I Want To Be A Korean Pop Singer: The End Of An Experience

So last Saturday my partner and I went to Nagoya to sing in round 2 of the KPOP competition. There were 27 entries in total. We all arrived around 12pm for rehearsals where we were told how the real competition would play out and also each got to do a short sound check. With 27 performances it took almost 3 hours to get through this. The other contestants consisted of all Japanese people and mostly girls. out of more than 40 people there were about 8 guys only and I was definitely the only black guy there. There were three categories:

1. Dance
2. Ballad
3. Traditional song

 After rehearsals we had about 25 minutes of free time in which like us most people used to rehearse some more. The actual contest began at 3pm. To try and fit everything into the small 3 hour time frame they had given it they were not allowing some contestants to complete their entire songs. I thought this was pretty stupid because it was the semi finals competition and everyone should have the chance to sing and perform their songs in its entirety just as they have been practicing so hard to do before the contest. Instead they would sound a bell that would mean the contestant needed to stop singing and then the host would come out and waste 2 or more minutes talking to the contestants. While I like the fact that the contestants are able to explain a little about themselves or their songs via the questions I think they should also be able to finish their songs. For me personally finishing the song was more important to me than answering some simple questions. Thankfully are group was one of the few that did get to finish the song but I still felt a little bad for those who didn't.

My partner Sayaka and I.

 Everyone at this years semi-finals did a good job. There were a lot of good singing voices and some good performances.

These guys got a special "Most popular award". They had a really energetic song and dance and even had special costumes.

All girls dance group. They had a cute color scheme with individual matching shoes and shirts.



I believe this group won the award for "Best Dance" but to be honest I don`t really remember and I think they changed outfits during award ceremony.


I was pretty nervous before getting on stage but after the music began my anxieties all disappeared and I just enjoyed the performance. After all the performances were done there was two special performances, one by two girls who were in last years competition and another by a Korean actor/singer from a popular drama  back in 2009. Sadly we did not make it to the finals but it was a fun and interesting experience. I would never imagine trying to sing in a competition. It's something I am not particularly good at but I just enjoy doing for fun. To be honest I don't think we really fitted into any of the categories. We were entered into the Dance but we weren't a dance act and there were other dance groups that really did a lot of dancing. The Ballad group wasn't for us either and the singers in that category really were all about having really good voices and next to no performance and the Traditional Song group was definitely not for us. Can't say I'm not a little disappointed as I would have loved to been able to say I went to Tokyo for a KPOP finals competition in Japan but it was fun while it lasted. I'm more disappointed that I couldn't help win it for my partner.

Answering some questions in Japanese from the MC after the performance.

There was someone there recording all of the performances which will later be on YouTube. When they are posted I will post a link here on my blog. Until then I present you me and my partner`s performance. Here is Sayaka featuring Christian performing the song "Chansori" by IU ft Seulong.