Wondering about the Wonder Girls

One day last week, I was seizing a rare opportunity to take an afternoon nap while my roommates were out. As soon as I closed my eyes, my roomies barged into the room, chattering and laughing amongst themselves.

Just as I was about to bury my head under a pillow, determined to have my nap, I heard one of them ask, “Hoy, totoo bang patay na daw yung leader ng Wonder Girls? May bumaril daw kasi ang daming naiinggit sa kagandahan niya! (Hey, is it true that the leader of the Wonder Girls is dead? I heard someone shot her because a lot of people are jealous of her beauty!)”

Stunned, I jumped out of bed, all thoughts of sleep pushed to the back burner by concern for the leader of one of the hottest Korean girl bands today (or maybe it was just a nose for gossip).

As I searched for any online news articles that could shed some light on the outrageous rumor, all I could think of was how could anybody hurt the Wonder Girls? Their song is adorable, and it helped bridge generations and cultures, not to mention provide employees and students with an easy-to-learn dance number for Christmas parties.

After a few minutes of frantic Googling, I could breathe easy. I found no news reports or blog posts about a member of the girl group being dead or injured. 

When all the excitement over the juicy (and albeit grisly) hearsay fizzled out, I realized that I didn’t actually know who the lead singer of the Wonder Girls is. The group isn’t exactly the Korean version of Nicole and the Pussycats.

In the Internet search box, I had just typed in “wonder girls lead dead.”

Considering that I have practically memorized the entire Nobody dance, I am ashamed to admit that I don’t know a single thing about the song’s singers, not even their names. I do believe that I am in good company though, since more than half of the song’s fans probably don’t know anything about the Wonder Girls either.

The Nobody dance craze has reached Macarena proportions, so it seems only right to learn more about the quintet from Korea who introduced the song to the world. 

According to Wikipedia, the Wonder Girls are Ye Eun, Sun Ye, Yubin, Sun Mi, and So Hee. All of them auditioned to be part of the group. They are managed by JYP Entertainment, the biggest talent agency in South Korea.

They’ve been on the music scene for quite some time now, first coming out in 2007. They had a rash of hit singles in their home country, but it was only with Nobody that they broke into the international arena.

In the United States, they are managed by the Jonas group. They have performed with the Jonas Brothers, Jordin Sparks and on a few American TV talk shows.

Their hit song has been made into several versions — a slow one and a disco version, just to name two. Fans have posted their own renditions of the song and video. Some of the most popular here in the Philippines are the animation version, and the gay Tagalized version, both of which were spread via Facebook and YouTube. Another very cute Nobody video is by the Baby Wonder Girls.

True-blue K-pop fans already knew about Nobody and the Wonder Girls as early as last Christmas. It’s taken a while for the rest of us to catch up to them. The immense popularity of this Korean quintet can also be connected to the rise of Koreanovelas as Filipinos’ favorite TV programs.

Pinoys love them so much that there are local remakes of some Korean shows like Lovers in Paris and Stairway to Heaven. The actors and actresses’ faces are now pasted onto pins, posters, and T-shirts and their names are whispered lovingly by fanboys and fangirls all over the country.

When one member of the Korean F4, a star of the show Boys Over Flowers named Kim Bum, visited the Philippines, his fans followed him, with some even learning his schedule and sharing it with other Korean-fanatic friends.

It is not only the shows that have captured Filipinos’ hearts. The music used in the Koreanovelas has launched a wave of demand for K-Pop or Korean Pop music.

The Wonder Girls is only one act that has made it big in and out of Korea. Others include 2NE1 (of which former ABS-CBN talent Sandara Park is now a member), 2PM, SHINee, Super Junior, FT Island, Big Bang, SNSD, MBLAQ, B2ST, f(x), SS501 and U-Kiss.

Much of these performers’ music is extremely catchy, with some very good dance tracks. After researching on all of these acts, I have to say that it is no surprise that K-Pop and Koreanovelas are taking the world by storm. Their music presents a refreshing take on Western pop music.

To borrow a quote from one of the K-Pop fan friends, “I just heard the song, and soon I found myself singing along to and liking something I couldn’t even understand.”

My panic over the rumor of a dead Wonder Girl led me to a treasure trove. I discovered that there are other and equally good Korean songs other than Nobody.

For now, there’s nothing to do but enjoy and catch up with more of this phenomenon that has swept the Philippines.

I can only hope that someday, Filipino music will be as popular and loved locally and internationally — and that Filipinos and other nationalities will show similar passion for acts like Bamboo, 6 Cycle Mind, Christian Bautista, and their contemporaries.

Who can make this happen? Who can make Filipino music a worldwide trend? Nobody — nobody but us, that is. Let us enjoy foreign music, but not forget to love our own, too.