B1A4 gives heartfelt interview about how they came to be

It’s been just two months since Jinyoung, Shinwoo, Sandeul, Baro, and Gongchan made their debut. After soaring high with their debut track ‘O.K.’, B1A4 has started activities with their follow-up ballad number, ‘Only Learned the Bad Things’.

How did these flower boys get together to form one group?

According to rapper Baro, he joined the group after his company saw a photo of him on his friend’s Cyworld page. At the audition, Baro had sung Jo Soo Mi’s ‘Once I Leave’ and Sung Si Kyung’s ‘The Path Leading to Me’. Because he enjoyed hip-hop, he’d also showed off his rapping and beat-boxing, and the rest, as they say, is history.

Leader Jinyoung had continuously admired the world of the celebrities and singers since he was young, and was also casted into his current company after his photo was spotted on Cyworld. Jinyoung had auditioned with the portrayal of character ‘Gong-gil’ from movie “Man of the King“. He can also act, having some experience in the field of dramas.

Maknae Gongchan was the third member to be contacted thanks to Cyworld, but it turns out that he won the site’s ‘Uljjang Challenge’ event when he was in middle school. Gongchan’s beauty also earned him a runner-up position in a cross-dressing contest after he performed a dance of Ivy’s.

Main vocal Sandeul originates from Busan, and prepared to become a singer by going to various singing competitions. His agency approached him during a talent show after Sandeul delivered a stirring performance of a ballad song from Kim Yun Woo.

Shinwoo, who has the role of both vocals and rap, was inspired by his musical family. There is a trot singer in his family, and one of his noonas tackled traditional Korean singing as well. He decided to participate in a teenage singing contest one day, which proved to be fateful after he cracked a smile on-stage. A company associate attending the event fell head-over-heels over that smile and contacted him, resulting in his enlistment with B1A4.

B1A4 all originate from the countryside, earning them the nickname ‘country-dol’. Jinyoung and Shinwoo are from Choongbook, Cheongju; Sandeul from Kyungnam, Busan; Baro from Junnam, Kwangju; and finally Gongchun came from Junnam, Soonchun. Jinyoung had been counted as the number 1 attendee for any talent shows or festivals during his school days. Saying that he loved to go out in front of people since he was young, Jinyoung had a mischievous but bright and cheery smile, and was a popular student who partook as a grade representative as well.

Shinwoo had participated in the school’s band club, and was a child who loved music, even going to perform in Hongdae at times. Contrasting from his gentle image now, Shinwoo – who says he liked rock and did rough music then – makes people around him smile by saying, “During school, I didn’t ‘know’ smiling, but people say that my smile’s pretty and that I should smile a lot now.”

Sandeul had also become famous by having a singing battle among his musical friends. Everyone had been surprised because they only knew him as a child who liked music. Sandeul mused, “My mother was from a choir, so she gave me advice that when I sing, I shouldn’t imitate another person but to do my own type of singing. I engraved that advice into my heart.”

Bright Baro also was an active and extroverted type of person since he was young. Aside from becoming the grade president just one week after transferring schools, he also has the experience of emceeing a festival and participating in a comedy club during high school.

Having lived and worked hard in their respective homes, these members all flocked to Seoul and made their singing debut after undergoing two years of training. There are many children who wish to become singers, but it isn’t easy to come to debut. The homesickness they sometimes felt was smoothed over by their aspirations to become a singer and by each other’s company.

B1A4, who picks ‘familiarity’ as their charm without hesitation, said that they wanted to approach us like a neighborhood oppa or a school friend, and requested for people to watch their progress well.

B2ST to perform on ‘MTV World Stage’ as Korea’s representatives

Cube Entertainment has just revealed to allkpop that B2ST will perform as Korea’s representative artists at MTV’s “World Stage Live in Malaysia 2011 (WSLIM 2011)”!

The event will take place on July 24th at Malaysia’s Shah Alam i-City. The boys plan to captivate the crowd with a fantastic performance and bold stage presence. They’ll also be performing alongside many world-famous musicians, like American rock band, Thirty Seconds To Mars.

B2ST commented, “We’re happy that we are going to Malaysia to perform on stage with world-famous artists. Many people from around the globe watch and listen to B2ST through YouTube, but we’re excited to get our live performance broadcasted all over the world.”

B2ST is the only Korean artist to be invited this year, and is the second Korean artist – following theWonder Girls - to ever perform on MTV’s “World Stage”. It’s a dream come true for Malaysian fans as well, since B2ST will host a fan-meet tour in the country prior to performing on MTV.

The addition of B2ST to the event line-up sheds light to the rapidly growing K-pop phenomenon that is gaining popularity not only in Asia, but in Europe and South America as well. ‘WSLIM 2011′ will be broadcasted in 160 countries, and viewers from around the world will be able to watch B2ST’s performance as well as their behind-the-scenes footage.

B2ST will officially kick off their overseas promotions starting with their Malaysia fan-meet tour on July 1st, after which they’ll head for Japan to promote their second Japanese single, “Bad Girl”.

Kim Yuna & IU release music video for “Kiss & Cry” theme song, “Ice Flower”!

After releasing the audio for their much-anticipated duet track for SBS’s “Kiss & Cry“, “Ice Flower“, the music video of IU and Kim Yuna recording for the track has now been released.

IU and Kim Yuna’s duet track was recorded back on June 8th in the recording studio, and had been revealed briefly for the first time on the episode aired on the 19th before the full release on the 21st.

“Ice Flower”, was produced to be the show’s theme song, and expresses a message of hope through the lyrics that asks everyone to overcome their obstacles, and the song was produced by Lee Min Soo.

The music video shows them recording in the studio and also has some footage from the show.

Representatives continued, “It normally takes over two hours to record a song, but they managed to finish it in an hour, which surprised all of the staff members.”

Profits from the digital single will go towards the development of better training environments for figure skaters. Figure skaters in Korea do not yet have their own exclusive ice-rink and must share with ice hockey players. In an effort to aid the figure skaters that must move ice-rinks late at night after hours, the two have decided to donate their profits towards the cause.

You can support the cause by purchasing the music, check it out below!

Dal Shabet appointed as ambassadors for ‘Seoul International Cartoon Animation Festival 2011′

 Earlier, we reported that girl group Dal Shabet were chosen to be the ambassadors for the upcoming 15th ‘Seoul International Cartoon Animation Festival‘ (or ‘SICAF‘). The girls were officially appointed on June 21st at Seoul’s Sejong Hotel in a simple ceremony.

As the event’s ambassadors, Dal Shabet will appear in video campaigns and at SICAF events from July 20th to 24th.

SICAF officials stated, “We felt that their bright and cheerful image went well with the SICAF event. We’re looking forward to Dal Shabet’s hard work for SICAF2011.”

The girls themselves commented, “We’re so excited to become the faces of ‘SICAF2011′, just like SICAF’s cute mascots Bummy and Ddeng Gochu. We’ll work hard to spread the awareness of the ‘SICAF2011′ event to lots of people!”

2PM scores an “all-kill” with a “Hands Up” comeback!

The boys of 2PM must be feeling pretty good right now, especially since their newest album, “Hands Up”, successfully managed to snag the coveted “all-kill” crown on all of the major charts.

Not only has their title track landed at the number one spot, several of their ancillary songs on their album also managed to place on the charts as well.

Korea has several listings that record the popularity of released albums and songs, such as Dosirakand Melon, among others. The equivalent of the Billboard Chart in the United States, singers measure their popularity by how high their songs place on the different charts.

2PM is scheduled to perform “Hands Up” for the first time on KBS’s Music Bank on June 24th.

After School’s UEE tells the truth about idol girls

After School’s UEE revealed the truth about how idol girls act around idol boys.

On the latest episode of SBS’s ”Night After Night“, B2ST’s Kikwang confessed that male idols care a lot about how female idols view them. UEE replied by saying that it’s the same for idol girls.

UEE said, “Idol girls always get their makeup and hair done after the dry rehearsal. There’s no need for makeup before the dry rehearsal. However, everyone has basic makeup done before the dry rehearsals. It looks like their natural no-makeup face, but it’s really not.”

The male idols on set were shocked and replied, “It’s not your fresh faces?” and “I didn’t know!”

UEE also explained that female idols are very aware of male idols when they’re dancing in dry rehearsals. She said that even though the original choreography didn’t call for a sexy move, the girls would insert one to grab the guys’ attention.

KARA’s Nicole shares a silly selca

KARA’s Nicole uploaded a silly selca photo on her Twitter.

On June 20th, she shared this photo on her Twitter along with the message, “I’ve arrived! I played around with selcas in the car.”

She uploaded a photo that used a funky effect. The photo shows a chopped up Nicole making a silly face.

Netizens wrote, “This is a unique photo. So cute”, “I laughed a lot at silly Nicole’s photo”, “Your facial expression is very alive”, “Nicole’s charms are very silly”, “I wanna try that.”

B2ST reveals thoughts on winning eight times with “Fiction and Fact”

After concluding with their “Fiction” promotions on SBS’s “Inkigayo“, the boys of B2ST are now preparing for their Japanese promotions.

Although it was a short cycle, it’s definitely been one heck of a ride for these boys, as they’ve managed to land a total of eight trophies in just one month. Not only that, but they’ve also achieved their first triple crown on Mnet “M! Countdown.”

They’ve been thanking fans all throughout their promotion cycle, but they didn’t forget to thank them one last time before heading off to focus on Japan.

Through Star News, leader Doojoon said, “We were able to receive eight trophies in a month all thanks to our fans. Over 1,500 fans came to our first broadcast, and they’ve been with us until our final stage today, so thank you. I’m proud of all of our members for working hard.”

Maknae Dongwoon continued, “We achieved a triple crown for the first time since our debut, and our fancafe has also gotten over 200,000 fans. Since it was our first album, we felt more pressured and worried, but we feel that our fans gave us a lot of love. It was a month that felt like a good dream.”

When asked about their upcoming international activities, Yoseob replied, “We’ll be starting our Japanese promotions as well as our Asian fan meet tour, so we’re all waiting to meet our fans. We are preparing with hopes of showing a better image.”