K-pop festival excites the land of the sphinx

Young Egyptians filled the seats at the preliminary rounds of the 2019 K-Pop World Festival in Egypt held at the Sayed Darwish Theater located within an art college in Cairo on Wednesday (local time). The audience enthusiastically shared their love for Korean celebrities in fluent Korean.

The event hosted by the Korean Embassy and the Korean Cultural Center in Egypt was held to select the Egyptian contenders who will participate in the K-Pop World Festival to be held in Changwon, South Korea in October.

A total of 12 teams – six for singing and another six for dancing – competed at the preliminary rounds, passionately showing off their singing and dancing skills to the songs of BTS, 4Minute, BLACKPINK, Davichi, etc.

Over 1,000 audience members shouted out the names of their favorite Korean celebrities or sang along songs during the entire event. “The Egyptian K-pop fans have shown a lot of enthusiasm, organizing fan clubs and hosting K-pop concerts for a while now,” said South Korean Ambassador Yun Yeo-cheol in Egypt. “They are looking forward to meeting K-pop stars in the near future.”

In Egypt, which has the largest populations among Arab countries with about 100 million people, the Korean Wave is in full swing with six and thirty people competed for a spot at a Korean language class and Korean cooking class organized by the Korean Cultural Center in Egypt, respectively.

Last year, South Korean television series “Dr. Romantic” and “Don't Dare to Dream” were broadcasted on a local TV channel in Egypt. The “K-Pop Academy,” which was taught by a K-pop instructor invited by the Korean Cultural Center for a month starting from June 20, garnered huge attention as well. Most participants who competed at the preliminary rounds of the K-Pop World Festival were among the total of 80 students who attended the academy.


Se-Hyung Lee turtle@donga.com