With the K wave riding strong in Singapore, the next Korean group to touch base following F.T. Island, SHINee, Super Junior, U-Kiss, Wonder Girls and Beast is the up-and-coming four-member ballad boyband, 2AM, who were here for a one-day only showcase.
Although the group initially made their debut under the moniker ‘One Day’ with fellow Korean group, 2PM, they branched out and formed a separate entity, specializing in romantic love ballads. But sappy love tunes aren’t all there is to them as proved in a press conference held with the quartet at Fairmont Hotel yesterday afternoon.
Dabbling with techno-inspired music in their latest album, I Did Wrong, it seems like the boys are stepping out of their ballad personas, bubbling with eagerness to branch out into different types of song and dance for their upcoming album. It’s time for the melancholic tunes of emotional confessions and unrequited love to stand aside — the boys are coming out of their shells.
Looking suave and charming in matching crisp white suits accentuated by a mish-mash of green cropped blazers and little bowties, the boys went through rigorous training regimes in their salad days before taking the stage in 2008. As leader of the group, Jo Kwon shared that he had to undergo eight years of both vocal and dance training.
They had to practice being ballad crooners even before they became singers. Being multi-talented was a requirement and believe it or not, Seulong, the second youngest of the group also revealed that they received “acrobat training” during their newbie days.
Going by their heart wrenching love tunes, one would reckon the boys’ love lives to be teeming with romantic encounters and bittersweet first loves. However, their coy answers aptly displayed the group members’ tender ages when they were quizzed about the most romantic gesture done for a girl.
With their average age standing at 22 years old, Jinwoo, the youngest of the group (he’s 19) shared that he once “planned a surprise event with flowers and cake for a girl” while Changmin — the oldest at 24 — presented a girl with a music video comprising of edited photographs.
Moving on, Seulong, who shared that he doesn’t mind dating a younger or older woman, was quick to deny any romantic buzz in his life. However, the 23-year-old later admitted that he once serenaded a girl with a tune — strikingly similar to what Jo Kwon did for his onscreen ‘We Got Married’ wife, Ga-in (from Korean girl group Brown Eyed Girls), clearly maximising the most of their vocal talents.
“The second song I performed for Ga-in called ‘Confess’. It is currently very popular in Korea,” Jo Kwon quipped.
The spontaneous leader who stars as a make-believe couple with Ga-in on the Korean variety programme, We Got Married, is famous for his parody take of Brown Eyed Girls’ hit song and dance called ‘Abracadabra’.
Together with Seulong, the pair nicknamed themselves the ‘Dirty Eyed Girls’ and the spontaneous 2AM leader was more than willing to oblige reporters with a short performance of the hip-gyrating dance move.
He pulled it off effortlessly, adroitly displaying his strong dance foundations with each swagger and sway. If the boys had desired to “show something different” to them from their usual soulful love ballads, you can be sure they most definitely did so yesterday.
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Posted in Chinese Entertainment, newsfeed by spcnet.tv | No Comments »
July 30th, 2010
