TS Entertainment’s SECRET, B.A.P, Han Sooyeon give their New Year greetings

TS Entertainment‘s SECRET, B.A.P and actress Han Soo Yeon have sent their new year greeting photo on the last day of 2012.

In the photo, Han Soo Yeon is sitting in the middle with SECRET members Song Ji Eun, Jeon Hyosung, Han Sunhwa and Zinger to her side. All of them are sitting and having their hands gathered on their laps. B.A.P members Zelo, Daehyun, Himchan, Bang Yong-guk, Jong-up, Youngjae gathered their hands and stand behind their fellow label mates. You can see the 11 members looking toward the camera, showing true family-ship.

To name a few of TS Entertainment’s accomplishments, SECRET released Poison and recently made a comeback with their new song Talk That. Although they were not very active with Talk That due to the unfortunate car accident, they tried their best at the year-end shows and ceremonies. B.A.P dominated the new artist awards as they debuted in January of 2012, releasing five albums so far. Their hard work throughout the year has allowed them to be acknowledged as the new generation of K-Pop. Actress Han Soo Yeon has completed filming in two movie pieces and both will be released in the new year of 2013. All 11 celebrities of TS Entertainment have accomplished a lot in the year of 2012.

Agency TS Entertainment said, “We prepared this seat to thank the public and fans who showed so much love during 2012 and as 2013 is coming up we wanted to give them a new years greeting. We hope you will continue to love and support TS as we plan to grow and mature more in 2013.”

Source: news and photo-The Star

B.A.P’s ‘Hello 2013′ calendar released

B.A.P has revealed their calendar package ‘HELLO 2013′ on November 16th through their official fan cafe.

On the cover, there were all 6 members Bang Yong-guk, Himchan, Daehyun, Youngjae, Jongub and Zelo with dandy styles. The members were wearing outfits that they don’t wear on stage, with knits and vests along with denims and trousers. They showed a new concept that they have never presented before.

The calendar was produced by CJ E&M, they said, “The calendar has a total of 28 pages, not only with the important days of the nation but with the birthdays and anniversaries of the members. Included in their package is a 120-page schedule book with B.A.P’s pictures, so that the fans can follow along with B.A.P all year long.”

In 2012, starting with Warrior to Stop It, they have released 5 albums to date, and are currently active preparing for the coming end-of-the-year awards ceremony performance.

Source: news and photo- The Star

B.A.P’s Zelo’s height reaches 184cm

Giant Baby B.A.P‘s maknae (youngest) Zelo has finally reached the height of 184cm.

On November 13th, B.A.P’s Zelo shared on his Twitter, “I checked my height. 184… ha” and confirmed his height. Fellow member Youngjae responded in his retweet, “Don’t do this… Think of your hyungs..”

The online portals show this young member’s profile as 182cm and through a Japanese news interview last May, they confirmed his height was 183cm at that time. He stated, “I want to stop growing. The hospital said that my growth hormones haven’t closed up yet.” Which means, there is a chance that Zelo will continue to grow.

Fans who saw this said, “184cm… is like the 63th floor high building to me. Oppa, can you see your feet?”, “You’re too much. haha. What are your hyungs gonna do”, “what a fantastic height. how far apart is our height”.

Source: news and photo-The Star

B.A.P’s Zelo and his aegyo move female fans’ hearts

B.A.P‘s member Zelo‘s aegyo has shaken the hearts of female fans. On November 10, B.A.P’s official fan cafe uploaded a photo titled ‘Who has confidence not to go crazy’. On November 9, B.A.P was part of a hope concert for all cultural families. During the concert, MC Jeon Hyunmu asked B.A.P’s maknae Zelo to show the maknae’s cuteness. As Zelo gave his microphone to Himchan, he stood in the middle of the stage and put his two hands under his chin.

Some of the responses to Zelo’s aegyo video were:

“Ah, so cute!”

“Eye-candy~”

“Maknae, you shouldn’t do that, nuna’s are gonna have bloody noses.”

“I’m trying all my might to not go crazy..”

B.A.P has ended its promotion of its third single Stop It, but will end the year of 2012 participating in various events.

Sources: (News & Photo – The Star

The Hallyu Wave Crests at KCON 2012

On Saturday, 18 October 2012, hellokpop had the privilege to attend KCON 2012, at the Verizon Ampitheatre in Irvine, California.

KCON 2012 was the first North American convention about everything Korean: the food, the make-up (BB Cream anyone?), the culture, and of course, the Hallyu wave.  There were a variety of booths for many different vendors, such as make-up booths, an Asiana Airlines booth, fan club booths (DBSKnights, Code EXO, Soshified, etc.), a CGV cinemas booth, and many more.

The majority of my time was spent in the Artist booth, where VIXX, NU’EST, B.A.P, EXO-M, G.Na, and 4Minute held their autograph and Q & A sessions. The first group to hold their signing and Q&A was NU’EST. They were as cute as we see them in photos and videos.  NU’EST is a five-member group, made up of Aron, JR, Baekho, Minhyun, and Ren. One of the members, Aron, is from Los Angeles, so he spoke about how happy he was to be back in California. The artists answered some questions and then were whisked away to rehearse for the concert later that day. The fans were cleared out of the tent, and then the waiting for the VIXX autograph session began.

VIXX is a six-member group, made up of N, Leo, Ken, Ravi, HongBin and Hyuk. At 12:10 PM, the VIXX autograph session along with the Q&A commenced! During VIXX’s autograph session, their music was playing, so during some intervals, some of the members got up and did the choreography to their songs. VIXX did something different than the rest of the artists, they got actually sang Rock Your Body live, and did the choreography to it as well. Ravi spoke the most English out of the VIXX members, which made the K-Pop fan girls and some fan boys scream even louder than usual. The leader of VIXX, N, did a bit of aegyo, which led to his members face-palming and head-desking. Then like all of the other artists, VIXX was whisked away to rehearsal.

The next group that held a fan-signing was B.A.P, a six-member group made up of Bang Yongguk, Zelo, Him chan, Jongup, Daehyun, and Young Jae. The B.A.P fan-signing and Q&A was held a bit later than scheduled, because there were too many people crowding the Artist Tent. There were lots of Baby’s in attendance during this fan-signing, and the day was really hot.  So, the boys of B.A.P had KCON volunteers fanning them from behind.

The next artist to hold her autograph session and Q & A was G.Na which I did not manage to attend because I was looking for the illusive  EXO-M vouchers.  I was very unsuccessful.  The biggest problem with KCON was perhaps the voucher system, which everyone I spoke to agreed.  In order to get the KCON artist(s) to sign their official merchandise, one needed to have a voucher. Many people (at least the ones that I spoke with) really wanted the EXO-M vouchers, or the B.A.P vouchers, but the vouchers were given out randomly, and only about 100 people were allowed vouchers for each artist-signing event.  So, only approximately 600 people received vouchers and were allowed to attend the signing events, which left a lot of people out of the process.  Also, some people ended up not even using the vouchers they received, because they weren’t fans of those artists.  Some suggested that in the future, perhaps KCON could consider something like a raffle, or even a voucher exchange, so that fans could exchange vouchers they didn’t want to use for vouchers they actually wanted. Nevertheless, it was already an amazing opportunity where the fans could actually get up close to their favorite artistes!

Crowd control was another little issue that caused some minor discomfort to the fans.  At 3:30 PM, EXO-M was scheduled to hold their autograph and Q & A session.  Their fan-signing was super crazy though, because the people from G.Na’s prior fan-signing couldn’t leave the tent due to the large number of EXO-M fans outside of the tent. The emcee asked EXO-M fans to step back multiple times, but few fans responded until Kris got the microphone and asked all of the fans to take a few steps back.

The screams for EXO-M exceeded all of the previous autograph sessions. All six of the members, Kris, Lay, Lu Han, Xiumin, Chen and Tao, looked surprised that so many of their fans had shown up. During the Q & A, Kris spoke in English, Lay spoke a bit in Chinese, and Kris looked surprised when there was cheering. Kris asked the audience:

“You guys can understand Chinese?”

To which many of the fans replied:

“YES!”

Lay did a heart sign in the middle of the autograph signing, and all of the fans cheered.  After EXO-M had their fan-signing, it was discovered that one of the metal barricade poles had been broken, due to so many fans pushing and shoving.  The 4Minute autograph and Q & A started at 5:00 PM, but it was already crowded even before it began!

After all of the Q &As were finished, there were still about 2 hours until the actual concert was to begin. I met up with a few of my friends who, as it turned out, had won the Kollaboration portion of KCON, which meant that they would be performing onstage during the concert.

By 5:30 PM, people were already waiting in front of the concert venue, for the gates to open, so that they could rest their tired feet for a bit and then dance the night away to awesome acts.  At 7:00 PM, the gates opened and people rushed in and at 7:30 PM, the concert officially started, with a two-song performance by AJ Rafael, and a performance by Dumbfoundead. KCON concert-goers were surprised with a special collaboration effort between Daze47, which is a Korean Electronic Dance Music Group, and the winners of Korea’s Got Talent; a duo that are experts at ‘pop’ dancing.

After the opening acts, it was time for the concert to start!  B.A.P opened with No Mercy, followed by What My Heart Tells Me to Do and Crash. It was cute, because after No Mercy, they apologized and said that the other songs that they were performing were not as active as No Mercy. G.Na was next, and she performed 2Hot, the English version of I’ll Back Off so You Can Live Better, and lastly, Black and White. After her performance, she emceed the rest of the KCON concert with Danny from 1TYM or Im Taebin.

VIXX was next with Rock Your Body, U, and Super Hero. NU’EST played Face, Not Over You, and Action. There was a little break in between, where the Kollaboration contest winners at KCON, Andy Le, Brian Le, and Geran Simpson put on a show with their masterful use of tricking and wushu. After the Kollaboration winners performed, EXO-M started off with History, and then performed Angel, What is Love and finally Mama. The last, but certainly not the least, 4Minute, performed Volume Up, Mirror Mirror, HuH, Heart to Heart, and lastly, Hot Issue.

Check out the photos of the event below:

KCON was truly a wonderful one-of-the-kind event that a K-pop fan would want so much badly to attend. All attendees would have agree that they are sure looking forward to more KCON events in the coming years!

Special thanks to MNET for giving hellokpop the opportunity to cover KCON 2012.

Event covered by Carolyn@hellokpop
Photos edited by Seckvoon@hellokpop

Sources: kconusa