¿Hablas K-Pop? A Love Story Between Latin America and K-Pop
About a month ago, I asked one of my Facebook friends what she thought of the TVXQ/JYJ controversy. She identifies herself as a member of Cassiopeia, TVXQ’s fanclub, so I knew that the topic was a delicate one. I still wanted to ask her, though, because she is a K-Pop fan in Latin America, and I was curious as to how much she knew about the K-Pop world. Her response was beautiful, heartbreaking, and incredibly detailed – she was not a mere ‘tourist’ of K-Pop, but a die-hard, well-informed Cassie.
Sometimes I forget that hardcore K-Pop fans exist all over the world. K-Pop unites the world in amazing ways, especially considering that fans outside of East Asia have a much lower chance of ever seeing their idols perform in their home countries. Fans in East Asia have a slightly higher chance of being able to see their favorite idols live. Even fans in the United States may have a higher chance of seeing idols live depending on whether or not SM Town comes to L.A. or idols take a risk and try to do a United States tour (a topic reserved for another editorial!). But Latin America?
I first got interested in looking at K-Pop in Latin America because of MBLAQ‘s Oh Yeah. I remember it so clearly (it was the third K-Pop song I ever heard) because the online radio station I was listening to suddenly caught my attention when I heard a Spanish guitar riff and someone say “Yo, amigos.” I thought to myself, Wasn’t I just listening to K-Pop? When did the station switch to reggaetón?
I was confused even further when Mir started his rap – it reminded me of raps I’ve heard from Pitbull and Daddy Yankee. I listened closer and realized that I didn’t recognize any of the words (except for the ones in English) – was this “reggaetón” song in Korean?! No, the Spanish language was present in K-Pop, and not just in MBLAQ songs! Think of the titles of some of SHINee‘s songs: Amigo, Señorita, and Y Si Fuera Ella are all song titles in Spanish. Y Si Fuera Ella is actually a song about a girl named María, and they constantly refer to her as “ella” (which means “her” in Spanish).
K-Pop has also made a huge impact in Latin American popular culture. Consider the case of Ecuadorian singer Andrea Bucaram, who did a cover of MBLAQ’s Oh Yeah on the show Las Tardes Son de Carolina.
Andrea Bucaram
This caused a huge controversy later since she hadn’t explicitly stated that she was just doing a cover of it. Perhaps Andrea Bucaram thought that MBLAQ wasn’t very well known in Latin America, despite being a self-professed MBLAQ fan herself. The point, though, is that Latin American A+‘s saw the show and came to defend their idols. J.Tune Entertainment wouldn’t have found out about the performance as soon as they did without their Spanish-speaking A+’s looking into things.
MBLAQ is just one of many K-Pop groups who are loved in Latin America. Super Junior also has a large following in the Spanish-speaking world. One organization called Happy Together (HATO) was created after a group of Super Junior fans from Spain and Central and South America held a huge group chat online. The groups is meant to be a place where fans can relate to one another as both Hispanic and as E.L.Fs (members of Super Junior’s official fan club). HATO even has individual fan clubs for all 13 members housed on their site. Their slogan, translated from Spanish, captures the intensity of their love for their K-Pop idols: “As long as love for Super Junior exists in our Hispanic hearts, HATO will live on.”
The SS501 fan club Triple S Chile has almost 5,000 members on its Facebook page alone, and its official site has affiliates for countless other websites in English, Spanish, and Korean, dedicated to multiple K-Pop groups, idols, and even some Japanese visual-kei groups like Dir en Grey and SuG.
Even knowing this doesn’t quite show just how much Latin American K-Pop fans love their idols. In 2010, a magazine in Peru called Revista Privilege held a poll, asking readers to name the 2010 Sexiest Man of the Year from a list of 90 international celebrities. The winner? TVXQ’s Shin Changmin with 227,742 votes. In fact, all of TVXQ made it in the top 15. Other K-Pop idols who made the top 50 included Kim Hyun Joong (#4), Park Jung Min (#10), Hangeng (#17), Lee Min Ho (#19), Choi Siwon (#26), Heechul (#30), Bi-Rain (#31), Jang Geun Suk (#38), Kim Bum (#45), and T.O.P (#48). This poll just goes to show how much K-Pop (and K-Drama for that matter) has made an impact on people in Peru – Changmin won over the likes of David Beckham, Robert Pattinson, Brad Pitt, Johnny Depp, and Gackt!
Latin America has its own share of hardships when it comes to getting K-Pop, though. Even though SM Town recently made the decision to do a show in Paris (thanks to the demands of French K-Pop fans), there was a hint about a month ago that SM Entertainment was considering a tour in Latin America. While there hasn’t been any official follow-up on the idea, Spanish-speaking fans are uniting to try and get SM Town to bring their favorite idols to their side of the world. The Facebook page for SM TOWN Live in Mexico [Fans] alone has over 16, 000 members! They’re currently planning a flashmob in Monterey for the end of July – and those are just the fans who live in Mexico!
So why am I mentioning all of this? Because I think it’s so cool! K-Pop unites the world, and it’s time to recognize all the fans who exist outside of East Asia. Don’t get me wrong, fangroups within East Asia love their idols as much as those outside of East Asia, and they do a ton of work to prove it. Take the Green Peas Philippines: “Green Peas” is the nickname for the SS501 fan club, Triple S. While Triple S doesn’t allow international members in the official fanclub, that hasn’t stopped worldwide fans from calling themselves Triple S or Green Peas. Green Peas Philippines has massive amounts of information on its website and its Facebook group, and they have so much info and post it so quickly that it leaves most other K-Pop sites in the dust. Oh, and they post it all in English, instead of Filipino (both of which are the official languages of the Philippines).
To my knowledge, no K-Pop idol has even gone to Argentina to hold a concert. Or Ecuador. Or Chile. Or Mexico. Or Brazil. Or any of the other Spanish-speaking countries. And yet there are super dedicated Green Peas, E.L.Fs, Shawols (SHINee), SONEs (SNSD), Clouds (Bi-Rain), and V.I.Ps (BigBang) – just to name a few – who consider themselves to be members of their idols’ fanclubs, officially or unofficially. They gather and translate news stories, run blogs, websites, and Facebook groups, subtitle videos, send letters and gifts, and eagerly support their idols in any way they can. It’s paying off! SM Entertainment was able to recognize French K-Pop fans’ love for their idols – surely they’ll hear the call of Hispanic K-Pop fans, too!
Credits: SM TOWN Live in Mexico [FANS], JPop Asia, Koreaboo.com, AllKpop, Allkpop, Soompi.com, SS501 – Triple S Philippines Blog, Green Peas Philippines,Triple S Chile, Revista Privilege, Happy Together: Hispanic Super Junior Fanclub
Photo credits: SM TOWN Live in Mexico [FANS], ANDREA BUCARAM Facebook, Happy Together: Hispanic Super Junior Fanclub, Triple S Chile Facebook, Revista Privilege, SM TOWN Live in Mexico [FANS]
