SEOUL • Several K-pop celebrities are turning to online fan meetings and concerts as ways to communicate with fans without physical contact to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.
Taeyeon, a member of Girls Generation, will be having a Naver V Live fan meeting today at 7pm for the release of her new song, Happy, according to S.M. Entertainment. Today is also her birthday and the date of the song's release along with the music video.
K-pop group Itzy of JYP Entertainment will also be having their showcase Itzy Live Premiere online today at 8pm for their second mini-album, It'z Me, which will be released at 6pm.
Last Saturday, Baek Ye-rin met fans through YouTube livestreaming after her performance in Head In The Clouds festival in Jakarta was cancelled.
K-pop megastars BTS also livestreamed their press conference two weeks ago on the group's YouTube channel to promote their new album, Map Of The Soul: 7.
Questions were submitted to the band via e-mail and there was also a question-and-answer session for fans.
Other artists are also turning to online streaming as concerts are getting cancelled.
Comedians Song Eun-yi and Kim Sook went live online on Feb 29 in celebration of the fourth anniversary of their podcast, Vivo TV. They held a livestream fan meeting in an empty auditorium after their concerts on Feb 28 and Feb 29 were cancelled due to the Covid-19 outbreak.
Such livestreaming in place of live concerts has received a positive response from fans.
Sunwoo Jung-a performed a YouTube livestream jazz concert on Feb 26 with over 1,000 viewers and a second online concert is being planned, according to her agency Magic Strawberry Sound.
On Feb 14, Valentine's Day, boy band Winner appeared on V Live after their Seoul concert, the last show of their tour, was cancelled. The broadcast attracted 964,656 viewers. Band members also communicated with the fans through live comments.
The V Live service has become more popular after the livestreaming of BTS' concert in Wimbledon last year, attracting 140,000 simultaneous views despite being a paid service.
THE KOREA HERALD/ASIA NEWS NETWORK
