Korean Pop musical festival held at NUML

Islamabad

Embassy of the Republic of Korea in Islamabad here Saturday organised Korean Pop (K-pop) musical festival at National University of Modern Languages (NUML) that was participated by a large number of students and music lovers beside NUML Rector Brigadier Amin Ullah Khan.

Korean ambassador Suh Dong-gu was guest of honour. 10 teams comprising Pakistani music enthusiasts participated in the event and performed Korean singing and dancing. K-pop is a Korean modern cultural music with stars such as PSY, Big Bang, Girls Generation that are very popular in the world, and are leading the world trends.

A panel of judges comprising Pakistani and Korean judges ranked the performances. Later prizes were distributed among the winners. The K-Pop World Festival has been held annually since 2011. Since then around 2 million people have participated from over 70 countries.

This year, the preliminary round of K-pop World Festival was held for the first ever time in Pakistan where 12 teams were selected from an online audition round and out of which two could not attend the event. Video of winner will be sent to Korean Broadcasting System (KBS). If it is selected, that team will take part in K-Pop World Festival in Changwon, Korea on 30th September 2016.

Ambassador of Korea addressing the participants said that he is excited to visit NUML this time for the K-pop Festival. This event is very special and meaningful because it is the first K-pop event ever being held in Pakistan. I strongly believe that today’s festival will pave the way for the future development of K-pop culture in your great country. Suh Dong-gu told the audience that ‘Hallyu’ is a Korean word and it’s meaning is ‘the Korean Wave.’ The term is widely used to refer the Korean popular culture and entertainment around the world. K-pop is the music element of the Korean Wave and it includes dance pop, pop ballads, electronic rock and hip-hop music. The Wave started in China in the middle of 1990s and was firmly established with the launch of a radio program called ‘Seoul Music Room’ in 1997. The Wave landed in Japan in 2003 with the broadcasting of a popular TV drama ‘Winter Sonata.’

You must have heard the global hit song called ‘Gangnam Style.’ This music video has more than 2.5 billion views as of today. Furthermore, Korean short stories were published for the first time in Pakistani newspapers. Korean ambassador said that he think that this year will be a landmark in opening a new chapter of the Korean Wave here in Pakistan. And I believe that the Wave will provide a precious momentum for the cultural ties between our two great countries in the near future, he added.