SNSD is too busy to promote new album?

While most music groups would love the chance to hit up as many schedule opportunities as possible to promote themselves, SNSD has proven that too much can be a bad thing.

Although the girls have made a huge splash with their comeback with Oh!, the girls haven’t had the strongest start due to the absence of promotional activities for the album. Because of the fixed activities that many members have in their individual schedules that often conflict with practices, two or three members are often missing from practice. For example, YoonA has started filming for SBS Family Outing 2, Yuri and Sunny are part of Invincible Youth, and Taeyeon has activities with her station Chin Chin Radio. Furthermore, Tiffany and Yuri are also occupied with their MC roles on MBC’s Music Core. Initially, Yuri was rumored to accept a role on a new sitcom set to air in mid-March, but due to her tight schedule, these plans were cancelled.

“The members aren’t able to gather for interviews and a promotional schedule,” an SM Entertainment rep revealed. “We’ve had insufficient time to practice choreography and vocals as well.“ In fact, the girls barely even got together in preparation for the comeback performances that took place on Music Core and Inkigayo this weekend.

Although the girls got a (short) break at the beginning of January, we hope that they don’t over-exhaust themselves with all of these activities. It’s nice that the girls aren’t being forced to cram a full-out album promotional schedule with their personal ones, but it’d still be nice to see SNSD at more interviews and other activities. Best of luck to them!

SNSD’s Yuri chooses Japanese promotions over sitcom

Recently, there were rumors about SNSD’s Yuri joining the main cast for an upcoming sitcom. This new sitcom is going to come on after Highkick Through the Roof ends. The sitcom is supposed to start around March and many fans were getting their hopes up for Yuri’s new role.

Sadly, Yuri had to turn down the role because SNSD already has a packed schedule: it’s been revealed that the girls will be doing Japanese promotions starting in May.

An MBC entertainment representative said, “Yuri had to back out so we’re looking for a new actor.” It’s probably going to be hard to find someone to fill Yuri’s shoes.

Yuri let go of this opportunity before signing the contract. The news of Yuri being cast in the sitcom came in mid-January but SM Entertainment, SNSD’s company, never made an official statement on whether or not Yuri had accepted this request.

The MBC rep said, “I heard SNSD will do Japanese promotions starting in May. It would have been impossible to do a 5-episodes-a-week show and handle overseas promotions at the same time. She gave up a solo activity for her group’s good.“

Yuri’s was supposed to play the youngest daughter who is really immature and had no plans for college after her high school graduation. The confirmed actors for the sitcom include Ye Ji Won, Kim Sung Soo, Lee Sang Woo, Choi Yeo Jin and more.

2PM’s Taecyeon receives hate

We can’t deny that 2PM Taecyeon’s popularity has soared since the the last quarter of 2009. The man is everywhere and fans/netizens have been noticing that he no longer has that humble rookie mindset. Instead, they have been criticizing him for becoming “cocky,” but with all the new found fame and glory, I would think that is somewhat understandable.

But that is just my opinion, as fans and netizens are not as understanding. Hazyfiasco of 2Oneday reported:

Taecyeon’s ‘Thanks To’ note from the 1:59PM album has stirred up the netizens once more. When the issue first came up, kHottests remained silent and stayed away from the controversy. Netizens are furious on behalf of the Hottests because of three points:

1. Hottests were not mentioned in his thanks to, but the nut club members were.
2. A shoutout to the nut members are more important than Jay and Hottests.
3. He’s losing his rookie mindset. Netizens have noticed that he’s gotten noticeably big headed and cocky about his fame. (This isn’t the first time he’s been called out on this.)

Although Hazyfiasco’s report puts the blame on netizens, there really is no way to determine whether they are just netizens or actually 2PM fans. I’m sure there is a bit of overlap there, regardless, this is a heated debate and at the time of the report, Hazyfiasco stated, “the article has received over 400 pages of replies, none of which are positive. The article has, as of this moment, 657,213 views and 4,698 replies.”

I poke fun at artists from time to time and say some inappropriate things, but it’s all in good fun. In cases like these however, I find it rather ridiculous that people try to dig up the smallest details to start a heated debate. Sure, Taecyeon seems to have become more cocky and confident, but that’s super stardom for you. What did you think? He’d remain humble and dwell with the commoners forever? Fans, get over it, stars don’t really care about you. And if that bothers you so much, take your hard earned money and send him a douche bag for his next birthday, as opposed to luxury items and gifts.

Lee Min Jung to endorse Acuvue

Popular actress, Lee Min Jung, currently acting in SBS’s Smile, You has notched another new CF deal, to further her claim as a rising CF queen.

Lee Min Jung was recently signed on by Johnson & Johnson Vision Care (Korea) as their spokesperson for their Acuvue contact lenses, replacing the previous endorser, Park Min Young.



A JnJ spokesperson expressed,

“Lee Min Jung has a confident charisma about her all the time. We feel that her healthy and beautiful image complements our brand’s image very well, so we invited her to be our new model.”

Lee Min Jung’s Acuvue CF will be shown in mid-February.

SNSD dubbed the top kpop girl group of Korea

After releasing their title track Oh! on the 25th, SNSD/Girl’s Generation has been holding onto the #1 spot on online music charts for the past week, which isn’t at all surprising considering the fact that they sold 30k albums on the first day. Now, the girls have been dubbed the “Top Girl Group” in Korea.

A representative of the music portal site Monkey3 said, “Last week, girl group SNSD climbed to the #1 spot. Their hot track Oh! might stay that way for a while now. But the girls do have some competition because 2AM’s ballad track is receiving great praise as well.”

As for the rest of the rankings…

2nd: 2AM’s Even If I Die I Can’t Let You Go
3rd: CNBLUE’s I’m A Loner
4th: Lee Seungi’s Love Is Teaching Me To Drink
5th: 2AM’s I’m Sorry I Can’t Laugh For You
6th: Big Mama’s It Hurts
7th: Women’s Generation’s Wonder Women
8th: Gavy NJ’s Love Is Like That
9th: Yim Jaebeom’s Stigma
10th: 2PM’s Tik Tok

So what do you guys think, does the Top 10 Songs of January list seem about right or do you think it should be a little different? And do you agree that SNSD is the “Top Girl Group” in Korea?

After School’s Gahee abandoned her parents at the age of 20?

On the upcoming episode of SBS Strong Heart, After School’s leader Gahee revealed that she ran away from her home when she was young. During the episode, she said,

When I was 20 years old, I made a decision to run away from my home. From Kang Won Doo, I ran away all the way to Seoul by myself. During those days, my relationship with my parents were bad. While I was living in Seoul, my parents found out where I was to visit me. When I met up with my parents at a coffee shop, I told them that I would go to the washroom. Then through the washroom’s window, I ran away.

While she was revealing her reasons for running away after meeting her parents, Gahee ended up in tears. Poor girl…

Although Gahee showed her vulnerable side in this episode, After School still made sure to assert itself as one of the fiercest girl groups around. On this episode, UEE revealed that other girl groups are scared of After School.

She said, “I want to make friends with other girl groups but they always avoid us. There’s a rumor going around amongst girl group members that we [members of After School] are scary unnies. This rumor is a misunderstanding.”

Then Brown Eyed Girls’ Narsha revealed why the rumors started in the first place. Everyone was shocked by Narsha’s confessions.

Wow, two cliffhangers… stay tuned to the upcoming episode of Strong Heart which airs tomorrow for Gahee’s reasons for running away as well as Narsha’s confessions about After School.

Jang Geun Suk’s fan meeting in Seoul

On January 31st, Jang Geun Suk held a fan meeting at Seoul’s Olympic Hall. More than 3,000 fans were in attendance and about 700 of them were international fans. Real-time live translating was available for these international fans who came to Korea to get a glimpse of the You’re Beautiful star.

He put on a great show for the fans by performing such hits as 2PM’s Heartbeat, H.O.T.’s old school song Candy, Rain’s It’s Raining, and much more.

Jang Geuk Suk mentioned that he was much more nervous for this fan meeting than his previous one, where more than 2,000 Japanese fans gathered to see him in Japan. He also announced his ambitious plans (or wishes) stating that he would like to one day hold fan meetings at the 70,000 seat Seoul Olympic Stadium and 55,000 seat Tokyo Dome. Check out some of the photos and videos below: