In SHINee’s interview before Mezamashi Live, the group members discussed their love for the Japanese anime and manga series, "One Piece." The topic came up when the host asked, "How do you feel about the Odaiba Summer Festival?"
Key replied, " I heard that there is a One Piece ship! That’s why I came here, I want to ride on it. We are big fans of 'One Piece!'" He pointed at Minho, "He bought 'One Piece' goods yesterday!" Minho agreed and added, "Yes, I bought a mobile phone item."
It seems as though Key got his wish. In one picture uploaded later on his me2day, Key has his arm around a Luffy statue. He included a cute joke, "I’ve made an agreement with Luffy to sail back to Korea on Sunny but seems like it might take a little more time :-)" Key can be seen posing in front of the ship Sunny in another photo, which he captioned, ":-)"
Even earlier this year, Taemin revealed in an interview with Japanese magazine WPK 2010 Spring that he learned Japanese by watching the anime version of "One Piece."
Are you surprised that they are fans of "One Piece?"
Be sure to check out the video and pictures below!
Recently, we reported that SHINee would release the Japanese version of their song "Juliette." SHINee has been putting off any album releases or promotions in Korea to start their work in Japan. Recently, they debuted their with the Japanese version of their song "Replay" in Japan. With the song that had stolen the hearts of many noonas (girls older than the guy who calls them noona), they have started to get a steady stream of Japanese fans.
After "Replay," they planned on releasing the next song "Juliette," another song that became a hit in Korea. It is directed towards a female listener, the "Juliette" of their dreams. This full audio has been leaked so listeners can get their first taste of what this song is like in Japanese.
Check out "Juliette" in Japanese audio, below!
Check out "Juliette" in Japanese Teaser, below! Source:Youlahaha5
On July 22nd, the Korean Culture and Information Service of the Ministry of Culture, Sports, and Tourism revealed that SM Entertainment’s producer, Lee Soo Man, had donated a total of $100,000 USD to the Le Centre Culturel Coréen. Le Centre Culturel Coréen was established in 1980 to raise awareness of Korean culture to the French public and to promote and develop artistic exchanges between Korea and France.
Lee was previously chosen as the promotional advertisement model for KB, an investment security company, and recently finished up his filming with the brand. With the income earned from the CF, Lee gave a portion of it to the celebrities in his agency, as an act of encouragement, and donated the rest to Le Centre Culturel Coréen.
Lee said, “The ‘SM Town Live‘ concerts held for two days in June garnered great success and raised awareness for not only the music of our artists, but for Korean culture overall in Europe. I decided to donate to the organization to further aid and support their efforts in spreading Korean culture in Europe.”
A representative of the the Korean Culture and Information Service said, “Lee’s donation will go through evaluation by the donation committee to make use of its full purpose.”
Source + Photos: AJ News, Korean Culture official website
After the successful flashmob in Paris held in May by K-pop fans who wanted a second SMTOWN Live concert, K-pop fans all over the world have gathered together in large groups to get the attention of SM Entertainment in hopes of getting their own SMTOWN concert in their city. Fans in Europe were rewarded with a second additional concert in Paris after their successful flashmob, which attracted both Korean and local media. Super Junior Leeteuk himself also showed awareness of the Paris flashmob by releasing a parody video of the flashmob in June through his Twitter.
The official Facebook for SMTOWN Live in Canada was started over two months ago and has already accumulated over 2,000 fans. Through the Facebook page, flashmob pages have been created for different cities throughout Canada to organize flashmobs with surrounding K-pop fans.
Isak, formerly from the duo group Isak N Jiyeon under SM Entertainment, tweeted her own support for SMTOWN Live in Canada in early June and said, "Wow~~~ #smtowncanada sounds like a GREAT idea~~ I wanna go too~~~^^."
On July 2nd, over 200 fans attended the flashmob in Toronto at the Nathan Phillips Square and screamed for SMTOWN to visit their city. Fans were armed with banners, posters, and of course, their dancing skills. They performed several SM Entertainment artists' songs including SNSD's "Gee," f(x)'s "LaChaTa," SHINee's "Lucifer," Super Junior's "Sorry Sorry," SNSD's "Run Devil Run,", SHINee's "Ring Ding Dong," TVXQ's "Mirotic," and TVXQ's "Why(Keep Your Head Down)."
Super Junior-M's Henry Lau was also scouted by SM Entertainment during their yearly auditions and was from Toronto, Canada. Known for his amazing violin and dancing skills, Henry quickly became a favorite when he made his unofficial debut with Super Junior through their song "Don't Don" in 2007.
A flashmob in Montreal was also held on July 2nd with over 250 fans attending.
Other flashmobs that were held in Canada included:
Ottawa - July 3rd at the Parliament of Canada
Vancouver - July 3rd at the Pacific Mall Center
Winnipeg - July 5th at Kildonan Park
Super Junior's leader Leeteuk seems to also pay close attention to flashmobs over the world and recently tweeted about Canada's nationwide flashmobs.
While the majority of these flashmobs have been aimed towards SM Entertainment and SMTOWN, fans are also targeting other Korean agencies such as JYP Entertainment, YG Entertainment, Cube Entertainment, DSP Media, and more, with hopes that these agencies will visit various cities and countries throughout the world so that K-pop fans will finally have the chance to enjoy a K-pop concert up close and not simply through their computers.
Cube Entertainment has already expressed interest in having their upcoming Cube family concert known as "United Cube" in Europe and South America (Brazil). Will more agencies answer international K-pop fans lovecalls?
On August 4, the 2011 Sacheon World Percussion Festival will commence. As Korea's first festival dedicated to percussionists and the instruments they play, the four-day Sacheon World Percussion Festival allows visitors to learn not only about international traditional percussion music, but also experience traditional Korean folk culture at its finest.
24 percussion teams from 11 countries will perform at the percussion festival, with stages beginning at 8 PM each night of the festival. Countries that will be represented at the festival include the United States, China, Japan, Brazil, Thailand, India, and Vietnam.
However, great percussionists are not all that audience members can expect out of each stage. On August 4th, opening for the festival will be a stage with a "idol singers and world percussion" theme. Popular idol group SHINee will perform alongside the world's top female drummer, Cindy Blackman Santana. Santana, who has stated her goal to become a musical virtuoso, is expected to put on a great performance with the members of SHINee.
What are your expectations for their collaboration performance?
SHINee's artwork t-shirts have been sold out just seven days after fashion brand Maypole released them. The items were designed by each of the SHINee members themselves in the theme of a holiday they want to have and released in the market as limited edition shirts. The t-shirt has been a hot item for SHINee fans as it includes the member's autograph and comes with their large-size bromide poster. According to a source from Maypole, there are even customers who came to buy the t-shirts from overseas. The representative stated, "Some fans purchased not only their favorite member's t-shirt but also all the other members' shirts."
Although the artwork t-shirts are released in an limited edition, Maypole has decided to extend the sales by receiving online reservations until the end of June to accommodate more customers.
They plan to gain more clientele through SHINee's marketability as they release the second limited edition shirts which are aimed the be released at the month of September when SHINee's full-scale Japanese activities will begin.
According to Music Japan's website, SHINee will perform "Replay (You Are My Everything)" on this coming Sunday's episode. They will appear alongside KARA and L'Arc~En~Ciel, among other Japanese artists. SHINee is also scheduled to appear on the program on August 1st, but it is unknown whether they will once again perform "Replay" or promote another single.
SHINee has previously appeared on Happy Music Japan and performed at the MTV Video Music Aid Japan Awards along with SNSD. Since its release last week, their debut Japanese album has sold remarkably well for a Korean artist. With these upcoming Music Japan performances, it looks as though SHINee is keeping their schedule packed and continuing their strong start in the Japanese market.
