El Divan de Diana: 2NE1 + K-Pop

Some of you may be familiarized with the title of this post, which is the name of a K-Pop group. I guess it depends on where you live; they're pretty big in Korea (obviously) and they're kinda big in Mexico as well (reason why I know them). I heard them for the first time last summer, when I went with my sister to a K-Pop Event in Mexico City held by TTMIK (Talk To Me In Korean) and I can honestly say I had a horrible, horrible time there! Not my sis' fault as I was the one who offered to go with her :/

It was really bad for me because the place was full of crazy teens going nuts over people (random Mexican kids) presenting a choreography, singing or just speaking Korean, but it wasn't even anybody famous or anything so I really couldn't understand their euphoria about the whole thing, plus the event lasted forever so I had a headache, was really tired and wanted to get out of there running. Point is, one of the songs the participants performed the most was "Lonely" by 2NE1, so I listened to it SO many times that -after a few weeks, it ended up growing up on me and I had to give up and download it. If you know me and know what kinda music I like, you'd would know how bad it was for me giving in to K-Pop! However, nowadays, I just don't care anymore...my music (and general) taste keeps on changing and well, I guess I'm more open to liking whatever is good enough (for me) now.

When I came to Korea a few weeks ago -to stay for a while- I found myself more exposed to them (and well, the whole K-Pop wave, actually) being on TV all the time and whatnot, plus, my sister really likes them too so that was a big influence as well. Last week, I found out on Twitter they'd be having a mini-concert at a Samsung event and, even though it was all in Korean (which I don't speak nor understand...just yet), somehow we managed to get the tickets through their uber complicated process.

The Samsung Passion Talk event took place yesterday and even though I like 2NE1, they were not the only reason I wanted to assist but also, the famous (Korean, of course) film director Chan-Wook Park was going to give a lecture there; oh, and tickets were for free, so it all sounded great to me!

Even though the event lasted like 3 hours itself, the whole picking up the tickets-and-whatever process took the whole day, but it was all worth it as we got to be in the first raw and even though we didn't understand much as it was all in Korean, we had a good time and as for 2NE1, well, you don't really need to understand the lyrics to like the songs.

Here's a Press Video from the whole event:

At some point, I gotta admit it was really surreal being there, I mean, while in Mexico my sis and I would always be like "yeah, when we go see 2NE1 and Big Bang (a band she truly loves!) it will be fun" and blah blah blah, but we never really thought it would happen, it's just one those things you say randomly, you know? So, being able to see them live for free, in the first raw and somehow very easily only a couple of weeks after arriving in Korea, well...it just felt weird, awesome weird though. We had SO much fun I had to come post about it. I really enjoyed seeing them live, though my favorite was CL; I totally get why she is the leader (K-Pop groups usually have a leader, though I don't know/get why), she is just so talented and charismatic, the others are good too but CL was just the best. Dara is also really good on stage, good dance and a decent singer, lots of energy and always smiling, unlike Bom, whose personality I really like coz she's super (unintentionally) funny and cool but on stage, she doesn't show that charisma so much. And Minzy, the youngest one, she's a really good dancer, the best of them all I think and she also sings good. All in all, even though it was just a mini-concert, I totally loved it and I would see them live again with no hesitation.

Anyway, I managed to record some videos and I think they came out decently so here you go:

2NE1 - 내가 제일 잘 나가 (I'm The Best) @ Samsung Passion Talk