[INTERVIEW] The Wonder Girls

It was August 8 and the Wonder Girls had to work a full schedule all day. An early morning interview took place while makeup and wardrobe was being set up, followed by an autograph session for their fans, and after that, they prepared for the opening act on the Jonas Brothers' tour. A fan meeting which took place after the Jonas Brothers’ concert wrapped up around nearly midnight. That is how the Korean pop sensation Wonder Girls was promoting themselves in the United States. <10 Asia> flew into Los Angeles to find out about their life in America, where they are starting from scratch all over again, two and a half years into their debut.

10Asia: You were originally booked to give 13 performances for the Jonas Brothers, but signed for all 45 of their concerts. How did that happen?
Yubin: It’s a long story. (laugh)
Yenny: We heard about it after the third performance, but we don’t know the exact reason.

10: I heard that Jonas Brothers decided on it after watching you teach the “Nobody” dance in the opening gig.
Yenny: A couple of factors worked together in our favor. We were going to put on our third performance, in Vancouver, when they asked us to sing only one song as the performance had been delayed that night. So we were feeling a bit disappointed and then the microphone wasn’t ready. The staff was running around, and we thought “This is it!” and we taught the audience the “Nobody” dance during the gap time. The crowd reaction was really positive. Plus, there were more Koreans and Asians at the concert than at other places.

10: With a lot of foreigners in the audience, it’s not easy to think so.
Sun: We did so much performing in Korea (laugh) that it toughened us up. We’ve performed with only two microphones before and even sung with a wired microphone.

10: All your recent news is released by Park Jin-young on Twitter. Do you know what Park is nicknamed in Korea these days?
Yenny: Ttuk-go! (laugh)

10: A lot of people wonder, what is the role of Park Jin-young there? That he might be a member of the Wonder Girls fan club. (laugh)
Sun: The spokesperson for rice cake! We don’t know much about the work we do in the U.S., so he is a lot of things. Our manager, English teacher, producer, guitarist and etc. And the mom generation in the Korean-American community adores him. So he brings out that fan base as well. (laugh)

10: I heard even JYP employees get news from Park’s twitter. The news of a new 2PM song was from Twitter.
Sohee: That’s right. Every day he brags that he has more hits. (laugh)
Sun: And he gets his heart broken from all the monitoring.

10: I saw the “Beauty and the Beast” picture that Yubin posted on Twitter. (laugh) Does Park Jin-young feel like a different person there compared to in Korea?”
Yubin: Well, I interacted less with Park than other members did. But since coming to the U.S., we’ve become much closer and more comfortable. Getting to know him, he has a great sense of humor… although it’s a bit stupid at times (laugh). Before I thought of him as a producer and felt uncomfortable around him, but these days he feels more like an uncle or a brother.

10: Yubin, how do you feel about Twitter? When you post something, it becomes news in Korea a few hours later.
Yubin: It’s so great to communicate with fans real-time. What I’m doing now, what I’m preparing, which fun picture to put up, I can post it right away.
Sun: Twittering is so fun. I’m so thankful to the fans who respond right away. And reading the ripples can be educational too. (laugh)
Yenny: Doing twitter, I feel so grateful to the fans in Korea. They could forget all about us, but they come on to Twitter and look up dictionaries to post messages. I was really moved.

10: Yenny once sent a UFO text reply (a service which enables Idol group singers to directly exchange text messages with fans) to fans in Korea. It was like a storm. Fans said they received grace and put up evidence on the internet. What happened that day?
Yenny: It was probably the day before the New York performance. We didn’t have a gig the following night, so we were up all night on the computer and we missed our fans in Korea so much. Here, the audience comes to see the Jonas Brothers, except for a few of our fans. So we missed the people who like us and come to see us. (tearing up inside) Ah, (emotions are) coming back again.
Sun: Ye-eun always gets like this when doing interviews with Korean media. (laugh)

10: In the beginning, Mimi publicly wrote about the emotional difficulties and it became news in the media. It was about the anxieties and worries… was it hard in the U.S.?
Mimi: We were apart from our families even in Korea, but coming to a different country, it got really lonely. Everything was unfamiliar, and I didn’t really know what to do. So it was very hard.
Sun: American fans are more open and we hug, but we’ve never done that with the Korean fans. So Sun-mi used to say we should do an autograph session, fan meeting when we go to Korea. Doing the fan meetings here, we missed our Korean fans a lot.
Mimi: I cried reading the fan cafes.

10: But, on the other, what has been the good side of working in the U.S.? Here you have some freedom to do things, in comparison.
Sohee: In Korea, people say “It’s Wonder Girls!” everywhere we go. But here they don’t know us, so we have to go to them. It’s really funny. Every day we get to know the fans and see their reactions change little by little.

10: So-hee seems more active after the U.S. debut. You said that you felt more energized after the decision (to work in the U.S.) was made.
Sohee: It’s a characteristic of the American people and their culture to say “Oh hi! What’s up!” and to express their emotions. Doing that, my voice gets a pitch higher and I feel different.
Sun: The younger ones don’t get stage fright. They try to eat the stage up. (laugh)

10: Are there any changes in your relationship in a new environment? You’re starting over in everything, unlike in Korea.
Sun: Right now we’re staying in a hotel because we have to perform. But in New York, we live in an apartment and we do all the housework together. On Monday, we did housework after 5 p.m. and it was so fun. When we clean, we really become a team. All the girls like to do things quickly. (laugh)

10: But in the U.S., the reaction toward Wonder Girls is growing. There is video which shows a fan watching Wonder Girls walk around and screaming. Do you feel your popularity increasing in the U.S.?
Sun: The Jonas Brothers fans have a really huge internet community. And they post a lot of concert reviews, and I think we come up in them aw well. And I think those fans are starting to become more aware of us.

10: In one video, I saw that “Nobody” is in the top five dance among U.S. teenagers.
Sun: I think it’s really easy for anyone to follow and enjoy. And I heard that it feels fresh to them. To see five Asians wearing this kind of dress and makeup and singing an addictive song like “Nobody”… And here, nobody dances with this kind of choreography, so it looks really cute to them.
Yubin: I think they think it’s cute. That we are trying so hard to learn English and to see the five of us struggling.. (laugh)

10: So you’re starting to make a name for yourself in the U.S. entertainment industry. You recently made headlines appearing in the Wendy Willams Show on Fox TV. How did that happen?
Sohee: They contacted us out of the blue.
Sun-ye: We couldn’t ask why. Just said “Thank you. We’ll be there right away.” (laugh)

10: What are the entertainment programs like in the U.S.?
Yubin: It’s a talk-show concept. There’s a part for each talk, and we appeared on the performance time.
Sohee: In the U.S., interaction with the audience is more passionate and intimate. I liked the togetherness.

10: On the Wendy Williams Show and at the concerts, the crowd gets louder during Yubin’s rap.
Yubin: I think they are surprised to see a young Asian in a retro dress singing and doing rap.”

10: In one of the interviews Yubin gave in the U.S., I remember her saying that Asians like melodies while American like grooves.
Yubin: Well, it’s not as divided like that these days. But in general, I think Koreans enjoy the sensitive lyrics and melody, while American like the more physical stuff. At concerts, they get up and start dancing.

10: What do you want to accomplish in the U.S.?
Sun: I think it’s a miracle that this kind of opportunity came to us after two and half years of debut. During that time, a lot of good things have happened as well as some bad things, but I think all of it helped us prepare for the present. We don’t always get something, or everything that we want when the opportunity comes. How much effort we put in, that’s what comes back. Sometimes it’s just enough to show us the possibility that we can do something more. I always feel that we got here together, the five of us and not alone, encouraging one another. I would rather do my best one day at a time, rather than try to achieve something. And first, I want to study English hard. (laugh)

Senior Reporter : Kang Myoung-Seok two@10asia.co.kr
Photographer : Chae ki-won ten@10asia.co.kr
Editor : Lynn Kim lynn2878@asiae.co.kr