MY colleagues and I were discussing the phenomenon that is K-Pop and we were all stumped by one of the questions posed: ”When will it end?”
I mean, in the past couple of years, we’ve been flooded with an what seems to be an unending retinue of Korean pop acts, whether it’s Super Junior, Girls Generation (seen below, picking up an award at last year’s MAMA), Big Bang, Beast, Rain, 2PM, 2AM, 2NE1, 4Minute, T-ara, Kara, G Na, Hyun A, Hyun Joong, BAP, CNBlue, FT Island, Secret, Jay Park, Jung Hyun, and the list goes on…
And it seems like it’ll continue growing.
But more importantly, I think, is the question: I wonder when the Wonder Girls will be coming back here?
Admittedly, I have a thing for the Wonder Girls. Okay, fine. Not quite. Admittedly, my the only reason I know Wonder Girls is because introduction to the whole K-Pop thing started with Wonder Girls. Or rather when the contestants of Singapore Idol 3 were asked to sing a cover by an Asian act (or something like that, music from Asia, whatever), and one of them sang Nob0dy by Wonder Girls.
Sometime in 2010, I had the opportunity to meet the Girls when they were here to launch the then-new Sony Ericsson phone. And I found them to be delightful lasses. Although I have to admit that I didn’t realise I was standing next to them when I first bumped into them at the integrated resort known as Marina Bay Sands, because they hadn’t glammed themselves up – yes, makeup does wonders (no pun intended).
But they seemed like fun people. And when I met them again later in the year, when they turned up for the erstwhile festival known as SingFest. In jest, I asked them to give me a call whenever they needed somebody to take them around Singapore if they were ever in town again.
This was their reaction.
And what happens? Do they call? Do they text? Do they even WhatsApp? (They probably do. I don’t know. I don’t own an iPhone.)
The question is: Have we just passed up on these girls just because other K-Poppers with alphanumeric or acronymed monikers have been blasting us with their sounds? Here’s another question: Would they have been as big if not for Wonder Girls?
Here’s another question: Why aren’t we seeing them here any more? I mean, come on, recording an album? Filming a movie? Is that reason not to come back here?
Come back Girls, come back!
Does that sound desperate? Does that sound like I filched it from Shane? (It’s a good film, by the way. Er, Shane, not the Wonder Girls flick – ‘cos I haven’t seen that yet, have I?)
Well, if nothing else, if they don’t want to come back here, never mind. we’ll always have Paris. Okay, these pictures. We’ll always have these pictures.
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