JYP on Details About His Comeback, 2PM and Wonder Girls!

   We would say that JYP Entertainment is about to get busy, but that would sound as if they haven’t been already! After 2 years, Park Jin Young‘s own comeback has arrived, along with more exciting news about his fellow agency artists. J.Y. Park is back!
Over the last few months, J.Y. Park has taken on a number of projects. Between acting ventures The Five Million-Dollar Man (movie) and Dream High 2 (KBS drama), producing mini-albums for 2AM and miss A, US promotions with the Wonder Girls, and judging for K-POP Star (SBS music competition program), he’s made time to go back into “artist mode,” as he called it. How does he find that time, you ask? Check out his mobile music studio, located in his car!
   His me2day went more in-depth with details, revealing that the Wonder Girls’ US album is finally finished, along with the title track for their new Korean album. He also promised a “quick surprise” this summer for 2PM fans who can’t wait until their new album in the fall of this year. A surprise and two new albums? Be still, our Hottest and Wonderful hearts!

 Photo Credit: JYP's Twitter

   According to Nate, JYP’s next mini-album, Spring. Five Songs I’m Sending to a New Love, will contain “styles and music never before heard from J.Y. Park.” Interesting – will he move away from his R&B/Soul/Pop intersection that he’s been grooving to since his debut? We’ll have to wait and find out about the rest of the album, but so far the JYP vibe is still there.  He released the first song from the album, “Someone Else,” a duet with Brown Eyed Girls‘ Ga-In, at midnight on April 22. Midnight on April 29 will bring another track, “You’re the One,” which tells the story of a “flashy-looking male celebrity and a normal girl.”

J.Y. PARK ft. GaIn -– “SOMEONE ELSE” MV
   He expressed a little nervousness about coming back after 2 years in his me2day post, but we see no reason for him to be, what with him being a immensely popular artist as well as a hit-making producer, composer, and lyricist. Are you familiar with JYP: the producer, but new to JYP: the singer? Take a listen to some of his hit singles from past albums and see for yourself why he’s earned the tagline, “the Asian Soul.”

An Idol's Life

  The word 'idol' first meant an inanimate object of worship, but it has evolved to include modern celebrities. On the Korean pop music scene, 'idol groups' are bands consisting of boys or girls in their teenage years or early 20s. And in recent years they've dominated the music industry. But  these stars aren't built in a day. To become a member of one of these bands, young children go through years of grueling training - all without any guarantee of success in the end. Being an idol usually calls for tough schedules and dance practices, but many have revealed what they’ve done to go the extra mile and get that distinguished ‘oomph’ in their figure. How far do these idols go to obtain and maintain their sexy and fit bodies? 

Actor Lee Jung Jea ate ginseng chicken soup 3 times day for 4 months to help achieve his amazing core

    

   Remember Kim Ah Joong from 200 Pounds of Beauty? She has the sexy, most desired body of the post-surgery Kang Hanna. She, along with Oh Yoon A and Cho Han Sun jump rope about 3,000 times everyday! I don’t even think I can count or think straight once I get that high.

   To train for Ninja Assassin, Rain hired trainers who trained the actors of “300.” He trained eight hours a day for eight months! As for diet, he only ate skinless chicken breast, raw fish, potatoes and salad. If he wanted spice, he would add some black pepper. Occasionally he treated himself to beef cooked in plain water. He cut his body fat from 12% to 5%!

    After Secret’s Zinger showed off her V-line, netizens began looking for the “Zinger Diet.” A supposed diet plan stated, “Morning 1 piece of toast with fat free milk, afternoon 1 sweet potato, evening 1 cucumber.” The menu varied from apples or chicken meat but most of the foods had very little calories and supplements to an insufficient full day meal. Fortunately, Zinger posted these wise words on her minihompy, “The diet plan that was revealed through media is not my daily meal plan. I definitely did not diet that way. You could ruin your health with that diet plan so please don’t follow it. Please lose weight slowly with constant exercise and food intake control. Through hard practice and diet, I will work to be Zinger who shows her good side.”

Well said, Zinger!

    The Wonder Girls , the girl group whose debut became the first by any Korean musicians to make it onto the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 Singles chart, lost a member to the stress of idol life. Sun-mi announced she was leaving to focus on her studies. The 19-year-old's decision came during the group's U.S. tour in 2009.
 "It was such a happy and precious experience for me to be on the tour of 50 U.S. cities and perform on the stage, but I came to wonder, can I go on living like this?' Sun-mi said in a statement later released by the group's management agency JYP Entertainment.
   Sun-mi's announcement not only jolted fans, but also stirred up controversy about the pressure on idol performers - either yet a trainee aspiring to be an idol star or already such a one - to maintain a schedule some say is too hard for a teenager to bear.

    Korean entertainment agencies look out to create idols, which they then also manage, maintain well-ordered training programs. Prospective talents in music or acting register with an agency, then, if accepted, undergo four to five years, on average, of training before their debuts. During that process, the company may require the aspiring star to live in a boarding house with colleagues (or rivals), go on a strict diet with regular weight checks and put in more than 10 hours of practice a day. The trainees under the entertainment label of their choice don't exactly know when they will debut,if that ever arrives

   Jo Kwon(2AM) and Min(Miss A) go way back as they had trained under JYP Entertainment for 8-10 years

 

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!