One of the top boybands from Korea, Big Bang, headlined a K-pop concert here barely two months ago, but they are already raring to race back to Singapore.

Three members of the quintet will perform as headliners at the 2011 Formula One SingTel Singapore Grand Prix next Friday at the Padang.

They are G-Dragon, T.O.P and Seungri. And T.O.P, whose real name is Choi Seung Hyun, 23, tells Life! in an e-mail interview that he really enjoyed playing to fans here.

“I felt a huge and very tremendous energy throughout the concert,” he says, referring to the gig at the Singapore Indoor Stadium. “We, all the members, prepared that concert with all our hearts for all fans in Singapore. Singapore is actually one of my favorite countries.”

All three members are excited to perform at the Singapore Grand Prix, as they are fans of sports cars.

G-Dragon, for instance, says that he drives a convertible version of luxury car Bentley GT.

Formed in 2006, Big Bang’s discography of albums, EPs and singles regularly appear in the Korean charts. Tell Me Goodbye and Beautiful Hangover, the two songs from their most recent album, Big Bang 2, both went to the top of the singles charts there.

The group has also made waves in the Japanese pop industry, and has the distinction of being the first non-Japanese group to pick up the Best Newcomer trophy at the Japan Cable Broadcasting Award in 2009 and the first Korean act to pick up the Best New Artist award at the Japan Record Awards the same year.

Individually, members of the group – who also include Taeyang and Daesung – are also successful in their solo music and acting careers.

For the F1 gigs, the rappers in the group, G-Dragon and T.O.P, will perform as a duo. The pair released a self-titled collaboration album late last year which featured the No.1 single High High.

G-Dragon, whose real name is Kwon Ji Yong, 23, says that the collaboration came out of a desire to work on a new style of music. “We wanted to introduce our music to other rappers as well.”

Besides music, T.O.P is an established actor who has appeared in a few television drama serials such as Iris and the movie 71: Into The Fire. He says: “It might be very hard for me to say that I’m enjoying one of them more than the other. At the moment I enjoy both singing and acting.”

He was tight-lipped when asked about the future of Big Bang, though.

“It’s very confidential at this time, but we are preparing a super cool surprise for our fans. It’s coming really soon.”


Source: The Straits Times, Life! section - Friday, 16 September 2011, Page C5
Thanks to @spazzydots!

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