Sunday, 18 April 2010

11 finalists for Malaysia’s inaugural Korean Wave Contest

K-popped! Exclusive

The Korean Wave (Hallyu) is on the rise in Malaysia and along with it, a search for Kpop-influenced talents begins.
아싸!

Words by Liz
Photos by Orchid

You know, a day will perhaps come when a homegrown talent performs on the South Korean stage. Dreams…can come true.

The inaugural Korean Wave Contest (KWC) in Malaysia seeks fresh Kpop-influenced talents. The contest, which is open to all in Malaysia, is an opportunity for aspiring talents to realize their dream of becoming a Kpop star.

korean wave contest msia finalist kpopped
The inaugural KWC: The finalists of the Korean Wave Contest Malaysia 2010. Up for
grabs are fully-paid tour packages to Korea...and the opportunity to be noticed ;-)

KWC is co-organised by Korea Tourism Organisation (KTO) and GF World Solutions, an event management company that brought the highly-entertaining non-verbal comedy Break Out to Malaysia.

The KWC auditions were held on April 17 at Korea Plaza, Menara Hap Seng in Kuala Lumpur. Individuals and groups turned up for event. Many hopefuls were from local fan clubs of Kpop stars, but there were also independent acts.

It didn’t matter which organization they represented, all talents either danced to Korean tracks or sang (rather flawlessly) in Korean. Yes, very impressive indeed.

mc_kkk_jasmine
MCs of the day: KKK (left) and Jasmine

The 5-hour plus auditions saw 40 over acts vying for the coveted 8 spots at the final, which will be held on May 15. However, after some deliberation, the judges decided to choose 11 finalists because there were many talents of quality.

The judges at the audition were Gavin Khoo, Executive Director of GF World Solutions; Jung Jiman, Assistant Director of KTO and Valene Tan, Communications & Events Manager of KTO.

koreanwavecontest2010_malaysia_judges
KWC judges: (left to right) Valene Tan, Jung Jiman & Gavin Khoo

At the end of the auditions, it was announced that KWC will be an annual event, thanks to the encouraging response.

As the Official Online Media, K-popped! was there when the judges narrowed down the talents. Check out the aspirants who made the cut...and who may, just may, have a shot at Hallyuwood.

축하합니다!



KWC's Top 11

Epsilon

Formed on Jan 23, 2010 the girls are from the SHINee World Malaysia fan club. They were the first talents of the day to be given the 통과 (Pass) Korean fan, and subsequently get a spot at the final.

koreanwavecontest_finalist_epsilon
Hwaiting: The Epsilon girls go: 'Yessss, we're the first!"

Breakers

The duo danced and sang to CL & Minzy’s (2NE1) Please Don’t Go. Impressive rapping but weak vocals. It’s OK guys, you have one month to improve. 화이팅!

koreanwavecontest_finalist_breakers
Peace: 'Don't hate us because we got the Korean fan.'

Progression

They are already known in the local Kpop circuit and even performed for KTO during the recent MATTA fair (a travel fair in Malaysia). With experience under their belt, they absolutely entertained with dance routines for SuJu’s Sorry, Sorry and 2PM’s Heartbeat.

koreanwavecontest_finalist_progression
Making progress: 'You'll see more of us at the final and we'll bring our darn best.'

J.A.C.

A trio that sang Davichi’s 8282. The were KIVed (keep in view) after the first tryout but made the cut after their second audition.

koreanwavecontest_finalist_jac
In harmony: 'We're gonna blow you away with our voices.'

Memoirs (a.k.a. Carolyn)

She is the ONLY soloist who made the cut. Caroline sang Korean diva Insooni’s Goose Dream, a ballad I absolutely love…and she didn’t ruin it.

koreanwavecontest_finalist_caroline
Big voice: Caroline has quite a set of pipes

10 Minute Crew

The 6-member crew learns fast. After getting feedback from the judges at the first audition, they took the advice and totally spiced up their second tryout. The crew displayed good effort in earning their spot at the final.

koreanwavecontest_finalist_10minutecrew
Telling time: 'What can you do in 10 minutes? We won the
judges' hearts...in less than that.'

DA Infinity

The quartet danced to HyunA’s Change, yes, they did the sexy hip thrusts, thrusting (pun intended) them into the final.

koreanwavecontest_finalist_da_infinity
Ch-ch-ch-change: 'Yup, we rocked da house.'

Cherry Boom

Sweetie pies that make great eye-candy, especially Wei Ling (pic below, 2nd from right). Doesn’t she look like a mini Chae Yeon? The gals are all under 20 and they danced to a medley of songs, one of them being SNSD’s Gee.

koreanwavecontest_finalist_cherryboom
Girls generation: 'We're young, but we're also a force to be reckoned with.'

Ruffneck'z

Baby Bi! The young boy who is covering his face with the fan resembles Korean superstar Rain. Cute boys who danced to – among others – Brown Eyed Girls’ Abracadabra! Uh huh, complete with the sexy hip dance. *sway*sway*sway*

koreanwavecontest_finalist_ruffnecks
Get ready: 'We wanna show you more!'

Leon

Proudly representing MYHottest2PM, Leon busted some smooth moves to Taeyang’s Where U At. So smooth were his moves that they earned him a spot at the final.

koreanwavecontest_finalist_leon
Where U At?: Leon says, 'I'll be on stage at the KWC final, yo!'

Nikki

Nikki, who is a So You Think You Can Dance (Malaysia) finalist, grabbed the coveted last spot at the KWC final. The androgynous dance instructor put her own flava to Rain’s Rainism.

koreanwavecontest_finalist_nikki
Got it!: 'I'm in too. See ya at the final!'

Congratulations to all the finalists! They have approximately a month to prepare for the final showdown, which will be held at KL Live on May 15. The talent concert is FREE and opened to the public so come one and all to see the talents perform live. You might just get K-popped! ;-P

Khoo of GF World Solutions advised the finalists to put their best foot forward for the final, saying, “You will be treated like stars performing on a concert stage. The production will be of top quality and there will even be a Korean music producer present at the show.

“IF you're good enough, you might even get to perform in South Korea.”

So here we go Malaysia. The search for the Next Big (Kpop) Thing is on! Bring it.

Stick with K-popped! for the latest news on KWC Malaysia 2010 or follow us on:
Twitter: @LizKpopped and @0rch1d (#kwcmsia)
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/kpopped

Related:
Sneak peek at Malaysian talent for Korean Wave Contest 2010

Malaysia: Korean Wave contest auditions on April 17
Have you got what it takes for the Korean Wave Contest?

24 Comments:

xXrucciXx said...

our national athlete also took part in this competition??
cool!!

congratulations to all of them..
i guess i'll see their performance next month..

Liz said...

Who is the national athlete? What sport?

xXrucciXx said...

if i'm not mistaken, she is in the 10 Minute Crew..

her name is Siti Safiyah, and she's a ten-pin bowler. I met her before in Etude House Product Launching with Lee MinHo @sg.wang..

in the picture she wears pink top..

Liz said...

Ooooh...kewl!

johanna said...

got any video on this event??

Liz said...

Only the organizers had the rights to record the event. No cams allowed during the audition :-)Maybe it will be released some day ?

|| Lynn || said...

cool! they get t perform on a stage and get treated like a star?? I wanna watch that!! hehe... nice coverage~~ congratulations to the finalists!!

Cyfull de'CK said...

Aaaarghh...i've planned to come and watch but all the meetings and stuff just ruined my day...urgghhh!

Liz said...

@Cyfull, it's OK if you missed the auditions. It was a closed audition so no one was allowed into the room except authorized personnel.

Come for the KWC final on May 15 then. Now, that is guaranteed open to the public and the finalists will take the stage to entertain you!

Sandra said...

Aww I look weird in the photo..>.< great write up liz!
I still feel sad I didnt get to say hi to you guys.. boo..=(

Congratulations to all the other finalists! Let's do our best for the finals..=)

-XioN- said...

Progression obviously will get a spot.. they've danced at super junior's concert.. as in.. while we were waiting under the hot sun, they entertain us with some dancing.. have their videos.. :D they're cool... ;)

sha filan said...

wah!!! any fancam 2 watch?? ekeke

Liz said...

@Sandra, hey girl thanks for the encouragement and don't feel bad that we didn't manage to talk. I'm sure our paths will cross again. Heh heh...wait for it :-P

Unknown said...

Ah Jasmine is there ^^

Hopefully the teams made it :)

if u don't mind, I've repost this page link to facebook:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/We-Learn-Korean-lah-hangug-eo-baewola/110873808943136?ref=ts

Unknown said...

Liz Liz,

when's the final what time ???

Liz said...

The final will be on:

Date: May 15 (Sat)
Venue: KL Live, Jalan Sultan Ismail
Time: 2pm - 4pm
Admission: FREE

Seoulbless said...

woohoo! the DA girls and Progression did a great job.. DA also performed in Matta Fair with Progression for those who don't know..

and will be there to support all 11 groups!

Seoulbless said...

woohoo! the DA girls and Progression did a great job.. DA also performed in Matta Fair with Progression for those who don't know..

and will be there to support all 11 groups!

Anonymous said...

Is good to know that Malaysia has lots of talented people in the entertainment line. Though i know this is coorganised with the KTO, but i thought it would be better if we spend the time on trying to produce entertainers like in Korea but local market. Malaysia needs idol singers like in South Korea. Though my friend always doubted that our Malay language can ever been adopted to the genre of music used in most of the kpop songs, i really hope we can do it one day. There's nothing wrong by liking kpop but isn't it better if we can learn from kpop and create a 'M-pop' in Malaysia!
Sorry if this comment sounds weird!

HL said...

is there a website where we can watch the performances?
Rly wanna see the Contestants :D

varms said...

I hope I can watch it online too!!! I'm on the East Coast now, wish I could head over there in KL for the finals but I have work on Sunday...

Liz said...

Hi HL & varms, thanks for your support!

Since this is the very first Korean Wave Contest in Malaysia, I don't think there is live streaming of the show.

8TV is also supporting the event so maybe you'll get to watch KWC on 8TV one day.

Liz said...

HL & varms, follow @LizKpopped or @0rch1d on Twitter as we will be tweeting live from the event tomorrow.

HL said...

thank you for the information Liz, is there any chance that someone will be filming it and post it on youtube? D:

 

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