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Wonder Girls Talk Loving Country Music, How They Spend Girls’ Night Out and Why Their Fans Faint at Their Concerts
By Rebecca Haithcoat • 12 hours ago

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The five members of Wonder Girls, the K-Pop group that took the country by storm in 2009 looking like an Asian reincarnation of the Supremes in the video for “Nobody,” are sitting quietly around a table. Lim, Soohe, Sun, Yeeny and Yubin’s average age is about 21, and they’re dressed in electric colors and funky tights that make their legs look tattooed. Yet they are so polite and carry themselves with such poise, their retro act doesn’t seem like much of a gimmick.


Musically, they’ve updated their sound: their latest EP, Wonder Party, and most recent single with Akon, “Like Money,” sparkle with slick electronic production and even flirt with the genre du jour, dubstep. Don’t worry, though. While their music might have gotten harder and a little more Hollywood, Wonder Girls remain as humble and down-to-earth as ever.


Why do you think you, out of all the K-Pop groups, have connected so well with the U.S.?
Sun: Well, I think we were very lucky to have a good song called “Nobody.” It was very catchy and easy to follow for everybody. And then you know, this song became worldwide. It was huge in China too. And then it became huge in America too. And also we got to work with Jonas Brothers. We went on the tour with them. That really helped.
Yubin: Also I think Myspace or Twitter or YouTube. It helped a lot.
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Just that fan push. A lot of media outlets here attribute a lot of K-Pop’s success here to Twitter. But still, if that’s true for you all, why not for everybody? You all must have like something unique in either personality or stage presence.
Yenny: Well, I guess we’re a bit of a [blend] in America. You know, because we’re Asian, we’re Korean. But then we grew up listening to like American music. And then we got to work with great American artists and producers. So I think we were lucky to be the first one. And we hope that more Koreans or Asian artists can break into the American market.
Sun: Yeah, I think American people are more welcoming for new things. Like new cultures. Especially these days. Young generation are really interested in new things, new cultures. So I think we’ve got in the kind of right moment, just right now.
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Is your fan base here in America more females or -
Yubin: It’s pretty much half and half.
Yeeny: Ranges to younger people to old.
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So, everybody basically. (all laugh)
Sun: Oh, no. We think it’s kind of really catchy and easy to follow for everyone, you know? Once we had a concert in Korea, that was our first time to have our concert. We realized there are so many families coming together instead of just young generation, young people.
Yenny: Because some of our music is based on like ’60s or ’70s, retro stuff. And their parents can like us and their children like this.
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Maybe this is just in L.A. but there’s a revival of the early ’90s with the music and also the clothes. Is that happening in South Korea as well?
Sohee: Like a lot of patent, those kind of neon colors also.
Sun: American pop is original. So a lot of Koreans got influenced by that.
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What singers did you guys like growing up?
Lim:
Christina Aguilera.
Yenny: Yeah, Britney Spears and like Backstreet Boys.
Sun: Whitney Houston, Mariah Carey. But after we debuted and we got to, we made a decision about a retro concept. We learned like ’60s artists.
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Do you listen to to pop now?
Lim: We listen to a lot of pop.
Sun: I like country music too.
Yenny: And hip-hop, rap.
Sun: And we also listen to like rock, you know, rock music.
Yubin: And band music.
Sohee: Electronic.
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I guess you’d have to listen to everything, though, as pop artists yourself. Because it pulls from like so many different genres. Country though, that’s kind of interesting.
Lim: It’s peaceful and it makes us feel like we’re at home.
Sun:
Carrie Underwood.
Lim: Carrie Underwood, Taylor Swift.
Yubin: Norah Jones.
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Also there are universal themes in their music as well. And there’s power in that.
Sun: And I believe music has that kind of power. ‘Cause it, no matter what genre it is, I think what kind of message in it that’s the most important thing.
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At your concerts – well, I don’t know if you’ve ever seen footage of like early Michael Jackson concerts when people are like crying, but does that happen with you guys; do you have fans who are that intense?
Yenny: Well, we had never knew we had so many fans in Mexico. But when we were there our fans came and then they cried. And then they were very supportive. So we were very inspired.
Sun: And we went to Indonesia and then we had like a small concert there. And the people were so many …
Yenny: They were many people and the temperature was very hot. And I guess they’re a little too excited to see us. They passed out.
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Wow.
Sun: They don’t have the many opportunity to see us. That’s why they become a little more excited.
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It’s special, yeah. Do you remember like the first time you kind of in your heads were like, “Whoa, like we didn’t realize how huge we are”?
Yenny: I mean a lot of times, you know, a lot of times when we work in the Billboard charts and then also like when we were on So You Think You Can Dance.
Yubin: And also, the Special Olympics in Greece.
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Oh right. That is huge.
Yubin: Well, we sang our song “Nobody” and a lot of people following us. So we were very excited.
Sun: Yeah, following our dance moves and then you know, singing with us.
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They were doing it in the audience?
Sun: Yeah, but the thing is I learned the most important thing from there. It’s not, it has not, it should not just end with realizing how big you are. But it’s more like being thankful, you know, about all these kind of things. ‘Cause to be honest we’re not like, “We deserve this.” We’re obviously trying our best. You know, our career and everything. And we hope we can just continue to give some hope and good influence to people around this.
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Did you guys always want to be like singers when you were little?
(All say yes, all at once.)
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It’s unanimous. You didn’t even think about it!
Sun: We started working so young, so.
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What is that like there? How do you train? Do you take acting lessons? Dance lessons, all that stuff?
Yenny: Chinese, English, Japanese. So we first, we auditioned for our company. You know, ’cause we have an academy. So you know, there we, you know, learned so many different things. Like languages and you know, dance moves and singing, scales.
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How old were you when that happened? What age?
(All say ages 12 or 14).
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So that’s not that young. Did your families ever have any hesitations about your being pop stars?
Yenny: My mom was against my dream. Like she didn’t want me to be a singer. You know, she would always say like, “This job isn’t stable.”
Sun: And she was too smart in school. She was too good in school. (all laugh)
Lim: Yeah, my mom was very supportive. She loves what I’m doing.
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What’s the hardest part of being at this level of fame?
Sun: We got to know music has a lot of power. More than we expected. So we’re kind of, although we are so young still. But we are kind of responsible about that.
Yubin: We try to have a good effect on everybody, like especially the girls looking up to us.
Lim: But the hardest part I think is because just like what Yenny said, is it is kind of unstable. So we never know what’s going to happen in the future. So we always try to come up with better music and better work. But still, because it’s so competitive and it’s difficult challenging world so that’s difficult to keep up with it.
Sun: To be honest, it’s the truth that we are also not perfect ones. We all are not like that. But I just hope people, you know, see us, the good parts. So they can get some good influence from us.
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How often do you get days off?
Yenny: When we’re promoting our albums it would be like no time. You know, like really no time. But then when it’s all done, we’ll have some time. We’re pretty free, yeah.
Sun: Yeah, we go traveling a lot.
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Do you all hangout when you’re not working?
Sun: Definitely.
Lim: We go out for lunch. We have girls night out.
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What do you do on girls night out?
Sun: Just go have some wine. And we’re cooking together.
Yenny: Good food. Good food and cook some food. And like just talk.
Lim: And dancing. (laughs)
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Right. What’s it like being here in the States? How long are you all here? And do you come to L.A. very often?
Yenny: Yeah, we came here a lot. And then we moved to New York on December 9th. So we, you know, lived there for three years totally. And then you know, we go back and forth to L.A. and Korea.
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Between New York and L.A., which do you prefer?
Lim: I think it depends on each member. But I personally love L.A. The weather is amazing. And people are very chill and laid back.
Sun: She likes Beverly Hills.
Lim: Yeah, shopping is good. And it’s kind of peaceful here.
Yenny: I love New York. Yeah, since we lived there for so long. It feels like my second home, you know. Like it feels just like, oh I’m back. And I’d rather go to New York.
Yubin: I want to live out there, here and up here and there. Okay. Go back and forth.
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I think that’s everybody’s dream. (laugh) ‘Cause both have their charms. Where is the best traditional Korean food?
Lim: Traditional Korean food. I think that’s L.A. L.A. has a really big Koreatown. And they have some really good Kai beef.
Yenny: A lot of Korean food in L.A. they, you know, they went to Korea. You know, because they made it huge here, they making it very famous. Sometimes even when we’re in Korea we crave for the K food in L.A.
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Really?
Yenny: We’re like, oh we should go to L.A. and eat that Korean food.
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Do you guys get recognized very often here in L.A. or in New York?
Lim: In Koreatown. (laughs)
Yenny: We don’t if we don’t wear makeup and you know, the hair. We are just going outside, you know, very free, very comfortable. Yeah, very like retro.
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Is that different than when you’re back home? Britney Spears wouldn’t be able to walk around here without being like mobbed. Is that the way it is for you all?
Yenny: I think it depends on where we go.
Sun: The good thing is there’s not many paparazzis in Korea. So they don’t take a picture that much.
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You’re all young, but you’ve been in the business for so long that it’s made you mature and a little bit older, at least mentally.
Yenny: Well, I think it’s really important to have friends going to college or university, that so we can, you know, be more of our age.
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As opposed to constantly being business women? Has that made it difficult for you to have romantic relationships? Or even relationships with your friends who are just living normal lives?
Lim: Well, we don’t get to meet them a lot. And we never know our schedule so it’s really hard to make plans. And even though when we make plans we often have to cancel it, because something changed.
Sun: But you know, we also meet a lot of, you know, great people working. So I think it’s just compensates.
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Who have you been most excited to meet, as far as other artists?
Yubin: Well, we met Katy Perry, Jonas Brothers …
Sohee:
Akon.
Yenny: It was so great working with Angie Stone. She was in our movie. She was so sweet and nice.
Lim:
Nick Cannon. I was excited to meet Selena Gomez. I’m one of those big fans.
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Of Selena or of Selena and Justin?
Lim: Selena. (all laugh)


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