MBC to air SM Town concert in Japan

Girl’s Generation, SHINee, Super Junior, BoA and TVXQ’s concert will be free for viewing for Korean fans on April 9.

MBC network will air the 90-minute program entitled “SM Town Live in Tokyo” for the first time, giving Korean fans the chance to watch the concert as well as some backstage interviews from the show that took place in September last year.

Artists belonging to the record label SM Entertainment dazzled fans at the Tokyo Dome last year in front of more than 150,000 audience members. The show, which was to run for two nights was extended for an additional night due to fan demand.

The MBC coverage of the event will show the backstage surroundings of the SM Town concert, featuring interviews with Taemin from SHINee and Super Junior’s Sungmin, among others.

Meanwhile, SM Entertainment announced on April 4 that its bands are set to perform in the United States later this year.

The event, cohosted by MBC and SM Entertainment, will be held at the Honda Center in Anaheim under the title “MBC Korean Music Wave in L.A.” on May 20.
The agency has hosted two world tours so far.

Big Bang and 2NE1, the most popular K-pop acts in France

In a recent survey conducted by the Korea Tourism Organization, Big Bang was the most-preferred boy band while 2NE1 was the favorite girl group among Hallyu fans in France.

The French branch of the organization’s Web site, visitkorea.or.kr, surveyed more than 3,775 K-pop fans in France in January.

Big Bang, preferred by male fans in their twenties, chalked up 49.9 percent of votes in the male group category.

Following Big Bang’s lead were the bands Super Junior (45 percent), SHINee (35.5 percent) and Beast (33.8 percent).

Meanwhile, 2NE1 had around the same amount of male and female fans, garnering 64.8 percent of votes in the female group category.

Following behind a 19 percent gap was Girls’ Generation (45.4 percent), and further behind was Miss A (31.5 percent).

SM meets L.A.

SM Entertainment’s hottest groups, Girls’ Generation, TVXQ, SHINee, f(x) and Super Junior are set to perform at a concert in Los Angeles on May 20.
The event, co-hosted by MBC and SM Entertainment, will be held at the Honda Center in Anaheim under the title “MBC Korean Music Wave in L.A.”

MBC made the announcement on April 3 that the performance will be full of dynamic acts by SM’s top performing stars. The program will also be broadcasted on the MBC network. 

The Los Angeles performance is but a portion of the world tour launched by SM Entertainment.

The world tour began in 2008 and the agency has hosted two concerts so far under the banner of “SM Town,” featuring a bill of the aforementioned groups. 
After the Los Angeles performance the K-pop groups will tour Korea and Japan in August and various other locations in Asia. The dates for other venues have yet to be confirmed.

Shinee is Back!

SHINee’s new mini album <Sherlock> 

SHINee’s new song ‘Sherlock’ music video received over a million views on YouTube in a day after its release.

SHINee’s ‘Sherlock’ music video was released on March 22. The music video set a record of receiving 1,454,998 views within two days of its release. The music video was shown to be viewed in not only in Korea, Asia, but also South America, North America and Europe as well proving the groups popularity.

The music video ‘Sherlock’ has been directed by Cho Suhyun who has been working with the group also on ‘Ring Ding Dong’ and TVXQ’s ‘Mirotic.’ The choreography was reported to be worked with world class choreography Tony Testa showing off slick moves. The music video also set in a 1800s like museum has SHINee acting as detectives to work on a case.

The fourth mini-album seems to be receiving a positive response from fans expressing the group has shown a different yet still eye-catching look. The group held a successful comeback stage on Mnet 'M! Countdown' and ranked no. 1 on major online charts as soon as the songs released on March 19.

SHINee will be leaving for Japan after 4 weeks of promotions in Korea and begin their Japan tour kicking off at Marine Messe Fukuoka on April 25. The group also plans to release a full-length album in Korea after wrapping up the promotions in Japan towards the end of the year.