usually describing the type of music
that emerged over the past 20 years in
South Korea a lot of the times k-pop
artists will coming groups all with
different roles such as main vocal main
rapper main dancer visual and more doing
different parts of the performance so
I’m from South Korea where kpop is
originated from and pretty much I’ve had
kpop around me my whole life but here’s
my official open door to kpop industry
when I was 5 years old my dad showed me
a music video of a song called tell me
by Wonder Girls and I basically fell in
love with the whole concept of the song
I love how he sang how they look the
lyrics the perfect synchronization of
the choreography and additionally many
kpop music videos have a storyline and
in this particular song one of the
singers dressed up as Wonder Woman
saving people which captured my interest
as a 5 year old so I learned how to sing
and dance the whole song at home with my
3 year old sister watching their video
over and over again my stage was
everywhere including the street markets
where once a woman gave me a free candy
because she thought I was cute and I
guess I was pretty cute but I’m kidding
my introduction to kpop made me have
interest in many other artists and made
me search for more songs for me to sing
and dance to then I start to dream of
becoming a pop star but in 2012 when I
was a 3rd grader I had to leave my home
country the mother of kpop and moved to
another place on the other side of the
world which is the place where I still
live in Sofia Bulgaria a few months
later Gangnam style emerged I hope you
all remember what that was because in my
memory at every school dance the whole
class dance to this song I made an
advertisement to the whole school saying
this guy is Korean and a lot of people
knew already but a lot of people were
surprised as well so I wanted to tell my
friends know about Korean music but they
weren’t really interested because they
didn’t understand Korean but it was only
2012 in 2015 a lot of people had ever
heard of kpop and I started asking me
questions about it
I was so happy they knew what kpop was
or Lisp are curious to find out so I
happily showed more music videos and
this time a lot of my friends genuinely
liked it because of their performance
and their music during last summer I met
so many people in front of National
Palace of Culture through mutual friends
really it was about 50 people more or
less staying in the same area always the
common interests in kpop there are more
people there it just doesn’t show on the
picture I instantly grabbed your
attention and became friends with a lot
of them because first of all I am Korean
second of all I wanted to become friends
with them as well and third of all well
we all listen to kpop I built a special
bond between us just from the fact that
they like kpop like me we could
understand the inside jokes and the news
and gossips of it now two of my friends
who I think are really close to me are
from the people I met during the summer
as well
five days later after get meeting them
for the first time there was an event
called go to Korea organized by some
Korean people living in Sofia it was
like a concert with many different
groups or individuals who sign up to
sing or dance their covers of kpop and
whoever wins the first place will be
able to go to the preliminary round of
kpop World Festival which 72 different
countries participated I got invited
because my dad was one of the organizers
in the judges before actually watching
the show I thought only about 10 teams
at maximum are going to come which was
still a lot for me until I saw a list of
30 groups I started to people I met just
5 days ago where k-pop dancers too and
there’s so many more people who are in
the audience section just to enjoy this
thing called kpop the whole place was
crowded with people who aren’t dancing
the same things as people on stage
chanting the same bank chants and I was
so happy only by being in the same area
as the others who love kpop as much as
me maybe more than me because Dania much
more songs United and even though it
sounds very cliche it feels like I was
United with all the other souls if you
know what I mean we were one after
getting to know the kpoppers I was asked
to come to a party it was a party only
with kpop music in the middle of Sofia
of course I went since it was my first
kpop party I decided to bring one of my
best friend Maria who just newly became
a kpop er in the beginning of the party
it was just the two of us dancing alone
until my summer friends came over and
became friends with Maria then the other
friends of my friends came over and we
were suddenly a big improvise group
dancing and singing as if we all planned
this moment and even though I didn’t
know many people there it felt like I’ve
been friends with them for quite a while
because everyone was encouraging each
other to dance and telling each other
good job again we were one just looking
at everyone becoming one with a single
music style was beautiful so I attended
more events later on in the future and
brought more people including my sister
who I danced with ever since she was 3
and every single one of them felt like a
big family gathering and by the name of
a big family I’m also proud member of
another family called army as you can
tell from my shirt army is a term used
to describe the fanbase of BTS BTS is a
k-pop group of seven boys who write and
produce their own songs if you know me
in person you probably already know that
I’m a huge fan of BTS my closest friends
say that I’m a bit obsessed but it’s
okay because it’s worth falling in love
with them I fell in love with them three
years ago looking at how they sing dance
rap and all of their powerful
performances including their
personalities so armies like me have
nominated BTS for a billboard award and
soon they have won the top social
artists award of Billboard which broke
the record Justin Bieber had said the
past six years in a row it was a
historic moment when a kpop artist could
win over such a popular international
artists and other popular artists
internationally the first word of their
acceptance speech was army and I
remember that all of my army friends
posted their achievement on the award
once again kpoppers became one by
supporting our favorite music artists
how’s curious to know why my friends
were not Korean seem to be more
interested in kpop than me one of my
close friends said
kpop inspired me to be a dancer and made
me more social because you can have
conversations with people that also
listen to it you may be asking why
should I care about this girl talking
about kpop when most of you guys
probably don’t even listen to kpop right
well when I was writing this speech my
teacher gave me a feedback saying when
I’m presenting kpop music to you guys
I should probably use songs with English
lyrics I didn’t really know what to
reply to that because I thought the
partial good thing about kpop was
creating the awareness or just running
the interest people take on other
cultures and language which I still
think is right but I was trying to see
things from the non Korean perspective
however before I could even say my
opinion my best friend Maria who was
sitting right next to me immediately
contradicted to my teacher by saying
kpop is about the music itself not about
the fact that you maybe do not
understand Korean because that’s not
what kpop is supposed to attract and
maybe you should just try to listen to
kpop I was surprised that this kind of
thinking could come from someone who
just got into this whole idea of kpop
and I could tell that she was already
enjoying the Korean culture not in a
first academic way but through interest
so I’m so proud to have something called
kpop in my country and I think it has
changed our community a lot like how
Western artists are starting to include
choreographies in their songs and how
there is an increasing rate of global
Hallyu or you can call it a Korean Wave
there’s also been an increase in Korean
fashion trends makeup supplies and
YouTube tutorials on them and Korean
terms such as payback for amazing or
Korea boo for people who are not Koreans
but who’d love to be reborn as Koreans
in a way and oppa for pro or honey
I guess there’s also been an increase in
education so an associate professor at
Toronto University calico explains that
kpop has shaped their educational system
in 2010 it was only 35 students taking
Korean language class but in 2016 it
and over 200 people waiting in the queue
that’s amazing
now let me be direct the power of kpop I
found my passion in music from singing
and dancing being inspired by the k-pop
artists I became more confident with
myself and comfortable socializing with
other people like I’m comfortable to be
on this stage right now but just looking
at the fact that I live in Sofia
Bulgaria and I still see a lot of traces
in every corner of the street of kpop
and just looking at everyone being one
in every kpop event how everyone tends
to Gangnam cell at least once and the
increasing rate of the idea of Korea
itself the power of kpop if you look
closely kpop is more than just music
it’s about the excitement socialization
and unity thank you
[Applause] [Music]