ISSUE IN SNS

#KCON #Hot Chicken Flavor Ramen

SF9 A Dark-horse Idol Group Shone at KCON

“KCON:TACT 2020 SUMMER,” a hallyu(Korean Wave) festival, finished with great success on June 26. The concert, which was held for one week from June 20, was full of about 600 contents including ones about live-streamed impressive performances and K-culture. Among the contents, an eating show featuring SF9, a Korean boy band, drew a great deal of attention from fans all over the world. On that show, SF9 members ate Korean agricultural food. The show attracted viewers from 92 countries, and its cumulative views reached 1.6 million, making the festival even more successful.

KCON, A Contributor to the Grand Integration into Hallyu Culture

The KCON hosted by CJ ENM is a new type of worldwide musical festival under the theme of “All Things Hallyu”. It is a great combination of large-scale hallyu conventions and concerts. It has been held a total of 24 times and has drawn so far more than 1.1 million audiences from the United States, France, Australia, and Japan since 2012 when it was first started.

This year, the new form of the KCON was introduced due to the new COVID-19 pandemic. A page for “KCON:TACT 2020 SUMMER” was created on YouTube, and programs were aired continuously for 168 hours. The KCON featured 33 teams of singers, and they performed live. There was also an augmented reality(AR)-based online fan meeting that was held for the first time in history.

The Korea Agro-Fisheries & Food Trade Corporation(aT) also took part in the KCON by promoting agricultural products of Korea in cooperation with CJ ENM. It held an event that people could share recipes for Korean dishes, and information on online and offline local buying sources in the United States and the SouthEast Asian region, over SNS, to raise the awareness of Korean agricultural products. In particular, the cooking and eating show featuring SF9, a Korean boy band who is stepping forward as a big-name idol group, caught the eyes of fans around the world.

SF9 Takes a Step Forward to Become an Idol Group Leading Hallyu

SF9 is a 9-member boy band from FNC Entertainment to which popular groups like AOA and F.T.ISLAND belong. “S” of the group name stands for a sensation that the nine boys could create, and “F” stands for the first dance group that was ambitiously formed by FNC Entertainment. The group is expected to become the next idol group that can lead hallyu. Keeping with this group name, the boys shone brightly on the stage and their performance was indeed sensational at the KCON.

After came onto the stage in strong red sleek suits, SF9 performed “Good Guy” and enthralled viewers in front of the screen. Along with the song, they performed a fan song “Life Is So Beautiful” and another song “Now or Never”, making a strong impression on their fans all over the world.

SF9 has recently released a new mini album “9loryUS”, which ranked second in the iTunes K-POP Album Chart in 14 countries including the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, and Thailand. Their continuing popularity does not stop there. The group also ranked third in the iTunes Top Album Chart in 9 countries including Russia and Norway. The boys will heat up the stage again with their title song “Summer Breeze” of 9loryUS.

Tip

Watch how SF9 cooks https://www.youtube.com/watch? v=yDAJGYnpass

How About Trying Some Easy Korean Food Together with SF9?

SF9 members became one-day cooks at the KCON, offering a real feast for the eyes and ears of their fans. On the show, “KCON STUDIO X K-FOOD”, which was created by the aT in cooperation with CJ ENM, SF9 members had a cooking and eating contest. They also played some games like “Guess What’s in the Bag” and “Hearing Things” using Korean agricultural products, intriguing more fans.

SF9 members introduced various easyto-cook dishes including ramyeon with mushrooms, tteokbokki(stir-fried rice cake), tuna and seaweed salad, and butterroasted abalone, and stimulated viewers’ appetites. They also made some Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response (ASMR) sound by eating the foods. A fan said, “The eating ASMR sound makes me wanna eat them too. It sounds sooooooo delicious.” Another fan showed interest, saying “I will make the Korean dishes myself while watching them on the show.” The SF9’s easy-to-follow recipe is introduced in the K-Food Recipe section.