Dal Shabet's Viki Departs

  Disappointing news for Dal Shabet fans, as leader Viki has announced that she will be departing from the group.
 On May 24th, Happy Face Entertainment announced, “Leader Viki, who started promoting as Dal Shabet since January 4, 2011, will be leaving the group to pursue her solo career. Viki will be resting for a short while, and then will go into preparations for her solo album.” The rep added, “Viki had solo activities in mind ever since she debuted with Dal Shabet. Viki and her agency have been talking this over for a long time, and we came to this decision before the release of Dal Shabet’s new album to help her, before it’s too late, to take on her new dream and fulfill it.” Viki also wrote her final post on the group’s official fancafe explaining her withdrawal.
Viki’s handwritten fancafe message stated:

“Hello, this is Dal Shabet’s Viki. It’s my first time greeting you all in a while but I’m afraid I have some bad news for our Darlings.
There were so many happy moments experienced with our fans while promoting as the leader of Dal Shabet, but I will be concluding my activities as a member of the group with our Yeosu schedule as my final participation. You’re surprised, right? But I’ll be back soon so please look forward to Viki’s solo promotions.
Ah! And our pretty Shabet dongsengs are also making a comeback! As it is their first studio album, please give them lots of love. Although I won’t be able to greet you as a member of Dal Shabet in the future, I hope our Darlings won’t forget Viki in their hearts. Please continue to give Dal Shabet your unchanging love and anticipate Viki’s solo transformation.
To my sisters, charming Serri, big eyed Ahyoung, the perfect daughter in law Jiyul, athletic Gaeun, and giant baby Subin. This unni will always be supporting you. And our Darlings! You know how much I love you, right? Thank you so much for your support and love. I’ll come back soon.”

“Viki will be wrapping up her promotions as a member of Dal Shabet with the performance at the Yeosu Expo on May 27. Dal Shabet will recruit a new member to replace Viki and will continue on with six members for its first studio album to be released on June 7,” the rep said.


 Dal Shabet debuted with Supa Dupa Diva last year and continued to promote actively with Pink Rocket, Bling Bling and Hit U, releasing four mini albums in total. The group won the Rookie Award at the 26th Golden Disk Awards and the Best Idol Music Award at the 19th Korean Culture & Entertainment Award, and was chosen as the Best Girl Rookie Singer of 2011 according to Korea Gallup.


 Dal Shabet will be leaving for Malaysia on May 25 in order to attend the 2012 Creative Youth Carnival in Malaysia to be held on May 26.

Coming To a Stage Near You!

   There hasn’t been a whole lot of room for new girl groups this year with the hundreds of not so good boy bands that have debuted recently. There is hope though! All that is going to change next month when two of KPop’s well-known labels unleash new girl groups onto the KPop scene.

   GM Contents Media (sister label of Core Contents Media; home of T-ara and Davichi) is set to debut a new 7-member group called Gang Kids sometime next month.  Meanwhile, Pledis Entertainment, home of After School, K-Diva Son Dam Bi, and rookie boy band NU’EST, will launch the six-member Hello Venus on May 9th.
Both groups are already two of the most buzzed about of the year, and with their debuts both set for May, there’s going to be a lot of fun and friendly competition over which group does better, and which group actually is better.
So, let’s take a look at our two contenders!

 Gang Kids

   Our first contender is Gang Kids! Really?? Gang Kids? Well so far we know that the group is made up of three actresses, two models, and two trainees. They’re currently being overseen by CCM CEO Kim Kwang Soo, who you may know as the evil genius behind T-ara. They’re much older than your typical rookie group. Five of the girls' ages have been confirmed with the eldest coming in at 29, the youngest 22, and the other three three somewhere in-between.
Gang Kids’ first single is produced by Shinsadong Horang (Hit songs for B2ST, 4minute, T-ara), and CCM has made the hefty claim that the song is, “an upgraded version of Roly-Poly and Lovey-Dovey with a mature concept.” On top of the musical comparisons, the group will also follow in T-ara’s footsteps by releasing a ridiculously long music video for the song, which was shot with T-ara in Europe and comes in seven different parts. My gosh that's a lot of parts..
   There’s been a lot of criticism about the group’s name ‘Gang Kids’ since it was first announced, and they’ve already become a bit of a laughing stock across the KPop blogosphere. I despised the name at first too, but now it’s really grown on me, kind of. It’s not supposed to be taken so literally, and given the group’s bad girl, rough-around-the-edges look, I’d say that it’s just about capturing the rebellious nature of youth and never letting go of it — even when you’re pushing thirty like some of the Gang Kids are.
    Gang Kids have really caught my interest so far. There’s a big opening in the KPop market for more older female groups like Nine Muses and Brown Eyed Girls, so it’ll be nice to see some actual women debuting with a mature concept, rather than the typical young girls who like to play grown-up. I’m not expecting Gang Kids to be terribly talented on the music front given their backgrounds in modelling and acting, then again singers become actors and models later on, but I think they’ll follow T-ara by being very conceptually strong, which should definitely prove interesting.
    The biggest problem with Gang Kids is that they could end up being too similar to T-ara, just like EXO is to SHINee/Super Junior/TVXQ, so hopefully Kim Kwang Soo has something exciting up his sleeve to set them apart.

 Hello Venus

   Let’s take a look at Hello Venus (stylized HELLOVENUS). The six-member group has already been courting major media attention after being officially billed by Pledis as After School‘s ‘sister group’, as well as by unveiling a very eye-catching teaser photo. I have no idea what the exact image they’ll debut with will be, but the concept in their flowery teaser picture reminds me a bit of A Pink combined with BoA’s arty look for the Hurricane Venus album. It’s unique, distinctive, and I love it.
    So far we know that three of the Hello Venus members are 19-years-old, and that one is 24. Three of them were Pledis trainees who featured on After School’s Virgin album under the name Pre-School Girls (I always wondered who the hell the Pre-School Girls were!), and the other three are actresses from a different agency who were picked up by Pledis to join the group. Also, Hello Venus’ leader Ara, who was one of the Pre-School Girls, almost joined After School instead of E-Young at one point! She was featured on the After School’s Happy Pledis single-album back in late 2010.
    There’s no specifics details on Hello Venus’ first single yet, but according to reports, it’ll be a dance song helmed by a famous producer. Ooh interesting!
One of the most interesting aspects about both Hello Venus and Gang Kids is that half the members of each group are actresses, and not wannabe musicians, dancers, or artists like you’d expect. Given the huge success that T-ara has had by having half of their members being popular actresses, Eunjung, Jiyeon and Hyomin, it could be that many new groups are now trying to repeat the winning formula.

 (Screenshot of Eungjung as Baekhee and Miss A's Suzy as Hyemi in Dream High)

   So many boy bands have debuted recently, and only a few like B.A.P. have actually impressed me, so it’ll be nice to get a break from all that with some new girls to listen to. Both Pledis and Kim Kwang Soo have put a lot of money into their respective new groups, as well as a lot of time and energy on pre-promotion, so I’m expecting BIG things next month. Especially since CCM seem to have learned from their prior mistakes with Co-Ed, 5dolls, and most recently, SPEED, not that I don't like them, they do have some good songs.
So, which group do you think will do better? And which one has captured your interest the most? Gang Kids or Hello Venus!

B.A.P Comeback! Yes Sir!

   I have gotten pretty excited about B.A.P’s comeback, even though it only seems a few days ago they were shooting Zelo and teaching us how to spell their name with “Warrior”. As one of the most talented rookie groups in recent years, B.A.P completely stole my heart and I may or may not have made a few small blood sacrifices in the hope their comeback would be equally gritty and bombastic. Hahaha!
   The teaser photos pretty much proved this wasn’t going to be anything near “Secret Love;” there is a distinct 80s Euro-disco flavor that retains much of the intensity and fierceness we fell in love with. The colors, the violence, powerful poses (Bang Yong Guk appears to be able to dislocate his entire jaw and Jong-up seems to be going for a backslap) and threatening stares were the reassurance I needed. Normally, a group doing a similar concept as that of their debut suggests lack of imagination and group growth, but without the teaser video, there is no way of knowing if this will be “Warrior” II. In terms of new hairstyles, Key(Shinee) has competition in the faux-mohawk department a la Youngjae. It’s sad but good to see the wall to wall blonde is gone, giving the boys a better chance of distinguishing themselves onstage. The future looked neon bright for their comeback. No more 'I like the blonde one' comments.
  

Open World Entertainment and Its Ugly Side

   The sexual objectification of women (and increasingly men) in the South Korean entertainment industry or really, in just about any entertainment industry is certainly nothing new or even shocking.  KPop fans in particular have sadly been largely desensitized to issues involving the inappropriate acts against females, and the pervasive influence of so-called “uncle fans” in driving the market for girl groups is hardly shocking and indeed even expected. But consumers of KPop would do well to remember that sexual misdemeanors and crime within the industry itself is a reality that has the potential to destroy not only careers, but lives and just because we don’t see it doesn’t mean that it isn’t happening to an alarming degree.

K-Pop Diets

 

   Okay, so lately I've been reading A LOT about K-Pop diets and how some seem real simple and how some just seem interesting enough to try. 'Model Idol' group Nine Muses has an interesting diet plan. They use paper cups and fill each one with food. One with fruits, another with mixed grain rice or brown rice, and a third with side dishes. They use this method the whole day for three meals. You can eat different things but with the same restrictions which might help satisfy some. Yes it may seem hard at first, but they did it for four months and got their wonderful looking bodies.

 EATING

Boiled Eggs
    This is one of my staples. It's also an extremely popular part of any K-Pop idols diet! Personally, I don't like the yolk. Which is great, because the egg white is only 15 kcal but fills me up a lot when I have two!

Chicken Breast
     A cooked chicken breast without skin is really healthy and filling, and fulfills protein intake for the day. A lot of females don't get enough protein in their diet, while males take in too much. Idols like Uee, SNSD, and more swear by the chicken breast diet. Just make sure not to add extra oils (some olive oil or dressings like basil are fine though, in my opinion). Remember, a serving of meat is actually the size of a deck of cards! Lean meat is the key, and red meat should be a treat.
 
Sweet Potatoes
    Personally, I like these too much. These are really good for healthy carbs and are very filling. They're also very popular with idols; A Pink ate these a lot while training for debut.

From YouTube to YCME

I may be somewhat late, but I've come across an extremely talented singer. I've done small research and whether she wants to be known as an Idol or as an artist, she has an amazing voice. Her name is Ailee((Hangul: 에일리), born in New Jersey United States and part of YCM Entertainment.  She started off as a normal girl posting videos on Youtube of herself singing. While still in New Jersey singing, she collaborated with fellow Youtuber Johnyphlo and Decipher. As well as Brian Joo of Fly to the Sky. Ailee has also performed in singing competitions like the NY Kollaboration of 2006, winning Best Vocals. As a trainee she featured in Wheesung's song 'They Are Coming' that was released on October 9, 2011. 

Her debut single, Heaven, was released on February 9th 2012. The music video for Heaven also features BEAST's Kikwang and already passed 2 million views on Youtube. Her song won the Cyworld Digital Music Award for Song of the Month and Ailee won Rookie of the Month. For those interested in her video it shall be here.  Her single can be bought on iTunes for support.

Although she is just a rookie singer, she's already become an actress as well. Starring in popular teen drama Dream High 2 alongside big names such as Kang Sora, Park Jin Young, Kwon Hae Hyo, Kim Jung Tae and Choi Yeo Jin, T-Ara's Jiyeon and more. In the drama she played as Ailee, a member of popular girl group Hershe. She may not have many scenes but her voice makes up for that as she is also part of the OST for the drama. 


Ailee is an artist to look out for. She has the voice and the talent that would make anyone get chills. We look forward for this incredible singer to shine as well as the other singers. Ailee, good luck!