SM Entertainment wants you! At least that’s how it appears, as the Korean entertainment giant is aggressively recruiting fans for several of it’s artist fan clubs. Some of SM’s most popular artists, including BoA, Kang-Ta, and new Korean group Super Junior will be available and ready to join immediately. Membership will include an invitation to each club’s opening ceremony, with each artist scheduled to be in attendance..
Archive for June, 2006
Oricon, the Asian music ranking company, is celebrating it’s 40th birthday this month, and as part of the celebration they are releasing some long-term statistics. Most interesting, being best selling artists from both past and present. Japanese rock group B’z tops the list, with an astonishing 40+ million albums sold over their very illustrious career. Female artist Ayumi Hamasaki is also listed, topping the singles category with over 19 million singles sold. But that was not enough to beat veteran Japanese singer Yumi Matsutoya, who has sold close to 30 million albums dating all the way back to the late 1970’s.
The MTV Asia Awards 2006 are over, and this years show was quite a glittery affair– broadcasted live from Bangkok, Thailand, to over 100 million viewers. It was definitely the place to be for anyone connected to the Asian music industry. Notable winners were: Twins (Hong Kong), Se7en (Korea), and Lee-Hom Wang (Taiwan), all winners of the “Favorite Artist” award from their respective countries. Congratulations to Jolin Tsai who won this years “Style Award” for her contribution to Asian fashion in 2006.
Korean singer Rain is in the news once again, after being named one of Time magazine’s Top 100 “Most Influential People.” The “Time 100″ is a list of the most powerful and innovative people throughout the world, and Rain’s inclusion goes a long way in showing how far Asian entertainment has come in the last 10 years. Just to make certain the vote wasn’t a fluke, Time ran another poll asking whether Rain deserved the designation–69% of the voters answered “Yes!”
Hong Kong pop group Twins caused quite a stir recently, after attending a promotional event in Taiwan’s capital city of Taipei. Crowds were packed in so tightly, that it was quite surprising to learn that no injuries were reported by police. More interesting, was the gift they received from record execs for their dedication and hectic schedule, that has basically forfeited any chance of a holiday anytime soon. Gillian and Charlene accepted the award and joked to reporters that the only holiday they foresee anytime in the near future, were those in their imaginations..
