Wonder Girls: “Popularity is Fleeting. We Don’t Regret Going to U.S.”

Dec 15, 2011

On December 15, the Wonder Girls appeared on YTN’s “News & Issue” and talked about their popularity, competition, and music.

The show asked why the girls decided to move to the U.S. when they were already enjoying so much success in Korea. “A lot of people think that way, but popularity can be such a fleeting thing. At some point you eventually lose it. If you insist on holding on to it, and give up on the career path that you long dreamed of—wouldn’t you regret it more that way? There are a lot of things I learned from the U.S. promotions. We’ll probably never enjoy the same level of success as back then (in Korea), but I don’t believe we lost anything and I don’t regret moving to the U.S.,” Ye Eun said.

The hosts followed up by asking, “You promoted in the States for a year and a half. In that span, your popularity in Korea took a hit, while SNSD did really well. Did you feel any pressure?” The girls carefully answered the somewhat sensitive question as Sunye said, “Instead of pressure, we felt sorry to the fans and family members who waited for us for so long because we couldn’t show them anything. The year and a half (in the U.S.) is a period we can’t trade with anything. It’s hard to judge whether it was a success or failure, but nonetheless, it was valuable experience for us.”

Sohee added, “The toughest thing about living in the States was the language barrier. I’m still taking English lessons every day working hard on my English.” Ye Eun also said, “We love meeting with SNSD. We trade CDs and our friendship just continues to grow.”

They were also asked if they like any of the younger artists lately. “We care about our group the most, but we’ve seen a lot of new girl groups lately and they’re all very talented.” Yoobin expressed her admiration for IU, as she said, “I used to train with IU when I was a trainee. I guess that makes me pay more attention to her activities and I think she’s really cute on stage. IU was always really good at singing and had really catchy vocals.”

The hosts also talked about Wonder Girls’ retro style of music and asked if that was the original concept they planned for. Ye Eun gave a surprisingly detailed answer, saying, “Music, or TV dramas or novels tend to have a certain level of content exchange with different eras. I think we get inspiration from earlier generations and older songs. Sometimes we totally revive the past era or sometimes we just bring the motif from the past and recreate it by mixing with the current style.”

The Wonder Girls will continue with their promotions in Korea by the end of the year.