[스타뉴스 오사카(일본)=이지현] YG Entertainment’s new boy group WINNER (SONG MINHO, KANG SENGYOON, KIM JINWOO, NAM TAEHYUN, and LEE SEUNGHOON), who is the most promising rookie for the year 2014, is showing an unusual popularity in Japan. WINNER seems to be following BIGBANG (G-DRAGON, T.O.P, SEUNGRI, DAE SUNG, and TAEYANG)’s footsteps.

WINNER performed on the opening stage of BIGBANG’s “BIGBANG JAPAN DOME TOUR 2013-2014”, which began in the middle of November last year and ended on the 13 this month. In the tour of total 16 concerts at Saitama Seibu Dome, Osaka Kyocera Dome, Fukuoka Yafuoku Dome, Nagoya Dome, Tokyo Dome, and Sapporo Dome, WINNER had an opportunity to stand before 771,000 people of audience.

WINNER already showed the fact that they have already gained recognition and built a fandom in Japan, in Mnet’s “WINNER TV” that depicts their daily lives. However, WINNER demonstrated in “WINNER TV” was only a tip of the iceberg. WINNER’s popularity seen at the encore concert of BIGBANG tour at Osaka Kyocera Dome was truly astonishing.

It was 3pm when the last concert of BIGBANG’s Japan tour began. The audience who crowded all the seats of the concert hall shouted with one mouth, when WINNER came upon the stage for the opening performance. From here and there, fans exclaimed WINNER’s name like “TAEHYUN~” “MINO (MINHO)”. The eyes of the audience moved with every movement of WINNER. They were all excited by WINNER on the screen. Some audience had placards for WINNER in their hands. There was a female fan who was holding BIGBANG’s placard in one hand and WINNER’s placard in the other hand.

Even though WINNER has yet to make an official debut both in Korea and Japan, they are already enjoying a surprising popularity by a dozen of performance on the opening stage of BIGBANG’s concert. While they are appealing as fun and honest boys in “WINNER TV”, they are also catching the eyes of Japanese fans by their artistic capabilities as a “singer” demonstrated in their performance for the BIGBANG tour. Such high popularity makes people have high expectations for their future success. WINNER is known to be releasing their debut album in Korea by the end of next month so, they promised Japanese fans to meet again soon. WINNER’s leader KANG SEUNGYOON said at the Kyocera Dome concert, “We will never forget the beautiful memories and affection you gave to us. We will come back to Japan soon, so please wait for us.”

Lastly, all WINNER members said, “WINNER will work harder and we ask for your support.” The remark made all the fans look forward to their performance in the future in both Korea and Japan.

Find more about WINNER @
www.yg-winner.co.kr
www.facebook.com/OfficialYGWINNER

2014. 1. 14.

(C) yg-life