Guitarist Sungha shares his impression of Philippines, dedication to music and future plans

From millions of YouTube channel views and a lot of awards, Sungha Jung has become a household name both to Kpop and non-Kpop fans. Hours before his Manila concert at the Newport Performing Arts Theater last June 15, 2013, hellokpop had the chance to get up close and personal with him. Although he has accomplished a lot at such a young age of 16, there was no sign of conceitedness as he warmly greeted us with a big smile.

Impression of the Philippines

It is his second time in the Philippines and he laughed as he described it as “hot”. He then added, “I am really impressed of the audience. I really like to play in front of fans and I really look forward to play for the Filipinos.” In the past, he played a famous Filipino song, Anak by Freddie Aguilar, using his first guitar. He shares, “My father told me to play the song. He liked the music. I listened to it and liked it as well so I played it.” 

Dedication to Music

Sungha started playing the guitar and uploading his videos in 2006 when he was just 10 years old. There were a lot of guitarists who inspired him to play the instrument. He shared, “There’s a Japanese guitarist named Kotario Oshio. I actually started to play the guitar because of him. After watching him play, I started to play as well. And the other guy is from Germany. His name is Ulli Boegershausen. He is like my mentor. I recorded my first album in his home studio.”

Millions of his YouTube subscribers witnessed not only his physical transformation but also his improvement in playing the guitar. He puts dedication in practicing every piece, taking about 2-3 days to practice before he uploads them. Ever wondered what was the most difficult piece to practice for him? It’s Laurence Juber‘s All of Me. According to him,  “It has really fast techniques so it’s really hard.”

Interestingly, he has also expressed his eagerness to learn playing other musical instruments. He says, “I learned once to play the piano and drums. I want to play more not only the acoustic guitar. I’m learning now to play the electric guitar and bass guitar and other instruments.” When asked if he will consider to be an idol, he shyly shakes his head and said, “No. Most Kpop stars are singers or dancers. But now, I’m an instrumental player. I don’t think I’m a Kpop star.” Although he doesn’t consider to be an idol, he would usually watch tv shows or music programs and think “Sometimes, I would like to sing in front of millions not just playing on instrument. I plan to learn singing. I want to exchange lives for one day with singers.” 

Collaborations and Future Plans

Because of his hard work, Sungha has collaborated with a lot of artists like G-Dragon, 2NE1, Narsha, Lee Seung Gi and Jason Mraz. Most of the Kpop acoustic pieces he uploaded are songs of BIGBANG. He told us,  “I think everybody knows that I like BIGBANG. I had a collaboration with G-Dragon. I like their music. I can say my favorite group is BIGBANG.”

Who does he want to collaborate with in the future?

“Actually, that was Jason Mraz and it came true…” 

“…I also want to collaborate with this guy from Superstar K. His name is Roy Kim. I met him in Jason Mraz’ concert since he was also a guest. We met each other. One day I hope to collaborate with him… I don’t have a specific favorite song. But there’s a song that I mostly like to play recently. That would be Roy Kim’s Bom Bom Bom.”, he added.

Check out his acoustic arrangement for the mentioned song:

Busy but Grateful 

Sungha surprised us with his answer to the question, “What would you  be doing if you’re not a musician?”. He answered, “I don’t know. I heard that question a lot of times but I really have to think about that. I don’t hate to study so maybe I will be studying.” He is currently homeschooling. Given the time, he would like to play basketball with his friends.  Even though he is unable to do a lot of things because of his busy schedule, he expresses his gratitude for being able to share his music worldwide because “not all musicians are given this chance”.

Paint It Acoustic promotion 

Sungha Jung is currently having an international tour to promote his third album, Paint It Acoustic, containing 14 tracks. His favorite track is Nostalgia, his original song that he describes as “beautiful and has a good melody”. He leaves a message to his fans saying, “Hi! I’m Sungha Jung. I just finished some of my tours in Asia… Please continue to support me”. He just recently concluded his Cebu and sold-out Manila shows and is set to perform in Malaysia, Indonesia, Australia, Taiwan, China and Hong Kong.

Special thanks to Ms. Marsha of Pinoytuner and Sungha Jung’s manager, Ms. Dee, for granting us the interview.

Event covered by: camille@hellokpop, impulse@hellokpop 

Sources: Video – jwcfree (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6), sbsmusic1

CL has Jeremy Scott’s back

Literally! American fashion designer Jeremy Scott recently shared a Throwback Thursday photo of 2NE1 member CL receiving a piggyback ride on his back. Along with the image, he posted,

#TBT SINCE THE DAY I MET HER MY GIRL CL HAS HAD MY BACK – EVEN SOMETIMES LITERALLY ! #BFF4EVA pic.twitter.com/hQDmxl1nBe

— JEREMY SCOTT (@ITSJEREMYSCOTT) June 14, 2013

Scott expressed his gratitude towards CL for always having his back and being his best friend.

Source: @ITSJEREMYSCOTT

SNSD’s Tiffany interviews Brad Pitt

Known for her good English skills, Girls’ Generation‘s Tiffany and  Hollywood actor Brad Pitt sat together for an interview date in SBS One Night TV Entertainment.

Brad Pitt recently visited South Korea to promote his latest movie, World War Z. During the interview, Tiffany asked the Hollywood actor to greet her fellow member Sooyoung who is known for being a big fan of the actor. Brad Pitt also revealed the experience he had in Korea and his inspiration on making his latest movie.

Tiffany taught the Hollywood actor what “daebak” means. On the other hand, Sooyoung who is currently one of the MCs of the said show wished that Tiffany has asked Brad Pitt to say “I love you Sooyoung” instead of just saying “Hi”.

Check out Tiffany’s interview here:

[1080p HD] 130612 SBS One Night TV… by bugfany

Sources: News-smtownsnsd, Photos-smtownsnsd (1), (2) and video-bugfany on Daily Motion

Chart analysis: T-ara N4 album sales confirms the idol group is still one of a kind

This is an outstanding underlined fact perhaps mostly ignored in the K-pop world, but T-ara is indeed one of the top Korean album sellers on earth.

The main reason for it being that those physical sales are completely overshadowed by their records breaking digital sales, nevertheless, ever since their debut in 2009, the CCM’s main group physical sales have only been second to IU and SNSD for a female artist. Overall, the group has sold about 500,000 albums in Korea alone, and close to a million worldwide (including their Japanese releases).

Up until the huge controversy last year which lead to member Hwayoung‘s dismissal, every T-ara physical release would sold between 70k to 100k. However, their last Korean release, Mirage, saw a fall to 36k. Time passed after, and T-ara’s first original Japanese single, Bunny Style, broke their own weekly record in Japan and is expected to be certified ‘Gold Disk’ before the year is over. T-ara’s subsequent Korean release came on the dying days of April 2013. CCM’s official announced they would only produce 40k albums of the idol group first sub unit T-ara N4. As many expected, they did not sell out their stock. No, T-ara N4 debut single sold exactly 26,080 copies.

The number could sound a derisive disappointment to the charts ingenious, well mind you, it is more than female heavyweights of the industry such as SISTAR, Secret, Brown Eyed Girls, Rainbow and Girl’s Day ever sold; and more than Davichi, Miss A and After School sold since 2011. As for direct competitions this time around, this is simply twice as much than Name is 4Minute who sold 13,508 copies since release, Lee Hyori‘s Monochrome (12,573 albums sold) and three times as much as Secret’s Letter from Secret (8,388).  T-ara N4 simply grossed the highest sales to date for a female sub-unit next to Taetiseo (SNSD’s subunit); all this in just a month.

Despite the backlash in public opinion and the guilty pleasure some media outlets rejoice on denouncing the disgrace, T-ara, as a whole, continues to make history. Certainly, it’s not as impressive as SNSD and chances are it never would be. T-ara has only an edge or two above their female counterparts but they have this unconcerned brawn that brings them to heights you never truly expect them to reach.  T-ara currently stands as the 11th best physical seller of the ongoing decade in Korea; and the second best female physical seller. The performance of their first sub-unit indicates the idol group is the same ground breaker it always has been. It comes as a big nod to the naysayers: notwithstanding haters’ desires, T-ara will continue to reign charts, sells records by the ten thousands, and walk ga-ring ga-ring ga-ring upon the K-pop scene.

The opinions and views expressed reflects those of the writer and not that of hellokpop as a whole.

Source: Melon  Gaon

Join the biggest dance competition this summer! KakaoTalk & St.319 present ‘Dance Your Perfect Style’

Popular messenger application KakaoTalk and St.319 have co-organized an online dance competition entitled ‘Dance Your Perfect Style with KakaoTalk’, which aims to reach out to new and existing KakaoTalk users with the energetic vibe of one of the most popular K-pop dance cover groups in the world. The theme of the competition is focused on inspiring young people to get active, get onto your dancing shoes, and dance away to your perfect style.

Competition Details

1. Submission window: 1/6/2013 – 22/6/2013 - All applications if received after due day will not be accepted.

2. Qualifications: Participants can enter the competition either as an individual or as a group, and you live in Vietnam.

3. Dance Category & Genre: Cover Dance and Choreography; All genres of dance are welcome (Including non-Kpop)

4. How to apply: Record your own dance video cover and upload them on youtube.com. The title of the video has to be named as follows; [DANCE YOUR PERFECT STYLE WITH ST.319] *title*
- Register KakaoTalk account (If you are a dance group, each member has to have their own account)
- Fill in the registration form here.

5. Judging Criteria: For each category (Dance Cover and Choreography), 2 best teams will be selected for the final showdown on 28 June 2013 in Hanoi. St.319 will be the judge.

6. Prizes: Total value of 50,000,000 VND (Approx = US$2379)
I) Dance Cover: 1st Prize Kakao Cover Winner: 15,000,000 VND; 2nd Prize Kakao Cover Runner-Up: 10,000,000 VND

II) Choreography: 1st Prize Kakao Choreo Winner: 15,000,000 VND; 2nd Prize Kakao Choreo Runner-Up: 10,000,000 VND

For questions regarding to this competition, visit the Facebook event page here.

Start messaging with KakaoTalk today and join the biggest ever online dance competition for this summer 2013!

‘Dance Your Perfect Style’ is proudly brought to you by St.319 and KakaoTalk.

St.319 is represented by ND Agency.