Complete winners of the Billboard Japan Music Awards

By JONATHAN HICAP, Manila Bulletin

MANILA, Philippines – Japanese girl group AKB48 swept the Billboard Japan Music Awards, bagging four awards including the Artist of the Year.

AKB48 (Billboard Japan)

T-ara (Billboard Japan)

Forbes Korea's Top 'Power Celebrity 40' ranking

By JONATHAN HICAP, Manila Bulletin

MANILA, Philippines – K-pop group Girls Generation topped Forbes Korea’s “Power Celebrity 40” ranking for the second straight year.

The list is based on the celebrities’ income, influence and reputation.

Photos courtesy of www.newsen.com

[Korea.net]: K-Pop's official debut

2011 was an exciting year for K-Pop fans and the Korean music industry. In August, Billboard opened a new chart for K-Pop music, Billboard K-Pop Chart. Following the J-pop Chart, this is the second release of a country based music chart from Asia. And only a few months later, Google operated webcast provider YouTube launched its K-Pop Channel online. 

The news created a buzz among fans and industry experts alike as it was the first time that YouTube had created an exclusive channel for any one country. The main reason for the decision was based on the fact that there are over 5 million K-Pop related webcasts on YouTube, but only 600,000 of these can be found using the search word ‘K-Pop’. A separate K-Pop channel was in demand to facilitate the search for Korean music for K-Pop fans worldwide. 

Filipino Fans Celebrate TVXQ/JYJ with 9G: The Red Room Exhibit

MANILA, Philippines – Filipino fans belonging to Cassiopeia Philippines will celebrate the career and music of boy bands TVXQ/JYJ with the holding of their ninth gathering dubbed as “9G: The Red Room Exhibit.”

The event will be held on Feb. 25, from 12 noon to 10PM, at the Top Shelf of Fully Booked at Bonifacio High Street in Taguig City.

Cassiopeia Philippines, which was named as the 2011 Fanclub of the Year at the 3rd Philippine K-pop Awards last Dec. 30, has been in existence since 2006 to support and promote TVXQ and JYJ.

The “9G: The Red Room Exhibit” will be held on Feb. 25.
(Photos courtesy of Cassiopeia Philippines’ Facebook page)

JYJ on a roll in Korea, TVXQ shines in Japan

By JONATHAN M. HICAP
Manila Bulletin 

MANILA, Philippines — Boy bands JYJ and TVXQ, whose members used to be in one group, have achieved No. 1 feats with their albums in Korea and Japan, respectively.

Stars pick Yoochun, TVXQ as best Korean idols in survey

By JONATHAN M. HICAP
Manila Bulletin

MANILA, Philippines – JYJ’s Micky Yoochun has been chosen as the best idol actor while boy band TVXQ was picked as having the most impressive performance by fellow Korean singers in a survey held recently.

Two Pinoy fans win in KBS K-pop contest in Seoul

By JONATHAN M. HICAP
Manila Bulletin 

MANILA, Philippines – Three K-pop fans, one from Singapore and two from the Philippines, won in a K-pop sing and dance contest held by Korean TV channel KBS World in Seoul, South Korea to celebrate its eighth anniversary on July 1.

6 K-pop singers make it to Oricon chart's Top 50 bestselling artists for 1st half of 2011

By JONATHAN M. HICAP, Manila Bulletin

MANILA, Philippines - Oricon chart has released the list of the Top 50 artists in the Japanese music market for the first half of 2011, based on singles, albums and DVD sales.

While the rankings are dominated by Japanese singers, six K-pop singers made it to the list, namely TVXQ, Big Bang, KARA, CNBlue, Girls Generation and Jang Geun Suk.

K-pop overtakes dramas as main purveyor of the Korean wave

JONATHAN M. HICAP
Manila Bulletin 

MANILA, Philippines -- A decade ago, Korean dramas were the main driver of hallyu, or the Korean wave, with such hits “Winter Sonata,” “Jewel in the Palace,” “My Name is Kim Sam Soon” and “Coffee Prince."

But with the explosion of the internet and social networking sites such as Facebook, YouTube and Twitter in the past few years, Korean pop music, or K-pop, has overtaken Korean dramas to become the  top purveyor of the Korean wave worldwide.

Spreadin' the Korean Wave: JYJ to hold concert in Thailand in April

Thai fans, get ready for JYJ.

Thai company 411 Entertainment has announced that popular K-pop trio JYJ, composed of Xiah Junsu, Micky Yoochun and Youngwoong Jaejoong, will be holding a two-day concert in Bangkok, Thailand in April.