By Honorary Reporter Sonya Galcheva from Bulgaria
Photos = Sonya Galcheva and Visit Korea Committee

Everyone would agree that the biggest rush for music fans is to attend a live performance. As a fan of music and especially K-pop, I was in Seoul on Jan. 16 to see live shows on the music entertainment program "M Countdown" of the cable channel Mnet.

Before this, I had seen the program on YouTube or social media, but the excitement of physically being there in front of the stage where every K-pop singer has performed was great.

Korea Grand Sale gave me this valuable opportunity to see the show. Participants of one of the sale's events on Facebook signed up for a chance to see K-pop stars in person, and one of the lucky winners was me. The sale is a shopping, cultural and entertainment festival organized by the Visit Korea Committee for foreign tourists in Korea from Jan. 16 to Feb. 29.

Every K-pop fan knows that live K-pop shows are on almost every day of the week depending on channel. In addition to meeting fan demand for K-pop content, the shows serve as platforms for acts to promote their new songs and albums and for new groups to gain exposure. The shows feature weekly charts of songs and groups compete for first place in all of them.

"M Countdown" airs on Mnet every Thursday at 6 p.m. Korean Standard Time. We arrived at the studio around 5 p.m. As soon as I got there, I saw a huge line of people waiting to get into the recording hall. They seem to have waited for hours and looked pretty cold since it was January. We were lucky to immediately get into the station and not have to wait in line outside. So after we got in, we waited for the staff to give us our bracelets to see the show and sat down in front of the recording studio until they let us in.

At 5:45 p.m., the doors of the studio were opened to let us in. The stage appeared almost as big as the audience seat section was, and I was really close to the stage. The logistics behind this show must be tough. The stars performed live for the broadcast but because of the sheer number of acts, some of the songs and videos were prerecorded.

My favorite K-pop idol groups who performed when I was at "M Countdown" were SF9, Ateez and Momoland; it was so exciting to see them. The winner of this show was SF9, who sang "Good Guy" to win the group's first countdown. I also feel lucky to have witnessed an emotional moment in SF9's career.

chaey0726@korea.kr

*This article is written by a Korea.net Honorary Reporter. Our group of Honorary Reporters are from all around the world, and they share with Korea.net their love and passion for all things Korean.