Let's Get WET
Korean pop god Rain brings his monster monsoon to town this weekend – and 9,000 foreigners are coming with him.
Success has been pouring down on him for three years, but there’s no end in sight for the award-drenched Rain, South Korea’s biggest export since, well, since the last pop-star crusaders, F4.
But Rain looks like he’ll be bigger than kimchi.
He brings his mammoth stage, mighty reputation and bouquets of blossoms for two lucky ladies to Impact Arena in Muang Thong Thani on Saturday and Sunday, 8pm both nights. Tickets are a hefty 6000, 4500, 3000, 2000 and 900 Baht at Thaiticketmaster, but apparently there’s a good reason for the high price.
Rain first showed up as Jung Ji-hoon on the 2003 TV series “Sang Doo! Let’s Go To School”, then boosted ratings for the hugely popular “Full House” the following year.
By that time he’d released his third album, “It’s Raining”, and it’s since sold more than one million copies across Asia, including 150,000 in Thailand.
Dubbed for better or worse the “Korean Justin Timberlake”, Rain has a roomful of trophies for making good music and making it sell. He won the 2004 KBS Daesang Award and last year was picked Favorite Korean Artist at MTV Asia Aid in Bangkok.
Channel [V] Thailand has named him Most Popular Asian Artist and MTV Japan thanked him for the Best Buzz. He performed at last year’s American MTV Video Music Awards in Miami and the Latino version in Mexico.
From July to December 2005 his “Rainy Day” tour packed in tens of thousands of fans in Japan, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Beijing, and at each stop he created fresh new spectacles. The Tokyo show sold out 30 seconds after thickets went on sale.
The Current tour takes the 24-year-old to the Philippines, Indonesia and Vietnam as well as Thailand, where a second show was quickly added after seats were swamped for the first.
“We sold 11,000 tickets for the first concert – 9,000 pre-booked by people in Taiwan, Korea, Japan, Singapore and Indonesia – and the rest were gone the first day, February 4, at Thiaticketmaster,” says Nipon Pila of MDK Consultants (Thailand).
“That’s why we have the second concert. And now tickets are running short for that too.”
The two concerts are costing Bt50 million, of which Rain gets Bt30 million and Bt15 million goes to the full-blown stage production, including an 18-metre-long LED screen.
“At first I was worried that the ticket prices might be too high, but I checked, and more than 2,000 of the Bt 6,000 tickets had sold out,” says Charlotte Donavanik, chief executive at Media of Medias Plc and executive of ID-Media.
“I think the fans don’t just want to see his show – they want to be close to him. We’re using the same concert format as you saw on Rain’s VCD because he required the same specifications. And that’s why the tickets are priced so high.”
Not among the performer’s specifications, though he certainly won’t mind its addition, is a ban on alcohol. The organizers want to promote healthy living, and they’re donating some of the proceeds to the Stop Drinking Network. “It’s our new ‘clean concerts’ campaign, which has the theme ‘Sport Smart Spirit: Stop Drink Stop Smoking’, and Rain’s concert is our first,” say Prof Udomsil Srisangnam, deputy president of the Thai Health Promotion Foundation.
“I know that Rain loves exercise – swimming, snowboarding, basketball and taekwondo. Most importantly, he drinks eight glasses of milk a day.”
Two of his fans will be invited onstage to receive a gift from him. For a chance at being one of them, send an SMS with your full name in English to 489 0099 before Friday. All entrants’ names will appear on the big screen at the show. Again, profits got to the Stop Drink Network.
“It’s a tradition at Rain concerts, along with his concept of ‘searching for his bride’ in a foreign country,” says Nipon.
“At the end of the concert he offers one lucky girl a red chair and gives her a bouquet of flowers and a teddy bear.”
Kitchana Lersakvanichakul – The Nation
========================================
Source: The Nation: Tuesday, February 21, 2006
Credit: janejz@Bi’s Kingdom/JJHTH
Thanks to janejz@popcornfor2.com & jungjihoonthailand.com kate66th@Rain's Scents
Success has been pouring down on him for three years, but there’s no end in sight for the award-drenched Rain, South Korea’s biggest export since, well, since the last pop-star crusaders, F4.
But Rain looks like he’ll be bigger than kimchi.
He brings his mammoth stage, mighty reputation and bouquets of blossoms for two lucky ladies to Impact Arena in Muang Thong Thani on Saturday and Sunday, 8pm both nights. Tickets are a hefty 6000, 4500, 3000, 2000 and 900 Baht at Thaiticketmaster, but apparently there’s a good reason for the high price.
Rain first showed up as Jung Ji-hoon on the 2003 TV series “Sang Doo! Let’s Go To School”, then boosted ratings for the hugely popular “Full House” the following year.
By that time he’d released his third album, “It’s Raining”, and it’s since sold more than one million copies across Asia, including 150,000 in Thailand.
Dubbed for better or worse the “Korean Justin Timberlake”, Rain has a roomful of trophies for making good music and making it sell. He won the 2004 KBS Daesang Award and last year was picked Favorite Korean Artist at MTV Asia Aid in Bangkok.
Channel [V] Thailand has named him Most Popular Asian Artist and MTV Japan thanked him for the Best Buzz. He performed at last year’s American MTV Video Music Awards in Miami and the Latino version in Mexico.
From July to December 2005 his “Rainy Day” tour packed in tens of thousands of fans in Japan, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Beijing, and at each stop he created fresh new spectacles. The Tokyo show sold out 30 seconds after thickets went on sale.
The Current tour takes the 24-year-old to the Philippines, Indonesia and Vietnam as well as Thailand, where a second show was quickly added after seats were swamped for the first.
“We sold 11,000 tickets for the first concert – 9,000 pre-booked by people in Taiwan, Korea, Japan, Singapore and Indonesia – and the rest were gone the first day, February 4, at Thiaticketmaster,” says Nipon Pila of MDK Consultants (Thailand).
“That’s why we have the second concert. And now tickets are running short for that too.”
The two concerts are costing Bt50 million, of which Rain gets Bt30 million and Bt15 million goes to the full-blown stage production, including an 18-metre-long LED screen.
“At first I was worried that the ticket prices might be too high, but I checked, and more than 2,000 of the Bt 6,000 tickets had sold out,” says Charlotte Donavanik, chief executive at Media of Medias Plc and executive of ID-Media.
“I think the fans don’t just want to see his show – they want to be close to him. We’re using the same concert format as you saw on Rain’s VCD because he required the same specifications. And that’s why the tickets are priced so high.”
Not among the performer’s specifications, though he certainly won’t mind its addition, is a ban on alcohol. The organizers want to promote healthy living, and they’re donating some of the proceeds to the Stop Drinking Network. “It’s our new ‘clean concerts’ campaign, which has the theme ‘Sport Smart Spirit: Stop Drink Stop Smoking’, and Rain’s concert is our first,” say Prof Udomsil Srisangnam, deputy president of the Thai Health Promotion Foundation.
“I know that Rain loves exercise – swimming, snowboarding, basketball and taekwondo. Most importantly, he drinks eight glasses of milk a day.”
Two of his fans will be invited onstage to receive a gift from him. For a chance at being one of them, send an SMS with your full name in English to 489 0099 before Friday. All entrants’ names will appear on the big screen at the show. Again, profits got to the Stop Drink Network.
“It’s a tradition at Rain concerts, along with his concept of ‘searching for his bride’ in a foreign country,” says Nipon.
“At the end of the concert he offers one lucky girl a red chair and gives her a bouquet of flowers and a teddy bear.”
Kitchana Lersakvanichakul – The Nation
========================================
Source: The Nation: Tuesday, February 21, 2006
Credit: janejz@Bi’s Kingdom/JJHTH
Thanks to janejz@popcornfor2.com & jungjihoonthailand.com kate66th@Rain's Scents
posted by Flor at 11:38 PM
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