The Korean Cultural Centre at the weekend announced plans to promote collaboration of Korean Pop (KPop) and Nigerian Afrobeat.
This, the Cultural Events and Communications officer of Korean Cultural Centre in Nigeria, Jennifer Ezeonyeasi said is aimed at cultural integration and promoting both genres of music across Nigeria and Korea and further marketing the two brand worldwide.
Ezeonyeasi who spoke at the KPop Hurray Concert in Abuja at the weekend, said: “We are hoping for collaboration between KPop and Nigesrian music especially the afrobeat, which will promote both genres and give mileages in both countries and make the two music industries really big.
“We are hoping for future collaborations with the little activities we are doing now.
We have the intention of taking it round the country, in 2021 we had a KPop Dance Academy in Port Harcourt, we are looking at doing those kind of things often. When we figure out communities with a large following of KPop we would definitely take some of these shows to them. Like now we have a strong KPop community in Kaduna, we are planning going there.”
She revealed that the essence of the KPop Hurray Concert in Abuja was to gather all the past winners of KPop concerts and those that have made it to the final stage of each of the KPop from the years past.
She noted that: “Most of the time when we have the competition everyone goes their way until the next year. We brought all the past winners and top performers together to create bonding and networking.
“We are trying to build an active KPop community in Abuja and by extension all over Nigeria. KPop music is Korean pop and it is popular among the Koreans just like Nigerians are known for Afrobeat. It is unique to Korea.”
Ezeonyeasi said: “I believe Nigerians are embracing KPop, like this concert we have just had, we have winners from 2011-12. As far back as then, people have been winning KPop competition and have been traveling to Korea. We have yearly KPop competition, there is one coming up in Lagos on the 23rd of May and we also have KPop Academy coming up, from all this activities Korean Cultural Centre in Nigeria do, we can see that people are embracing KPop as well as others Korean culture in Nigeria like Taekwondo.
“Koreans are also aware that KPop is the thing in Nigeria, for most of the time when our teams go to Korea for the KPop World Festival (Competition) they win.”
She said: “In Abuja we intend creating a strong network for enthusiasts and in the process we are going to have a form of exchange, like we are having afrobeat fusion into KPop, with this kind of exchanges, we believe KPop would further be accepted by Nigerians.”
