'Comeback kids' reveal K-pop secrets
Ryang Hyun Ryang Ha from JTBC’s “Two Yoo Project: Sugar Man,” Tuesday / Courtesy of Facebook
Before the term “hallyu,” or Korean wave, was coined and K-pop stars like Girls’ Generation, Psy and Rain became famous on global stages, there were twin brothers, 12, who caught the public’s attention with catchy songs and skillful dance moves.
They were Kim Ryang-hyun and Kim Ryang-ha, who went by the stage name Ryang Hyun Ryang Ha.
Breaking into K-pop in 2000 and flying below the radar in 2007 after releasing a mini album, “RYANG-HYUN RYANG-HA 2+,” they seemed to have been forgotten. But the pair, who many remembered as two small children with hair dyed yellow, wearing hip-hop fashion and singing about playing video games and not going to school, popped up again in a TV music show Tuesday.
Ryang Hyun Ryang Ha in 2000 / Korea Times file
The stars visited
JTBC’s “Two Yoo Project: Sugar Man,”
which invites singers with K-pop hits from the 1980s to the early 2000s to recount stories behind the numbers.
The Kim brothers, now 30, revealed various nuggets of K-pop history. They said JYP Entertainment CEO Park Jin-young discovered them in the streets of Busan, where they were popular dancers, and made them stars. With their debut, Park established his agency, now a global showbiz powerhouse.
“The company back then had no building, only a practice studio,” the stars said. “When we wrapped up our career and visited the company, there was a huge JYP building in Cheongdam-dong, which wowed us. We also saw Rain, Byul, Noel and Lim Jeong-hee practicing to prepare for their debut. We are practically their seniors.”
The brothers said global star Psy is their “junior practitioner” and he was a lower-ranked soldier when they did mandatory military service together.
“We liked the idea of the ‘crisscross’ concept, with which we debuted at a young age and planned to come back years after as adults,” they said. “But the time passed so fast we missed the timing for a comeback.”