Korean Culture Centre opens auditions for Korean pop contest

GANGTOK, 16 June: The much-awaited contest for Korean pop fans in India has been announced by Korean Cultural Centre India on Friday. Unlike previous years, this time the auditions will be held in four Indian cities (Mumbai, Dimapur, Chennai and New Delhi) for the first time and the grand finale is scheduled to take place at Sirifort Auditorium, New Delhi on 30 August.

As per a press release, the Northeast round of live auditions will be held on 26 July at IMC Hall, Dimapur with 12 participants (6 singing teams + 6 dance teams) from the region selected via the preliminary online round.

The contest entries will run until the 13 July. This will be the period to submit and upload videos of contestants performing a song or dance cover of any Korean artists within the video-length of 5 minutes each on the official contest website kpopindia.com starting 05 June onward.

The winning team will be taken on an all-expenses-paid trip to South Korea sponsored by Korean Cultural Centre India and an opportunity to perform in the K-Pop World Festival in Changwon, the release informs.

Last year, New Delhi-based Crazy Freaks Dance Crew won the contest and went on to perform at the K-Pop World Dance Festival 2013 in Gangwon, South Korea where dance teams from all over the world competed.

K-pop is a musical genre originating in South Korea that is characterized by a wide variety of audiovisual elements. Although it comprises all genres of "popular music" within South Korea, the term is more often used in a narrower sense to describe a modern form of South Korean pop music covering mostly dance-pop, pop ballad, electronic, rock, hip-hop, R&B, etc.

First gaining popularity in East Asia in the late 1990s, K-pop entered the Japanese music market towards the turn of the 21st century. In the late 2000s, it grew from a musical genre into a subculture among teenagers and young adults of East and Southeast Asia. Currently, the spread of K-pop to other regions of the world, via the Korean wave can be easily seen, in India.

Due to the persistent efforts of Korean Cultural Centre, K-pop which forms the integral part of the current Korean Culture has marked its success and popularity in India during the K-pop festival held back in 2012 and 2013. Now K-Pop - short for Korean Pop - is a genre of music that the Indians are finding attractive. For other Indians, Psy and his iconic Gangnam Style worked as an initiation into the genre, so much so that even in a Punjabi wedding in North India, you see people grooving to the beats of the song.

Korean Cultural Centre in association with their partners is organising this big festival again this year.