Since I’m in Korea, I have to go see a music show, right? When and where else will I be able to see KPop stars perform?! A lot of my favorite groups are currently promoting in Korea, but recordings of groups like Big Bang and SHINee are too difficult to get into so I decided to go see another one of my favorites instead–CNBLUE! Getting into a music show recording is free, but you must have the artist’s CD. I just bought a CD off of my friend who already had 20 CDs. She bought 20 to get drawings into their fan signs… it was crazy, but I guess it was worth it since she got into 3 fan signs. Lately, I have been caught up in classes and traveling so I haven’t had a chance to go to the music show. Truthfully, I am also just too lazy to go. I love sleep too much and once I finally got to Korea, I was not that interested in the music anymore. It’s probably because there’s so much more to do here, but this weekend was the last weekend CNBLUE was promoting, so I had to make myself go or my purchase would be a waste.
To start off my day, I had to wake up and leave at 5 AM, so I decided not to sleep at all. My friends and I caught the first running subway and went to SBS broadcasting station for the recording of Inkigayo. It was only 6am and a small group of girls was already gathered outside. We had to search for BOICE–CNBLUE’s fan club and found a tiny paper taped to the wall with a phone number. We had to call the number to get our names on the list. I thought I was early, but I was already number 87 in line. The weather that day was also rainy and cold. Now, the waiting (in the cold and rain) begins.
BOICE was not the only fan club present. There were also fan clubs of Big Bang, SHINee, Exo-K, and more. I was surprise to discover most of the fans were youngins–little middle school girls. I met some really cute, funny, and hardcore CNBLUE fans who spoke to us in broken English. They complimented my friend on her tiny face and then told my other friend that her skin is so white and envied her high nose and blue eyes. It is interesting to see how much they idolize European features.
Around 11am, some staff workers came out and told CNBLUE fans to temporarily be SISTAR fans. SISTAR only had about 7 real ahjussi fans (middle aged men) so they needed people to fill the seats and cheer for their recording.
SISTAR’s real fans: Ahjussis
We were then lined up and let inside to the recording. The stage was still being set up and cleaned, and someone was even painting the background. We were seated and the staff told us to cheer, pointing to the two microphones hanging from the ceiling. Then, SISTAR came out and performed 5 times for the recording. After each performance, they went off stage for a short break while the staff mopped the stage again and again. The singing was live and their performance was really impressive. They were really pretty and friendly even though we were not their true fans. It must be tiring to perform over and over again. It sucks that we were not allowed to take pictures inside, but being the rebel that I am (check out my previous blog when I went to North Korea!), I snuck a few pictures of the stage anyway.
Most useful phrase of the week: “What time is it now?” = 지금, 몇시예요? (ji-geum,myeot shi-eh-yo?)
