A photo of Park Seungil, former basketball coach diagnosed with ALS disease, taken together with SNSD at the backstage of their concert recently attracted netizens’ attention.

On July 25th, Park Seungil uploaded a picture taken with SNSD members onto his personal blog, named “ALS and Park Seungil” operated by himself, and added the captions, “Together with my dongsaengs (younger sisters)”.

In the photo uploaded by coach Park, SNSD members, who had just finished their solo concert at the Seoul Olympics Park, stood around coach Park and smiled brightly, not showing any signs of fatigue.

In response to this, netizens commented “Seungil-nim must be really glad; I also want to go and see them. It looks so cool~ and the members are pretty too.”, “Woah, Seungil-hyung would be really happy”, “I envy him” etc.

Credit: fnnews.com
Translated by: imwhywhy@fanwonder.com

Australian SONEs, SNSD is heading your way this November!

In conjunction with the 50th anniversary of the establishment of the Korea-Australia diplomatic ties, the ’2011 K-Pop Music Fest’ will take place at Sydney’s ANZ Stadium on November 12!

The confirmed star-studded lineup of the first all-star Kpop concert in the country consists of big names such as SNSD, BEAST, SHINee, 4Minute, Secret, CN Blue, miss A, TVXQ, KARA and 2AM!

The event will be aired on MBC and ticketing details will be announced by the organizers, JK Entertainment, on their website soon.

Source: JK Entertainment + SBS PopAsia

On June 30th, Kenshi Hamamoto wrote on his blog, “I started to have interest (in them) since last autumn” and “After watching Kara’s ‘Mister’ PV, I found it interesting so I checked on K-pop. I was immediately attracted by SNSD when I saw them. They have great songs and PVs. Although I had no interest in idols back then, it was the first time I got into it.”

He also wrote, “Yesterday I went to the concert that I was really looking forward to. Seeing their faces from a good distance and seat, my heart pounded with excitement. All 9 of them were beautiful. Even though I’m a fan of Taeyeon and Tiffany, all of them are good because everyone has their own unique characters. I think Hyoyeon’s live performance yesterday was better than what I’ve watched on videos.”

In addition, he added, “I changed my mind the moment solo stages started. What? These are female idols. I couldn’t believe they’re from Korea. The quality was really high, each member could also perform their solo choreographies and songs well. I was speechless when great performances just kept on coming up. So this is what we called flawless. What more can we demand from an idol group. I’m starting to feel sorry for calling them idols. They are more than just a female dance and vocal group.”

Lastly, he stated, “As someone who deals with music just like them, I even felt a little worried for myself looking at how much they have practiced. I couldn’t believe that 9 girls in the early 20s can do such great things. How much time they’ve spent to produce such choreographies and songs, how much energy and health they had sacrificed for their schedules, and how much stress they’ve undergone to strive in a foreign country, the answers to these questions are beyond my imaginations”.

He also added, “I respect all 9 of them. I think they have put in many times of others’ efforts into their years of hard work. I was also motivated by this. In the future I wish to watch more of SNSD’s live performances, they are great.”

Credit: newsen.com
Translated by: imwhywhy@fanwonder.com

Malaysia’s ‘The Star’ newspaper tried to interview the girls while they were in Jeju Island for the Wonderful Jeju Super Concert on April 24th but due to their schedules, the interview could only be conducted through e-mails. Here are some contents of the interview which was published in the Star2 section of the paper on June 12th:

2010 was a very good year for Girls’ Generation. How are you going to top that?

Taeyeon: I’m not sure how we will prepare our concept for our performance, but we will never disappoint our fans.
Yuri: Many fans like our style. We will come back with a perfect stage which is full of SNSD magnetism.
Sooyoung: We always try to show fans a mature and varied performance. We hope they will love our new album, Mr Taxi (released in Japan last month).

People always accuse Asians of copy­ing the West in music but when Lady Gaga released her single. Bom This Way, recent­ly, she was accused of plagiarising your Be Happy by your international fans. What does this say about the growth of K-pop?

Taeyeon: Yes, many people throughout the world are interested in Korean pop music. But it is more important how K-pop applies to various styles rather than just being copied in other countries.
Yuri: There’s a craze for popular Korean cultures in many Asian countries because Korean pop music is a successful com­bination of the old and new.
Sooyoung: It is inevitable to refer to western music because it was developed earlier than Korean music. However, K-pop also reinterprets its style well.
Seohyun: Recently, Korean pop music has become successful in the western market. I think it is because there are so many singers who work hard at it. That’s why it’s getting popular with foreigner audiences.
Sunny: Because of the growth of Korean pop music, many fans can easily get the experience. So we will try to put up better performances for our fans.
YoonA: I would like to show our music to fans from other countries. We are supposed to go to Japan next.

Fans love your style. Can you recom­mend any Korean fashion lines or shops for Malaysian fans who want follow your style?

Taeyeon: I would like to introduce Myung Dong as a great place for youngsters’ culture.
Yuri: There are many famous places, but I would like to suggest Rodeo Street, Sinsadong garosugil.
Sooyoung: We also read many fashion magazines to find the best fashion.

The article also mentioned:

“Unfortunately, they were not able to say when they’ll be heading to Malaysia for a concert” - Star2

Credit: The Star Newspaper

“We want SNSD!”

SNSD’s popularity seems to be endless.

Recently, SONEs from Indonesia and Phillipines signed petitions to request for SNSD concerts in their countries. With the ongoing Asian Tour/performances in countries like Japan, China, Taiwan, Thailand, etc, the demand and craze for the girls are indeed on the rise. With videos of their performances and shows on popular video sites such as YouTube, SNSD were being introduced to fans all over the world and this has also contributed to the increasing number of SNSD’s fans in Indonesia and The Philippines.

For the proposal of the concert in Indonesia, it was said that the ticket price for the concert will not exceed 2 million Rupiah (251,400 Won or about US$223). Indonesia SONEs stated, “We need to know how many are interested to see SNSD performing in Jakarta. Therefore, we need to have as much of these simple petitions filled and hopefully, this would expediate the proposal to the next level”. Since the campaign started, 500 fans have already signed the petition (in fact, as per February 9th, 3500-4000 have signed).

The same goes for SONEs in Philippines. At the beginning of this month, Filipino SONEs also expressed their intention by stating, “We hope SNSD’s Asia Tour will include The Philippines as well”. As of February 11th, more than 1000 fans have signed the online petition. It’s a rare occurance that fans have petition signing campaign to request foreign artistes to perform in their countries and their interest and efforts were also reported on Kpoplive and other media.

However, for SNSD to have a concert, it is never an easy decision to make. When concerts are being held abroad, there are many things to consider such as the suitability of the venues, the schedules of the artists and the venues as well as the competency and sufficiency of concert staff.

A representative of SM Entertainment said, “We sincerely thank SNSD’s beloved fans for their support. Now, it is difficult to tell if there is going to be a performance but, this year, we will try to meet fans in more countries”.

Credit: sportschosun.com/yoongislove@Twitter

On December 17th, the girls performed ‘Oh!’ and ‘Gee’ at the Lotte World Free Christmas Concert right after KBS Music Bank Year-End Special. If you noticed, they actually wore the same lovely blue costumes for the Lotte World concert as well.

Something funny happened during the ‘Gee’ performance. Sunny seemed to have ‘created her own lyrics’ at 7:23 (the video below) and Yuri could not stop laughing and in fact, other girls too, notably Sooyoung and YoonA. There were some cute SunRi moments after that and Sunny was laughing throughout the performance. She must be wondering how she came up with those ‘new lines’…LOL.

Here are some of the SunRi moments captured from the fancam:

Probable conversation that took place – Yuri: OMG.. what was that?

Probable conversation that took place – Sunny: Stop laughing, Yuri…I was trying to be creative

Yuri was pointing at Sunny at the ‘Babo’ part..LOL!!!

For the rest of their performances, here is the superb quality fancam:

…and this article would not be complete without a close look at Sunny’s mistake:

Credits: DaftTaengk@YouTube/iheartsooyoung@YouTube/yoongislove@Twitter

Yes, Christmas is near and SM Entertainment has a surprise ‘gift’ for you but it’s different from other gifts, mainly because it is not free. However, if you look at it as something to make your Christmas more meaningful then yes, it is a gift.

So, what is this gift we are talking about here? Ok, i’m not going to beat around the bush any longer. It’s the ‘소녀시대 The 1st Asia Tour “Into The New World” Live Album‘. It contains a total of 38 tracks in 2 CDs. Some fans are disappointed it’s not the DVD but hey, anything that has to do with our girls is worth every cent, right? Well, add this into your Christmas shopping list and hopefully our credit card won’t be hitting its credit limit so soon.

Here’s the album information and track list:

*Release Date : Originally 23/12/2010. Postponed to 30/12/2010 due to issues pertaining to the publisher.
Price : 19,900 won(Approximately $17.23USD) (Online Sales -16,000 won,approximately $13.85USD)
Label : SM Entertainment

Contents:

CD1
01. Nine Angels
02. Tell Me Your Wish (Remix version)
03. Show! Show! Show!
04. Girls’ Generation
05. Beginning
06. It’s Fantastic
07. Etude
08. Ooh La-La!
09. Kissing You
10. One Year Later (Jessica & Onew)
11. Introduce Me A Good Person (Yoona)
12. Sunny (Sunny)
13. Umbrella (Tiffany)
14. Hush Hush (Taeyeon)
15. Chocolate Love
16. Honey
17. Dear. Mom
18. Forever

CD2
01. Day By Day
02. My Child
03. Barbie Girl (Jessica)
04. Santa Baby (Sooyoung)
05. Label: Suite “mirror” Article 4 “the morning song of a Clown”(?) (Seohyun)
06. Sixteen Going On Seventeen (Seohyun)
07. Over The Rainbow
08. 1,2 Step (Yuri)
09. Into The New World
10. Be Happy
11. Way To Go
12. Gee
13. Touch The Sky
14. NaengMyeon
15. HaHaHa
16. Complete
17. Baby Baby
18. Oh!
19. (Bonus Track) Beautiful Girls (Feat. Yoo Young Jin)
20. (Bonus Track) Singin ‘In The Rain (Studio version)

Bonus : Poster

Are you ready? Let’s take out those plastic cards!!!

*Updated date of release

Credits: yurui.egloos.com/snsdkorean.com/chichinhu@Twitter

In the evening of November 6th, SNSD performed at the G20 Road for Hope Concert held at KBS Hall in Yeuido, Seoul. Also performing in this concert are famous American R&B group All-4-One, pianist Kevin Kern, British singer Connie Talbot, SG Wannabe, IU, various local and foreign musicians.

Here are some pictures of the girls at the concert and a vid of “Hoot” performance:

Credit: hankyung.com/photo as tagged/SmoothyEcoS04@YouTube

News Coverage

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Fancams

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Credits: Photos as tagged, various uploaders on YouTube