Korea Cultural Centre To Promote Collation of Kpop And Afrobeat

The Korean Cultural Centre has revealed its intention to promote collaboration of Korean Pop (KPop) and Nigerian Afrobeat.
This is aimed at cultural integration and promoting both genres of music across Nigeria and Korea and further marketing the two brands worldwide.
Speaking to journalists at the KPop Hurray Concert in Abuja at the weekend, the Cultural Events and Communications officer of the Korean Cultural Centre in Nigeria, Jennifer Ezeonyeasi said: “We are hoping for collaboration between KPop and Nigerian music especially the afrobeat, which will promote both genres and give mileages in both countries and make the two music industries big.
“We are hoping for future collaborations with the little activities we are doing now.
We have the intention of taking it around the country, in 2021 we had a KPop Dance Academy in Port Harcourt, and we are looking at doing that kind of thing often. When we figure out communities with a large following of KPop we would take some of these shows to them. Like now we have a strong KPop community in Kaduna, we are planning going there.”
She revealed that the essence of the KPop Hurray Concert in Abuja was to gather all the past winners of KPop concerts and those that have made it to the final stage of each of the KPop from the years past.
She noted: “Most of the time when we have the competition everyone goes their way until the next year. We brought all the past winners and top performers together to create bonding and networking.
“We are trying to build an active KPop community in Abuja and by extension all over Nigeria. KPop music is Korean pop and it is popular among Koreans just like Nigerians are known for Afrobeat. It is unique to Korea.”
Ezeonyeasi said: “I believe Nigerians are embracing KPop, like this concert we have just had, we have winners from 2011-12. As far back as then, people have been winning KPop competitions and have been travelling to Korea. We have a yearly KPop competition, there is one coming up in Lagos on the 23rd of May and we also have KPop Academy coming up, from all these activities the Korean Cultural Centre in Nigeria do, we can see that people are embracing KPop as well as others Korean culture in Nigeria like Taekwondo.
“Koreans are also aware that KPop is the thing in Nigeria, for most of the time when our teams go to Korea for the KPop World Festival (Competition) they win.”
She said: “In Abuja, we intend to create a strong network for enthusiasts and in the process, we are going to have a form of exchange, like we are having afrobeat fusion into KPop, with this kind of exchange, we believe KPop would further be accepted by Nigerians.”