TWICE

Hello. Today’s our last posting 😦 If you have any suggestions or opinions about our blog, please feel free to write any comments. We hope you enjoy it!

 

The K-pop star we are going to introduce this time is no other than Twice. Twice is a girl group who received every award as they introduced a new song. The first great song was Ooh-Ahh Ooh-Ahh and the second song is Cheer up baby Cheer up baby which is the most recent song they have introduced.

Twice is a K-pop girl group formed by JYP Entertainment through the 2015 reality show Sixteen. The group is composed of nine members: Nayeon, Jeongyeon, Momo, Sana, Jihyo, Mina, Dahyun, Chaeyoung, and Tzuyu. The group debuted on October 20, 2015, with the mini-album The Story Begins.

Nayeon

Im Na-yeon was born on September 22, 1995 (age 20)

On September 15, 2010, Nayeon secretly attended JYP Entertainment’s 7th Open Audition and became a trainee. In 2013, she was cast as a member of 6mix, a JYP girl group that was planned but never debuted. Prior to Sixteen and her debut as a member of Twice, she appeared in few television advertisements and in several music videos of her label mates, including Jun. K’s “No Love,” Got7’s “Girls Girls Girls,” and “Stop Stop It,” and miss A’s “Only You.” She also made a cameo appearance in the second episode of KBS2’s 2012 Korean drama Dream High 2.

Jeongyeon

Yoo Jeong-yeon was born on November 1, 1996 (age 19)  She is the younger sister of actress Gong Seung-yeon.

She joined the company after passing the JYP Entertainment’s 6th Open Audition on March 1, 2010. Like Nayeon and Jihyo, she was originally set to debut in a group called 6mix. In 2014, she appeared with Nayeon in the music video of Got7’s “Girls Girls Girls” and, in 2015, appeared in miss A’s “Only You” music video.

 

Momo

Momo or Hirai Momo was born on November 9, 1996 (age 19)  She is the main dancer of Twice.^]

Momo started dancing at a very young age and decided to become a singer because of Amuro Namie and got into K-Pop after watching Rain and Lee Hyori. She was scouted by JYP Entertainment after they saw a dance video of her and her older sister. She was told to audition with her sister on April 13, 2012, though she was the only one who made it in.

In 2014, she appeared in the music video of Got7’s “Stop Stop It” and the Japanese MV of Junho’s “Feel”. In the following year, she appeared in the music videos of Wooyoung’s “R.O.S.E” and miss A’s “Only You.” She is the only eliminated member of the survival show Sixteen to be brought back to debut as a member of Twice.

Sana

Sana or Minatozaki Sana was born on December 29, 1996 (age 19) in Osaka, Japan.

Sana first got interested in K-pop because of Girls’ Generation’s and KARA’s rising popularity in Japan. In her last year of middle school, she was scouted by JYP Entertainment on the street and auditioned on April 13, 2012. She appeared in the music video of Got7’s “A” and Junho’s “Feel”.

 

Jihyo

Park Ji-hyo  was born on February 1, 1997 (age 19) in Guri, Gyeonggi-do, South Korea. She is the leader and main vocalist of the group.

When Jihyo was a third grader, she participated in a contest on Junior Naver for a child role. After she won second place in the contest, she was scouted by JYP Entertainment. She officially joined the company on July 15, 2005, and was a trainee for over 10 years and was set to debut in the girl group 6mix, prior to competing on Sixteen. She also appeared in the music video of miss A’s “Only You.” Before her debut, she along with Nayeon were some of the trainees who appeared in the most CFs. Jihyo was known mostly pre-debut as the face of Innisfree’s teen line “TN” with boy band Boyfriend and later with future group mate Nayeon.

Mina

Mina  or Myoui Minawas born on March 24, 1997 (age 19) in San Antonio, Texas, and moved to Kobe, Japan, when she was a toddler.

She studied ballet for eleven years before joining Urizip dance school for more modern dance training. In 2013, she was scouted by a JYP Entertainment staff member while shopping with her mother and was invited to join JYP Entertainment Global. She auditioned in a JYP audition in Japan and joined the trainee program in South Korea on January 2, 2014. Prior to Twice’s debut, she appeared in several of her label mates’ music videos, including Got7, Junho, Wooyoung, and Miss A.

Dahyun

Kim Da-hyun was born on May 28, 1998 (age 18) in Seongnam, Gyeonggi-do, South Korea.

Dahyun first gained attention in sixth grade for her infamous church ‘eagle dance’, which became a viral video on YouTube in 2011. In middle school, she performed a solo in a youth dance festival and was scouted by JYP Entertainment. She auditioned for the company on July 7, 2012, and officially became a trainee. She later appeared in the music video of Got7’s “Stop Stop It” and Wooyoung’s “R.O.S.E”. She is now a senior student at Hanlim Multi Art School.

Chaeyoung

Son Chae-young was born on April 23, 1999 (age 17)

Chaeyoung attended a dance academy for about a year when she was a sixth grader. She joined the company after passing the audition on June 6, 2012. Prior to Sixteen, she appeared in the music video of Got7’s “Stop Stop It” and miss A’s “Only You”. She is currently attending Hanlim Multi Art School as a freshman majoring in practical music.

 

Tzuyu

Tzuyu or Chou Tzu-yu  was born June 14, 1999 (age 16)

She was seen by entertainment scouts at the MUSE Performing Arts Workshop in Tainan in 2012 and went to South Korea on November 15 to start her training. She appeared in the music videos of Got7’s “Stop Stop It” and miss A’s “Only You” before joining Sixteen. She is one of the two members added to the final line-up of Twice in the finale, along with Momo. She is currently a freshman at Hanlim Multi Art School.

Many kpop stars had covered their “shy shy shy” part, it’s really lovely.  Anyway, I hope they can receive more and more love through this album,Cheer up. All of them are so beautiful and lovely.

And this is our last report, thank you.

 

Yoo Jae Suk

Hello everyone! We are here with a third posting. Today, we are introduce Yoo Jae Suk, who is famous MC in Korea.  If you have any suggestions or opinions about our blog, please feel free to write any comments. We hope you enjoy it!

 

 

 

Yoo Jae-suk is a South Korean comedian, MC, show host, and television comedy show host. Nicknamed as “MC of the nation”, a vote by South Korean netizens proclaimed him the most popular Korean comedian for five consecutive years beginning. He has hosted several variety television shows in South Korea, including the popular programs Infinite Challenge and Running Man.

 

 

 

(Biography)

Yoo Jae-suk was born as the eldest child out of three (he has two younger sisters) on August 14, 1972 in Seoul, South Korea. Yoo Jae-suk attended the Seoul Institute of the Arts, but was unable to graduate due to his busy schedule as an up-and-coming comedian.

His television debut was on the KBS Comedian Festival in 1991, where he performed a parody of a commercial with Choi Seung-gyug. His dancing to a cover of the song “Step by Step” by New Kids on the Block is also one of his early memorable moments. In 2002, after nine hard years as a relatively unknown comedian, thanks to a recommendation by Choi Jin-sil, he hosted a program called Live and Enjoy Together. The program became instantly popular and since then Yoo began to host many other variety programs. His potential was fully realized when he co-hosted a program called The Crash of MCs with Kang Ho-dong, Lee Hwi-jae and Kim Han-seok.

His first Grand Prize award was for a popular program called Happy Together Friends. The show’s concept was for TV personalities to try and find their school friends out of many who are sitting behind a desk. The show was intended to bring back nostalgic memories about one’s days in school. This Grand Prize was especially memorable, not just because it was Yoo’s first, but because it was from the broadcasting station where he made his debut.

He later went on to host the show X-Man, which soon grew to be one of the most popular and most viewed shows in Korea. During that time, he became increasingly popular and many programs began to nickname Yoo as the “MC of the Nation.” However, after a few years, the program was canceled due to falling ratings as well as an absence of new and innovative ideas. Yoo went on to host various replacement shows, New X-Man, Old TV, and Haja! Go! For SBS, which were all shortly canceled due to low ratings on Sunday evenings. However, X-Man has found success in international syndication.

Yoo is a part of the cast of the top-rated comedy variety program Infinite Challenge with Jung Hyung-don and Noh Hong-chul. He is the host-in-chief since 2005 and one of the program’s founding members. The program wasn’t popular when it first aired and its average ratings were low. After Kim Tae-ho took a role as new PD, the program underwent several changes both in its concept and the cast. New members such as Park Myung-soo, Haha, and Jeong Jun-ha were added to the cast of Infinite Challenge in 2006. By the time season 3 of the show aired in 2006, the concept and format of “variety & reality program” became very popular, and Infinite Challenge became the forerunner of many programs that followed with the same or similar format. Since December 2, 2006, the program has received the highest ratings of prime-time lineups for Saturday evening.

Infinite Challenge is seen as Yoo’s favorite and best program as not only did he met his wife, Na Kyung-eun, during season 2, he was able to gain even more popularity due the rising popularity of the show and its significant effect on the general public. He ended up winning a total of five Grand Prizes (2006, 2007, 2009, 2010 and 2014) with the program. His love to this program was reflected during 1-on-1 talk with fellow co-host, Jung Hyung-don, on “Pause” special that aired on October 20, 2012. He said “I think my life on television and variety shows will be tied to the fate of Infinite Challenge” and “When will we ever get to do another program like this? No matter how hard you try, it’s going to be impossible to do another film like this.”

Yoo also co-hosts Come to Play with Kim Won-hee and Happy Together Season 3 with Park Myung-soo, Park Mi-sun and Shin Bong-sun. Yoo hosted these talk shows for a long period of time (both over 5 years), and the ratings have been consistently high throughout his tenure. Although Happy Together continues to this day, Come to Play was cancelled in 2012 due to low ratings after its long tenure. Yoo tries his best to differentiate his hosting styles, both based on who his guests are and on their current situation.

After those replacement shows on SBS, on June 15, 2008, Yoo, along with Lee Hyori, Yoon Jong-shin, Kim Su-ro, Lee Chun-hee, Kang Dae-sung, Park Ye-jin and Kim Jong-kook (since episode 19) became the hosts and family members of Family Outing as a part of SBS’s Good Sunday lineup. Since then, Family Outing has become one of the top-rated shows in Korea, consistently achieving the highest ratings at the Sunday mid-afternoon time-slot (especially during the first and second quarters of 2009). However, with various problems and scandals regarding the program, and by the end of 2009 and beginning of 2010, a rumor of Yoo not continuing his contract with Family Outing was raised. By the time of his contract expiration, Family Outing rating wasn’t the same as that of early 2009, and Season 1 was brought to an end.

On July 6, 2008, Yoo Jae-suk married MBC announcer Na Kyung-eun who worked with him on the show Infinite Challenge. Yoo and his wife welcomed their first child, a son, on May 1, 2010.

Since July 11, 2010, he has hosted a variety show called Running Man together with fellow Infinite Challenge member, Haha, and other entertainers such as Ji Suk-jin, Kim Jong-kook, LeeSsang’s Gary, Song Ji-hyo, Lee Kwang-soo, and Song Joong-ki (who has since left the show as of episode 41 to focus on his acting career). Although the program did not have a good start in ratings, it later became one of Korea’s most popular shows. The program is not only popular in Korea, but also in other countries as shown by their overseas filming &fanmeeting demand.

In 2012, Yoo Jae-suk and fellow hosts of Infinite Challenge, Noh Hong-chul and Haha,
appeared in the music video for Psy’s hit single “Gangnam Style.” In the video, he was reprising the retro disco dancing character he created for the mock-band “Drooping Snail” in Infinite Challenge’s West Coast Highway Music Festival special where Psy also appeared.

In 2013, Yoo Jae-suk appeared in the music video for Psy’s follow-up single, “Gentleman”, together with other cast members of Infinite Challenge”.

 

In 2015, Yoo Jae-suk appeared in Jinusean’s Tell Me One More Time music video.

On July 15, 2015, Yoo Jae-suk signed an exclusive contract with FNC Entertainment after having been without an agency for about 5 years.

In 2015, Yoo Jae-suk made a cameo appearance in the South Korean drama, My Daughter, Geum Sa-wol.

 

(On Infinite Challenge)

On Infinite Challenge, Yoo Jae-suk is not only the program’s host-in-chief where he leads all Infinite Challenge members to reach the goal of each episode, but also the person who contributed several creative inputs for the program. This was seen on “Mudo Style, Beijing Style” and “2012 Introducing Ugly Friend Festival” specials. Due to his leadership presented to this program, a new kind of cult has been created called “Infinite Jae-suk Cult” (Korean: 무한재석교)^[16] and he becomes the spiritual leader of this false-religion. The official followers are Ha Ha and Noh Hong-chul (from the episode of Season 3, episode 61), and the official motto is “I shall make you laugh” (내가 너희를 웃기게 하리라).

During the New Zealand series, he was caught smuggling pornographic videos during the baggage check, which was hidden by the second host in charge: Park Myung-soo. This sketch was well received by the Korean netizens and Yoo became “Ero Jae-suk.” Even now, over seventy episodes later, he still is made fun of for watching pornographic videos which he hadn’t watched.

He has also been called “Class-president Yoo” (유 반장) for many episodes of Infinite Challenge, but since “Palace Millionaire” special (Slumdog Millionaire parody, whereInfinite Challenge members tour old palaces in Seoul), Yoo has been nicknamed “Delinquent Yoo” (날 유), for having meetings with girls at these palaces back when he was a high school student. This nickname later inspired the creation of Sagging Snail (a duo consisted of Yoo Jae-suk and musician Lee Juck)’s famous song “Apgujeong Nallari” (압구정 날라리), which was featured on “2011 West Coast Highway Music Festival” special

His other nicknames are “An Animal Racer” (짐승 레이서), “A Genius Racer” (천재 레이서), and “Yoomacher” (유 마허), thanks to his excellent driving skills shown during Infinite Challenge’s Formula One (F1) special.

Contrary to his usual nice and kind character, Yoo Jae-suk’s alter ego, “Manager Yoo” (유 부장), showed an authoritarian, egocentric, and highly discipline character toward the staff of his department during sketch-based “Muhan Company” episodes. Yoo Jae-suk’s “Manager Yoo” character itself is quite opposite to the slow-minded, tactless character of “Head of Section Jung” (정 과장) that is portrayed by Jeong Jun-ha, who being older than Manager Yoo. They entered the company together at the same time, but Head of Section Jung has never gotten a promotion before due the his lack of creativity. Manager Yoo’s antagonistic nature to Head of Section Jung has showed up occasionally, especially during “Muhan Company Musical” special.

 

Lastly, MC of nation Yoo Jae Suk is an admirable person for his thoughtfulness, hardworking, diligent manner for everyone. We are very proud of him for his attitude through his life. Please love and give attention to Yoo Jae Suk continually. And we expect another hard working of him through the days.

Thank you~^^

Daham, Haeun

 

PROLOGUE

Welcome to “K-CELEBS”!

Nowadays, K-pop and K-dramas are creating a huge wave all around the world. Furthermore, this K-wave seems to grow bigger and bigger as time passes by. We, as Korean students who are living in a foreign country, hope that more international fans will get to know about K-pop&K-dramas and show support towards Korea’s entertainment world. Thus, in this blog, we are going to introduce you about current trends of Korea’s entertainment world and also give information about celebrities: the leaders of these trends. The postings, with fresh and entertaining topics in it, will be updated weekly. There are two categories of topics, singers and actors, so please feel free to choose the category that you want to know more about. In the articles, we will introduce you about the hottest issues about Korean celebrities, provide detailed information about them, and also post our own parody or cover videos, as a side show. We hope that this blog will help you to know more not only about Korea’s entertainment world, but also our culture.

Please keep watching and supporting. Thanks!

 

 

This blog is operated by these people:

Song, Daeun –Leader of the Team

Jeong, Juhyun – Editor

Choi, Daham& Kim, Haeun – Researchers

Lee, Suzy –Collector of media contents