Starting with the ‘2011 SBS Gayo Daejun‘ on December 29th, this will be one hell of a week for artists as they attend back to back year-end ceremonies on top of their day to day schedules.
Although they admit that they wouldn’t miss such prestigious events for the world, they can’t help but lament at the intense work that comes with it. The growth of K-Pop globally has attributed to the rising prestige of the ceremonies, and artists that would have foregone them for international events in previous years are now making sure to work their schedules around to fit everything in.
Agencies and idol groups are realizing that their international popularity is further boosted when they achieve #1 in Korea. Thus, some will pre-record their international schedules or connect live from overseas, making sure to get their face time in for their Korean fans.
Idol singers are all “looking forward to the Korean year-end ceremonies” in light of the global attention K-Pop is receiving. Representatives of idols expressed, “We used to attend these ceremonies not very eagerly due to the fact that award shows started gradually disappearing and achieving very low viewer ratings. Now that the groups are promoting more actively overseas, they’re ironically realizing the importance of the support of their Korean fans.”
The idols have to come up with new performances and go through three nights of no rest and endless rehearsals, in order to keep up with all of the ceremonies. For the more popular artists, they’ll have to prepare for different joint collaborations and change up their choreography for remix stages.
Some networks will even cut out and shorten songs to fit their own broadcasting times, requiring rigorous practice to get everything down.
Every second counts and artists must prepare for every possible circumstance, especially when last minute changes are made. This is especially frustrating when they have less time to practice, but the standards of the viewers and audience have risen.
One idol group has even taken to the extreme measure of getting IV treatments to keep up with the demanding schedule, while another girl group is under surveillance for their worsening health condition from practicing all through the night every day.
One representative of a popular artist expressed, “During the year-end, the health of the artists and their representatives drop to its absolute worst. It’s really not easy having to go through three consecutive days of schedule, all focused on dance performances.”