We prepare phrases that we’ll say to fans from each country at every concert. At this concert in France, I said in French, “I saw the picture of you protesting for us to hold another concert. After seeing you guys in person, you are much prettier.” Like this, I think our weapon is our friendliness to communicate with our fans frequently. (Super Junior’s Leeteuk)
Super Junior is a team that was made with the concept of the gateway of Asian super star. But their popularity has spread in Europe and South America and not just Asia. They are leading the new Hallyu wave.
I met with Super Junior’s two members Leeteuk(28) and Eunhyuk(25) who successfully finished the concert in Paris at the SM Entertainment building in Chungdam, Seoul on June 21. They have a total of 10 members, but they are busy doing their own individual schedule that only time they would gather together is when they are doing a concert overseas. The two members were busy recording their next album.
“We had received much popularity from Asia and done a lot of activities there, but it felt like a festival with just us. But when we did the concert in Paris, the response was different. It is definitely motivating us.” Leader Leeteuk talked about his feeling on finishing the concert in Paris. He added, “I feel proud that our culture was re-exported to a culturally powerful nation.”
To Super Junior, the expansion into the world has become a new momentum. Their expansion into the world market has changed the duration of popularity of idols who normally could not have maintained their popularity over 5 years. It has been 6 years since they debuted and with their concert in Paris on the 10th, they are being assessed as the idol group that’s opening a new horizon of Hallyu.
“For the last 3 years, we held Super Show all over Asia.” We are planning to include Europe, South America, and the Middle East into our world tour. I heard that there was a protest in Turkey recently for us to perform there.”
Super Junior are already super stars in Asia. Their song “Miinah” has been number one for 55 weeks on a music chart in Taiwan. Eunhyuk was the first foreigner to be the permanent guest on a radio program in Taiwan. In Asia, they are not foreign singers that only some fans recognize. They are so famous that they even get recognized by people on the street.
“There is a phrase that with ice cream, there’s fun in picking a flavor. With our team, we have various members that our fans are diverse. Various colors can be shown in one team such as a friend who sings well, a friend who’s handsome, a friend who dances well, and a friend who’s funny.”
Leeteuk explained that Super Junior are not just idol singers and that they are the compilation of a variety of cultural contents. When a member lacks in something, that part is filled by another member creating a synergy effect.
Eunhyuk chose friendliness as Super Junior’s strength. Previous idols were handsome and they were mysterious, someone who you could only meet on stage. Idols nowadays are actively appearing on TV and are working hard to be close to their fans. They explained that it is the reason why they regularly appear on variety shows.
SNS such as Youtube, Twitter, and Facebook which has been the driving force behind the Hallyu wave works to spread their friendliness and image and not just music all over the world.
“All of our members do Twitter. There are online translation services now that we can communicate with fans overseas right away. I speak some Chinese so I write in Chinese sometimes. When I went to the concert in Paris, I worried that there won’t be a lot of fans at the airport. So I wrote on Twitter about it a lot.
Source Hankooki
Translated by Minnie @ SUJUISM.BLOGSPOT.COM
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