JYJ Press Conference in Berlin

Jaejoong, Yuchun and Junsu, better known as JYJ, have become the first Korean band to perform a solo concert in Europe. They chose Barcelona and Berlin for performances scheduled for October 29th and November 6th respectively. Both were preceded by press conferences organized for the press, however the one in Berlin, which KoME had the pleasure to attend, seemed a lot more toned down compared with the one held in Barcelona, where the trio performed two songs and were greeted by a crowd of eager fans. As a matter of fact, judging from the few fans who gathered in front of Koreanisches Kulturzentrum on November 4th, one might say JYJ’s presence in the German capital on that day remained almost unnoticed.

The conference began on time, at 11:30, with a smiling Jaejoong casually striding into the room filled with (mostly Asian) press representatives and greeted everybody with a warm ‘Good morning’ in Korean. Yuchun and Junsu followed, ready for the conference to begin. JYJ were clearly at ease with the situation, they laughed and every once in a while whispered things into each other ears, but otherwise remained in their perfectly professional demeanors, which should come as no surprise bearing in mind their impressive musical background.

The trio shared their thoughts on their European tour, future plans in general as well as a possible return to Europe.

The members started the conference with their impressions of the tour so far.

Junsu: After touring Asia and Northern America we have started our first European tour with a performance in Spain and we will hold our first concert in Berlin on Sunday. To our surprise, we received a very warm welcome here. We are very grateful for that, very happy to be here and excited about the upcoming performance. We hope we will have more events like this in Europe in the future.

Jaejoong: We are really happy to be here in Berlin and we are very thankful that you have shown so much interest in us. We will strive to improve our skills so that we can give you even better shows in the future.

Yuchun: After JYJ was founded, we toured the US and Canada, and finally also Europe. We continue to discover new places and we are always surprised and amazed that there are also people here who support us. We are very grateful for that. For us, Germany is a new place and I am happy that we, as a Korean band, can have the opportunity to travel to new places in the world. Every tour shows us places where we have fans and also future prospects for tour destinations. We will continue to work on our skills to show you better performances. I hope we will see you at Sunday’s concert, for which I am also very grateful.

At your concert in Barcelona you sang and spoke a little Spanish, I was wondering if you prepared anything for the German fans?

Junsu: This will be the second performance in Europe and, yes, we have prepared something – very easy, nothing hard or complicated.

Germany’s culture is very different and, unlike people in the UK or Spain, Germans are known for not showing their passion; when it comes to kpop would it be very difficult to get to the German market? What is the background for having concerts in Barcelona and Berlin? This is also the first solo concert by a Korean band in Europe, what does it mean to you? What are your plans and strategies if you decide to enter the European market? How was the concert in Barcelona and how did it compare with those you have had in Korea?

Jaejoong: This is a very long question (laugh). What the status of kpop in Germany is I don’t really know, likewise I don’t really know much about Germany and what influence our performance will have here. We heard that kpop is not really as well known here as it is in the US or Canada, where people have easy access to our concerts and so their response to our music is normal. Why we have chosen to perform in Berlin – there was no particular reason; we wanted to give a performance not only to fans in Germany but fans from other countries as well and we have heard that Berlin is the city in Europe where many people from different countries come. As regards kpop, we perform in our own style, the JYJ style. Our goal is to stick to the JYJ style of music and the Korean culture as this is what fans liked about us. The Korean Wave is spreading and so we can hold concerts all over the world.

Again, why did you decide to play a concert in Barcelona, and here in Berlin, when you could have played, for example, in Dortmund which is more Korean and where you have a bigger fanbase? About Sunday, what is the status of the ticket sales – were they sold-out? Are there any tickets left? Are you planning a “real” world tour, all over Europe, Asia and America? And a question to Junsu - I heard you are a real football fan; have you been to see a game?

Junsu: We have decided to play in Germany but we would like to play in other countries as well, on other continents too. We chose Barcelona and Berlin as the first so we can embrace fans from Western Europe and, for the latter, from Eastern and Northern Europe, those are also the places that are easily accessible to fans from all over Europe. We will take this opportunity to learn a little more about Europe and show you better concerts in the future.

We are really thankful as all the tickets were sold-out and we were told that the servers crashed within few minutes. This is our first time here and we were really concerned about what it would be like, but our fans have shown us so much love, so we really appreciate that. If the response to our concerts is favourable and we succeed on this tour, I think we will have more chances to visit other European countries and meet our fans here in the future.

Ours will be the first solo kpop concert in Europe and this is a great honour for us. However, it also places a great responsibility on us. We are also touring under our own name and not some huge label for the first time ever. We have toured Korea and America and it somehow evolved into a world tour. But we would like to have a real ‘world tour’ including Australia and South America next time.

The organizers thanked the press for their attention and the press conference was officially ended.

KoME would like to thank Open Music for making it possible for KoME to participate in the conference.