Last Saturday, September 22, was the fourth Asia Song Festival. Thankfully, the venue for this year’s event is in Seoul. I sent a request for a ticket on September 10 and got a reply a few days after. Anyway, I didn’t bother to get my ticket since one of my friends had secured four VIP tickets and I just used one of those. Non-Koreans were given tickets to the VIP area. I guess this is one of those times you’d be thankful for being a foreigner here. On the day before the event, the performers attended a press conference. According to a friend, who attended the presscon, Barbie Almalbis was asked what she thought of Korean men. She answered that “they are cute but the most good-looking person in the room is my husband.” My friend couldn’t agree with her more. We all know that she’s married to a Honasan.
We arrived at the Seoul World Cup Stadium at exactly six o’ clock in the evening. My home is a 35 minute subway ride on the same line (Line 6, brown). There were thousands of teenagers dressed in red, blue and yellow shirts representing different fan clubs. The fans came in full force. My eardrums are still numb from their screams. The performers who attended the event are Lee Hyori, TVXQ, Super Junior, FT Island and SG Wanna Be for Korea; Barbie Almalbis for the Philippines; rock band Peter Pan from Indonesia; sexy singers Vicki from China, Kuraki Mai of Japan and Gigi Leung from Hongkong; F4 and A-mei from Taiwan; from Thailand are James and the duo Golf and Mike; and Lam Truong from Vietnam completes the list.
The event was hosted by Eugene (of the dramas Wonderful Life, Loving You, Save the Last Dance) and Choi Gi Hwan. Eugene hosted mostly in English while the latter in Korean. Screams were heard everytime the hosts mentioned the names of TVXQ, SG Wanna Be and Super Junior. The opening act by a traditional drum group and the B-boys (?) was more interesting than most of the headliners’ performances. The invited non-Korean acts sang in their native languages. Barbie sang two songs, Overdrive and Torpe. After watching all the other female acts, I’d say I have more respect for Barbie. She played her guitar and sang live and I guess she’s really one cool rockin’ chick. One of the female performers bored me to death. I’m not gonna say who but she sang three songs and it was really one of the most boring performances, but that’s just me. Others could have enjoyed her super short skirts, though.
My friends and I couldn’t help but scream when F4 came out (eventhough I’m not really a fan!). They were interviewed but only Vaness came out to perform. Sorry but I don’t remember what he sang. The Indonesian rock band Peter Pan was good. It’s unfortunate that international artists had to perform in their native languages. I would’ve probably appreciated them more if I could understand their songs. Anyway, I’m looking forward to another Asia Song Festival. I missed Ayumi Hamasaki three years ago and Arashi last year. I really like Ayu. Her songs and Dave Matthew’s Band’s are what I listen to on my four-year old MP3 player.
hello betchay! how was the show? i knew you had a great time there. sa news dito, they said that it would be kitchie nadal representing the philippines, but as you said it was barbie almalbis. i hope she gave justice to the songs she performed, magaling naman siya talaga. i’ve seen her in the past, when she was still a member of hungry young poets and barbie’s cradle.
hi marian! the show was ok… it was raining and the crowd was really noisy! kitchie nadal represented the philippines last year… sabi ng friend ko na nakapanood boring daw yung kay kitchie… i like barbie… she’s a breath of fresh air at malayong malayo sa mga kagaya ni Lee Hyori… hehehe
do u know any site where i can get a list of contacts of south korean celebrities? i need to know how to contact dbsk, or even just one of them.
w0w..Good~~^^
did u take a picture??