Entertainment - The Korea Times

Korean sensation Psy to perform in Hong Kong next month

HONG KONG (Yonhap) -- Korean pop sensation Psy will come to Hong Kong next month, performing his megahit single "Gangnam Style" for fans in the greater China region for the first time, concert organizers said Tuesday. Psy, along with other Korean pop (K-pop) singers, will participate in the Mnet Asian Music Awards (MAMA) to be held on Nov. 30 at the Convention and Exhibition Center in central Hong Kong, Korea's conglomerate CJ Group said. The MAMA is one of the major K-pop music award ceremonies being hosted by Mnet Media, an entertainment subsidiary of CJ Group. It has been held annually in one of the Asian cities since 2009, with some of the most popular Korean singers participating. The previous events were held in Singapore, Macau and Seoul. Psy's song "Gangnam Style" became a global sensation just a few months after its debut, with its music video spawning a series of copycat videos and parodies on the Internet. The music video ranked third on YouTube's all-time list of most-viewed videos, drawing 515 million views as of Sunday morning. The singer, whose Kore

Oct 23, 2012

Korean director wins best animated short award at Warsaw fest

A Korean director has won an award for the best animated film at this year's Warsaw Film Festival, Seoul's culture ministry said Monday. Kim Jin-man won the Best Animated Short award in the short films section of the 28th edition of the festival with his "Noodle Fish," at the closing ceremony on Saturday (on local time), the ministry said in a news release. The film is about the struggle of a small, naive fish made of noodles who wants to experience the bigger world out of the water. The Oct. 12-21 event featured some 100 feature, independent, documentary and animated films from across the world. (Yonhap)

Oct 22, 2012

Korean pop singer to perform in France

Korean singer-songwriter Kang San-eh will hold a solo concert in France in December as the popularity of Korean pop music increases in the country, concert organizers said Monday. The concert scheduled for a 600-seat music club in Paris on Dec. 5 will be Kang's first in Europe, according to his management agency. The show was organized by several South Korean artists operating in Paris, including mime artist Kim Won and installation artist Lee Seo, with support from the Korean Cultural Center in France, to take advantage of the French people's rising interest in Korean music and culture. "We thought it was a good opportunity to introduce a variety of cultural content from Korea and came to push for Kang's performance as the first project for this," Lee told Yonhap News Agency by phone. "I think Kang is one of the singer-songwriters who play songs that best carry Korean feelings," Lee said. "We'd like to let the French people know that songs by idol groups are not all of Korean pop music." During the 100-minute concert, Kang will perform a number of his hit songs togeth

Oct 22, 2012

Psy's 'Gangnam Style' third most-viewed video on YouTube

The music video of "Gangnam Style" by Korean rapper-singer Psy ranked third on YouTube's all-time list of most-viewed videos Sunday, according to the singer's management agency. The viral video beat out "Love the Way You Lie" by U.S. hip-hop star Eminem to jump to the third slot, drawing 515 million views as of Sunday morning, YG Entertainment said. "As the number of views for 'Gangnam Style' is rising quickly, we expect, if this trend continues, he will be able to top the list sooner or later," an agency official said. The video for "Baby" by Justin Bieber is currently the No. 1 with 790 million views, followed by "On the Floor" by Jennifer Lopez with 610 million views. Boosted by the popularity of the video on the Internet, the song "Gangnam Style" reached No. 2 on the U.S. Billboard's Hot 100 Chart for the fourth consecutive week last Wednesday. The chart reflects CD sales, digital downloads and radio airplay. In Australia, the song went platinum last week, setting a new record in the local music market. "Gangnam Style is officially the biggest selling single in

Oct 21, 2012

‘Psy, I am going to kill myself’

“Please save me. I am going to the Han River today (to kill mysel).” “I have invested all I had. Please save my family.” These messages were posted on the homepage of the enormously popular rap singer Psy (Korean name Park Jae-sang) which is usually covered with praises like “Gangnam Style is great” and “I am a big fan.” The postings started flooding on Oct. 16 when the share price of DI, a semiconductor testing equipment producer whose major shareholder is Psy’s father Park Won-ho, began nosediving. Owing to the father-son relationship, the share price jumped eight-fold in the past three months, following the immense popularity of Psy’s Gangnam Style, a rap-style song performed with what is now called “horse dance,” all over the world. Until his sixth album containing Gangnam Style was released in early July, DI shares were trading at around 1,500 won ($1.4) but continued to soar and peaked at 13,100 won ($12) on Oct.1 5. However, it began nosediving by nearly daily limit for the next two consecutive days, closing at 9,500 won ($8.5), Oct. 17. This was when c

Oct 18, 2012

Super Junior to publish photo book

Super JuniorBy Baek Byung-yeul K-pop band Super Junior will release a photo book “Super Junior in Paris, Series 4” to celebrate their seventh anniversary in the music business next month. “Their photo book will be published throughout Asia on Nov. 6,” said the boy band’s management company SM Entertainment Tuesday. The group has been promoting its sixth album “Sexy, Free & Single.” It’s the fourth edition of this kind of book for the group, comprising of Lee Teuk, Eun Hyuk, Ye Sung, Si Won, Shin Dong, Kyu Won, Sung Min, Ryeo Wook, Kang In and Dong Hae. The band traveled to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia to take the pictures for the first edition, Tokyo, Japan for the second, and Hong Kong for the third. The fourth one is set in Paris, and includes essays written by the members. There are two versions of this photo book; the standard edition comprises of photos, postcards, and posters. The special edition will provide a diary and DVD that deals with the band’s behind-the-scenes story. Presales start on Oct. 17 online. Baek By

Oct 16, 2012

Psy leaves for Australia to resume overseas activities

Korean pop star and YouTube sensation Psy, who earned global fame for his song "Gangnam Style," will engage in full-scale overseas activities that will start this week and last until the end of the year, his local management agency said Monday. After leaving for Australia on Monday afternoon, Psy will have five to six appearances a day on average while in the country, YG Entertainment said. His first scheduled appearance in Australia is on "The X Factor Australia," a singing competition program, on Tuesday (Australian time) as a special guest, it said. He will stay for three more days for TV and radio interviews before heading to Los Angeles on Friday. In the United States, he will attend a music festival called "Halloween Masquerade" to be hosted by AMP, an L.A.-based radio station on Saturday before staging concerts and holding media interviews. In November, the rapper will broaden the range of his activities in Europe by attending the 2012 MTV Europe Music Awards (EMA) in Frankfurt, Germany, on Nov. 11. Although the MTV EMA has yet to announce a list of participa

Oct 16, 2012

Gov't to lift age restriction on Psy's 2010 hit song

A 2010 hit song by Psy, the South Korean rapper-singer who rose to worldwide fame with "Gangnam Style," will no longer be on the government list of songs harmful to youth, officials said Wednesday. The Ministry of Gender Equality and Family said its committee for identifying pop songs considered harmful to youth has decided to lift a strict age restriction on "Right Now" and several other hit songs under a new rule for screening that went into effect earlier this month. Boosted by the explosive popularity of his latest hit single "Gangnam Style," the music video for "Right Now" has also gained much attention on YouTube, drawing more than 4.2 million views. However, access to the video is limited for minors as the ministry in charge of protecting youth labeled it harmful to them due to vulgar language in its lyrics. The removal from the list comes amid mounting demands from Psy's fans and other local Internet users that the song should get a chance to be exposed to world music fans. Last month, a group of South Korean netizens filed a petition on the "Agora" bulletin bo

Oct 11, 2012

Psy's 'Gangnam Style' tops 400 million YouTube views

Korean rapper-singer Psy topped 400 million views on YouTube with the music video of his hit single "Gangnam Style" on Monday. According to YouTube, the video had attracted 403 million views as of 4 p.m. on the 86th day since its release on July 15. "Gangnam Style" quickly became a global sensation after the music video spawned a series of cover versions and parodies on the Internet. Highlighted by Psy's signature horse-riding dance moves, the video topped the 100 million mark on Sept. 4, the 200 million mark on Sept. 18, and the 300 million barrier on Sept. 28. It is currently ninth on YouTube's all-time list of most-viewed videos. On Monday of next week, Psy is scheduled to leave for Australia where he will promote the song, according to his local management agency, YG Entertainment. After the trip, Psy will fly to the United States to resume activities for his fans there, the agency said. Psy has remained at No. 2 on U.S. Billboard's coveted Hot 100 chart since Sept. 27 after making his chart debut at No. 64 with the new song. (Yonhap)

Oct 8, 2012

Psy tops Chinese online music chart

HONG KONG (Yonhap) -- Korean rapper-singer Psy has topped a Chinese online music chart, as the popularity of his global hit "Gangnam Style" spills over into the world's most populous country, a Web site showed Monday. "Gangnam Style" ranked No. 1 on the music search service of China's largest search engine, Baidu. The song has caught on with fans in China after Psy's popularity spread from the United States, where the single first went viral, to Europe and Latin America. "Gangnam Style" became a global sensation just a few months after its debut, with the music video for it spawning numerous copycat videos and parodies on the Internet. The video features the singer's trademark quirky style that amuses audiences of all ages, combined with a signature "horse-riding" dance. Psy, whose given Korean name is Park Jae-sang, topped the iTunes Chart last month with his latest single, making him the first Korean artist to reach No. 1 on the U.S. online chart. On the Billboard chart, Psy ranked second for the second consecutive week, according to Billboard.com. The song jumpe