“Idol Star Athletics & Swimming Championship” reveals confirmed stars for swimming segment

MBC’s Lunar New Year special, “Idol Star Athletics & Swimming Championships,” revealed their confirmed cast list for the swimming segment of their program.

The segment was recorded at the indoor Ilsan swimming pool on January 30th. The female division saw stars like 4minute’s Gayoon, T-ara’s Hwayoung, Nine Muses‘ Eunji and Lee Saem, SISTAR’sDasom, Dal Shabet’s Jiyul, Girl’s Day’s Yura and Minah, LPG’s Semi, Rainbow’s Jaekyung,Woori, and Seung Ah, An Jin Kyung, and NS Yoonji race down the lanes.

The male division saw SHINee’s Minho, 2AM’s Seulong, MBLAQ’s Lee Joon, Dalmatian’s Daniel,INFINITE’s Woohyun and Seong Yeol, ZE:A’s Dongjun, Siwan, and Heechul, U-KISS’s Soohyunand Eli, TOUCH’s Young Hoon, Teen Top’s Niel, Lee Jang Woo, Son Ho Young, Ha Min Kwan, Kim Kyung Jin, and Marco.

Members from every team were present in support of the contestants. The recording was completely closed to the press, however, due to the controversy surrounding the segment’s potentially sexually suggestive nature. Some had felt that the swimsuits worn by the female idols could be too much for younger viewers.

MBC had responded to the issue by assuring that the contestants would wear swimsuits adhering to regulations. Sports Chosun revealed that the ladies wore black one-piece suits with shorts, while the men wore tight legging-type swim pants, along with a tank top.

A gold medalist from the 2010 Guangzhau Asian Games, Jung Darae, also made a special appearance. Speaking of special appearances, managers on-set revealed that After School’s UEEwas unable to attend, despite her enthusiasm for the event.

Check out the list of stars for the athletics portion here. The program is scheduled for broadcast February 5th and 6th.

‘Dream High’ to hold a special mini-concert episode with viewers

The cast of popular youth drama, ‘Dream High‘, will hold a special mini-concert with their viewers!

The mini-concert is actually part of the recording for a special episode, which will take place on February 24th at Goyang Aram Nuri theatre. Fans can expect to see Park Jin Young, Kang Oh Hyuk, Bae Suzy, Kim Soo Hyun, Ok Taecyeon, Ham Eun Jung, Jang Wooyoung, and IU at the event.

The actors/singers will perform the many songs from the drama, including “Winter Child“, “Someone’s Dream“, and “Dream High“. This event will also deliver behind-the-scenes cuts, which were never shown to the viewers.

Check back with allkpop for further updates on this interesting event!

KARA and JYJ: “Slavery” or “Betrayal”?

With the recent news of KARA’s contract negotiations and JYJ’s “Music Essay” reaching #1, the debate between management companies and artists has once again become a hot topic, and this time both sides are speaking out.

Featured in a segment called, “JYJ and KARA, why did they do it?”, on MBC’s “News Magazine 2580” (시사매거진 2580), representatives from both sides spoke out, and Junsu and Yoochun themselves discussed their controversial decision and artists’ rights.

For one of the first times, Park Yoochun confessed that he fully knew that he “might never be able to be a star again” when he decided to leave SM Entertainment, but even with this realization, he still needed to “find happiness and leave.”

Kim Junsu, Kim Jaejoong, and Park Yoochun left their band, DBSK, and management group, SM Entertainment, in July of 2009, citing differences in regards to the length and terms of contract. The best known of these claims is SM Entertainment’s lack of transparency regarding group finances, and that the 13 year term of contract was far too long. However, the boys’ decision to leave and regroup as JYJ has not been a walk in the park, especially with them facing an unstated ban from popular music programs (SBS Inkigayo, MBC Music Core, and KBS Music Bank all declined to give statements or explanations).

Regarding this, Junsu said, “I think that it is very weird that we cannot appear on broadcast television. I learned that it truly is difficult for a Korean singer to perform on a stage, and it is what I resent most.”

Fast forward to almost a year and a half later, and three members of KARA: Jung Nicole, HanSeungyeon and Kang Jiyoung, have moved to terminate their contract with their management group,DSP. The group also cites lack of transparency and suspected mishandling of group finances – especially regarding the money they raised and earned through overseas promotions and activities in Japan.

On the flipside, the show also did the footwork and found that a management company invests an average $1,800 per person per month during the artists’ training years. Covering everything from food and housing to lessons, promotional fees, and spending money, costs can accrue during the process that could last anywhere from 6 months to 3 years. The segment also cites that one popular 7 member girl group incurred 2.9 billion won in training fees alone over the course of 4 years.

In defense of the industry, a representative from Core Contents Media (the management company of groups T-ARA, Davichi, and 5Dolls) said, “Management companies have to blindly and continuously invest money… Most people underestimate how much money we pour into our artists, and overestimate how much they make when in the market. We do what we can, but this is the way it works.”

With netizens lining up and crying “slavery” or “betrayal”, and with passions still running high, we hope that for the sake of the fans, this battle between artists’ rights and management costs will somehow find a resolution soon.

Khuntoria Special Filming in Jeju Island?

According to this tweet, Khuntoria will be traveling to Jeju Island with Twayair on Wednesday, February 2nd, for a special filming of WGM. But the thing is...the tweet was deleted...so who knows....

SoHyun spots a new look!

With their anticipated comeback any time between February and March, 4Minute and CUBE have been very tight lipped and very careful in releasing too much details about their new concept and music. However we can always count on our maknae, SoHyun. Recently she tweeted a photo of what seems to be a new look. Plus the caption read: I Feel Like Wearing A Baseball Jumper.

It is still, however, anyones guess as to what their new concept will be like. All we can do now is wait for their audio preview which may give a clue as to what they will unleash next into the Kpop scene.

Luna practiced hard for Legally Blonde!

Some photos of Luna practicing for musical Legally Blonde have been revealed recently.

f(x) is rumoured to be making their comeback in this March,hope that Luna can cope with her busy schedule.Credits to Iheartfx for the photos!

HyunA's selca brings spring to Korea

Girl group member HyunA has uploaded a gorgeous new photo to Twitter that has netizens smelling the sweet aroma of springtime.

HyunA tweeted, "I can't be seen being so idle! I'm pretending to be doing audio recording right now in the studio... we are getting ready for 4minute's first CD! It'll be a big hit! If we give it our all it'll definitely go well."

HyunA's sparkling eyes are featured prominently, along with the lyrics to a song on their new album, which she is holding while making a gorgeous expression. The gorgeous spring colors of HyunA's pastel tone nail art has been drawing a lot of attention as well.

Netizens have said, "The selca Queen!," "She is perfect innocence embodied," "When I saw her fingernails I felt that spring had come," etc.