! During the interview, I think you'll notice Bumkey didn't talk much. I think it stemmed from his nervousness and so he couldn't think of his answers right off the bat. But overall, I thought they both did well considering it was their first experience! You could tell TopBob was much more comfortable at the mic.

When the interview ended, we're talking the second our mics were turned off, TopBob turned to me and said, "You're a great host. You conducted that very well. In all honesty, because you're so young, I didn't think you would be that good, but you're very good. You're definitely going to make it big in this industry." I was blown away by his compliment and really appreciated his honesty. And on our way out of the studio, just as formalities, I said that I hoped that they would visit us again in the future. TobBob looked at me with a very serious expression and stuck out his pinky. He promised, "The next time you invite us, we PROMISE to come again." So we pinky swore on it! In just a week's time, their song "Star" jumped over 100 spots to number 70 on the Gaon music chart! So they're on their way up. I'm going to wait until they really make a name for themselves and then invite them again! Haha

They both tweeted me a nice little message after the interview. TopBob included a really funny video of his impersonation of a lizard that you guys should check out. Hilarious.

Anyways, bottom line, I had a great time. Show 2wins lots of love you guys. They're really passionate about their music without the "fluff". They're just real. Very different from the idols out there which are more about the "packaging" and marketing, but still worth checking out!

NEXT STAR CHAT!!! 2WINS!

Hey guys!
I know it's been awhile since our last Star Chat with the lovely ladies of Davichi, so thanks for being patient with us. ^^

Usually, I like to have YOU ALL guess about who the next guests are, but this group is fairly new and me and DJ Young have never talked about them yet on the show. So rather than confusing you all, I'll just give you some info on them.
2WINS!!!!!!!!

First off, let me let you guys know how I first heard about them. It was through the guys of One Way. They had posted up some pics of 2wins through their Twitters and had mentioned them in passing a few times. Then for this past week's updates on our KBS World Artist Profile page, I got assigned to write a profile for them. So I did some digging and realized that I not only liked their sound, but also love their catchy style and take on music. It's hip hop with some FUNk (emphasis on the "FUN"!). Sometimes hip hop can be kind of down or dark, but their take on it is fresh! Or it is for their title song anyway. Check out their intro video below! Be sure to watch their "performance" of their title song "Star Guy" about a minute in.



So I sought them out, got their manager's phone number, and got Sophia to call him up! Long story made short, we have a Star Chat scheduled for this week! Yipee! If you want to know more about them, check out their KBS World profile.

I THINK one of them, Bumkey, speaks English. Or a little anyway. I'm gonna keep my fingers crossed because that would make my job SO MUCH easier! Haha. Be sure to tune in to KPop Interactive on KBS World Radio this week with the first airing on Sunday. It's replayed throughout the week so check out our website for the schedule! world.kbs.co.kr (click on "Entertainment").

June CD Drawing Winners!!!

Congratulations to our June CD Drawing winners!!!

1) Randolfh Empredo
Philippines
CD of Super Junior


2) Julie Tran
South Carolina, USA
f(x) Nu ABO album


3) Courtney Wingo
Wisconsin, USA
SS501 Destination special version OR
SS501 Rebirth


4)Miss. Li MaoYing
ShanXi, China 030400
2 Different Tears CD by Wonder Girls

Good luck to everyone for the upcoming July drawing! Just a reminder, email me your name, address, and top two choices for what KPOP CD you would like to win. At the end of the month, I draw out FOUR names and ship out your CD to you wherever you are in the world!

^^

Your Two Cents: How'd you discover our kpop shows on KBS World Radio???

Hey guys! How's everyone's weekends going?

As for me, I spent like 90% of it at home. Haha. I think I really needed a vegging out weekend, so I spent only about a quarter of it working and the rest just lying around and catching up on TV, movies, etc. *sigh* Was great!

ANYWAYS, this week's Y2C question, I mentioned it on one of our KPC shows from this past week.

How did you first hear about or discover KPC or KPI on KBS World Radio?

Let's be honest, it's not that easy of a program to just "stumble" across. So either you have to be a really dedicated kpop fan to go out of your way to search for it, or you heard about it from another source. That's actually why I absolutely love our listeners. It's not easy to tune in everyday. It's not like we're right there on your AM/FM dial on your drive to work or something. So we really, REALLY appreciate your loyalty in tuning in as often as you do! ^^ AND, if you heard about us through a friend, go ahead and let us know that person's name. If there was a way we could show our appreciation to all of you who spread our KPC/KPI shows with others, trust me, we'd do it!! In fact, we're trying to figure out a way how...

Also, just in case you guys missed our last KPI show, I announced that we wanted to update our listener files. So we'd appreciate it if you could email us your info to kpop@kbs.co.kr. This is your full name, address, email address, even phone number if you want to throw that in as well (you don't have to!). EVERY ONCE IN AWHILE, (we DON'T guarantee it, but we're just saying IF it ever happens...) we may have a stack of CD's to give away or information regarding our shows, or something like that. We'd love to share that with all of you. Honestly speaking, it won't be used often. BUT JUST IN CASE. So if you're worried about SPAM mail and stuff like that, I hardly doubt you have to worry about that. It's more for freebies that we VERY OCCASIONALLY get that we'd love to share. AGAIN, DON'T EXPECT IT. We don't GUARANTEE that we'll have them. BUT JUST IN CASE.

Have to add that in because I know some people will email us saying, you said to send our info for free stuff, but we never got it! >.< We know that you listen not only for the free stuff thought right?!?! haha...^^;;

ANYWAYS, that information will also HELP US OUT to let us know what parts of the world many of our listeners are tuning in from.

Alright, well answer away on this week's Y2C and tune in next Sunday to see if your answers are read.

Your Two Cents: Best group leader???

Happy 4th of July for all my fellow Americans (though it's past midnight and officially the 5th now, I haven't gone to bed yet so it's still technically the 4th for me!)!!!

If you're Canadian, Happy 1st of July (a few days ago!)!!! If you're a BEAST Yoon Doojoon fan, happy Doojoon's birthday!!!!
...
If you're none of the above...sorry. I got nothing. Haha No, I'm kidding, happy...Sunday? =/

Well, here's a question that the idol group lovers will probably have a field day with...

Who do you think is the best group leader??? More importantly though, give me one SPECIFIC example of why you think that. For example, maybe you saw on TV or read somewhere about a sweet deed he/she did for his/her members. Perhaps it's what he/she said about his/her members. Something SPECIFIC!

It doesn't necessarily have to be an idol group, but being that most of the groups out there ARE idol groups, obviously I would imagine most of the answers would revolve around them.

Although I think I have a good idea of what type of answers I'll be getting (*cough* Leeteuk of Super Junior *cough*)... I thought it'd be fun to throw this question out there anyway. This was also suggested by one of our listeners. I'm sorry, now that I'm using it, I forgot which amazing listener it was. My apologies!!! Maybe you can throw me a comment and let me know if it was you!

Well, that is the question so answer away and tune into KPI on Sunday on KBS World Radio to see if your answers are read!!!

Have a great week all~~~