In Belgium, the Korean Cultural Center (President Kim Jae-hwan) holds a meeting and communication between the next-generation K-pop group ACE and Belgian K-pop fans from 9 pm (2 pm, Belgium) on August 18. An online event, ‘K-Pop Summer Talk,’ will be held. This event will be carried life in real-time, connecting Korea and Belgium through the official YouTube channel of the Korean Cultural Center in Belgium.
‘K-Pop Summer Talk’ is divided into two parts. In the first part, each ACE member’s favorite K-Pop ‘Favorite Song (Favorite Song)’ is revealed, and the behind-the-scenes story is told. In addition, ACE members will have a communication time to directly answer questions from local fans that have been delivered in advance. In Part 2, 5 finalists of the ‘K-Pop Video Contest’ held from July 19 to August 13 will appear and introduce stories related to their favorite K-pop songs and videos they have made. An awards ceremony will be held for the three winners of the video contest selected by ACE members in the final order.
In Belgium, the Korean Cultural Center held a K-Pop Shorts Video Contest for about a month (July 19 to August 13) before the ‘K-Pop Summer Talk.’ ‘Shorts’ video is a video format newly supported by YouTube, and it is a format specialized for the younger generation who are familiar with smartphones. When playing a YouTube video with a smartphone, a black bar (black border invisible due to the difference in the screen size and video format) appears. Still, short-format videos can be viewed while filling the screen of the smartphone.
Each of the five finalists in the video contest consists of various themes. Kimia selected BTS member J-Hope’s song ‘Chiken Noodle Soup’ and performed a dynamic choreography to match the song. Cadia introduced NCT DREAM’s ‘Music Box’ as her favorite song and mastered the drawing skills of NCT DREAM member fan art. Leah chose Taeyeon’s ‘WEEKEND .’ Like the song’s lyrics, she made a video with an amusement park in the background. Morgana explained the meaning of the message conveyed by Taemin’s ‘ADVICE’ and put the task of drawing Taemin’s portrait with fan art in the background of the song in 1 minute in rapid development. Finally, Molly chose ‘Descendants of the Warriors’ from the 90s group HOT to reproduce Korean 90s fashion and choreography in her room.
This video contest is an event that any K-pop fan residing in Belgium can participate in. They selected their favorite K-pop song and produced it in an accessible format in the form of shorts within one minute and participated in the contest. Sixty-eight videos that went through the preliminary rounds and reached the finals were posted on YouTube at the Korean Cultural Center. Five finalists were selected by adding the number of ‘likes’ and ‘comments’ from visitors. It has attracted the attention of local K-Pop fans as an interactive online event that recorded 80,000 cumulative views on videos related to this contest alone.
Following the online real-time event ‘K-Pop Talk’ to be held on August 18, an online ‘K-Pop Summer Class’ will be held starting from August 20, where ACE members directly teach the choreography of their hit songs. Various K-pop events to be held over two months this summer can all be viewed on the YouTube channel of the Korean Cultural Center in Belgium.