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| yna@yna.co.kr 2022-08-25 10:12:21
SEOUL August 25 (Yonhap) -- K-pop groups are continuing with their activities at the antipode of South Korea, Latin America.
K-pop boy group T1419 released their track “When The Sun Goes Down” fully written in Spanish in July and started their pursuit at the music industry in Latin America, according to the music industry on Thursday.
In the past, K-pop idols would oftentimes release their Korean tracks in various different languages for their global fans, however it is very rare for k-pop group to release a original Spanish track.
T1419 appeared on a lot of TV programs throughout Mexico and “Premios Juventud 2022” in Puerto Rico throughout the summer, to help out with T1419’s public recognition
“Thousands of fans and numerous media personals crowded up the Airport to meet T1419” adding “At the scene of T1419’s arrival, fans screamed out the members name so loud to a point where the announcement at the airport could not be heard.” band’s agency MLD Entertainment described the scene of T1419’s arrival.
K-pop girl group Momoland also flew out to Mexico to participated in the local TV programs and started their promotion throughout Latin America. In January of 2022 Momoland collaborated with famous Latin Pop singer songwriter Natti Natasha and released an English song in order to target the Latin American music industry.
Moreover, mix gender quartet “KARD” went on a Latin American trip in order to celebrate member J.Seph for being down with his military service. Concert tour of KARD happened in 7 cities in 5 different countries starting in Brazil followed by Chile, Mexico Argentina and more.
KARD is a very unique K-pop group in a sense that they are mix gendered, also they built up their reputation among Latin America K-pop fans since their pre debut track “OHNANA”from 2016, which is based on bouncy moombahton genre also known as mixture of reggaeton and house music.
Along with Latin American tour KARD released a video of them and American Latin Pop singer Bad Bunny performing Brazilian popular singer songwriter Luisa Sonza’s hit songs which demonstrated their effort to be one step closer to their Latin American fans.
G(I)-Dle also performed not only in North America but throughout Latin American countries. Following the lead of K-pop groups, rookie k-pop boy group Omega X will be kicking off their first world tour starting in Mexico, followed by Columbia and Brazil.
It has been a while since K-pop concerts started to happened in Latin America.
10 years ago from now, in 2012, group JYJ hosted their world tour in Chile which was considered the “Wasteland of Hallyu” and drew a lot of attention, in 2013 Juper Junior hosted their signature concert “Super Show” in Brazil.
Afterwards, K-pop and Hallyu stormed the world and most of K-pop giants started to focus on Japan, North America and Europe which withholds considerably big markets for K-pop music. On top of that due to COVID 19 all the concerts got canceled and disappeared until further noticed.
Finally in 2022, pandemic is dying down so the second wave of K-pop idol are flooding into the music scene in Latin America to start off their foreign career through.
Ticket Sales related to Latin American concerts are not regulated by South Korean entertainment agencies, instead they are working with local agencies and the members are paid fixed amount.
Although the buying power of Latin America may lack compare to some other leading countries, working with local agency decreases the risk related to ticket sales and go with more secure way of earning money.
“Fame of South Korean superstar group BTS and BLACKPINK are continued in Latin America as well, hence audiences at the K-pop concerts enjoy and positively react to rookie K-pop groups performance throughout the concert as well.” adding “The act of Latin American fans singing along to upbeat K-pop tracks show commonality along the lines of sensibility.” announced one of the K-pop agencies.
According to Korea Customs Service, exportation and sales regarding K-pop album in Mexico from January of 2022 to July of 2022 totaled over 1.3 million dollars. Compared to 2021,which totaled at about 500 thousand dollars, it showed increase of 194 percent.
“Shown in the example of Bad Bunny who recently topped Billboard album chart, Latin music are at its hype in so called ‘Market of Dreams’ (American Music market)” adding “Latin American Music industry will work as a bridge to North American Music market in a near future. Success in Latin America will provide better shot in bigger market.” One of the K-pop agency’s official emphasized the importance of Latin American music market.
K-pop boy group T1419 performed at an American morning show conducted fully in Spanish on July 26, after their Latin American Tour. Overall audience of that specific episode exceeded over 4.5 million, announced the group’s agency.
Another official from different K-pop agency described “Latin American fans are very passionate about music.” adding “To be frank, unless its BTS performing at the venue, not all the audiences are in love with the group, however they are well aware of how to enjoy and have fun to the K-pop music performed at the venue. Therefore, satisfaction level are comparably higher than the most.”
(This article is translated from Korean to English by Joonha Yoo)
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