Korean Cultural Center Fund Raising Concert
Note: Sorry, no pics. I actually had my dica on me but just didn't feel like taking it out and shooting pics. I know...I'm a lazy blogger!
I attended the fundraising concert for the Korean Cultural Center last night at the Hilton Hawaiian Village and I have to say that I was quite surprised at both the turnout and the performances.
I really didn't know what to expect going into this concert but was amazed at the turnout. It was held in the Coral Ballroom at the Hilton Hawaiian Village and that place was packed to the walls, and even had people standing in the back to catch the show. Must've been close to a 1,000 people there.
First up was a traditional dance group from Korea (I believe their name was Hana Dance Group) consisting of a bunch of young Korean school girls in traditional Korean costumes performing the traditional dances. The costumes were pretty amazing and the dancing was pretty good...just not really my cup of tea.
Then the headliners started. First up was Tei, a 20-something male ballad singer. He was a real hit with the audience. He sang several of his hit songs, as well as the American song "Just Once".
Next up was Shin Hyo Beom, a 30-something singer who apparently was pretty famous about a decade ago. When I asked my dad who she was, he said she was known as Korea's "Whitney Houston". She really knew how to work the crowd and was also able to convince several people in the audience to match her own $2,000 donation while she was on stage. She finished with a medley of dance songs that got the crowd up and dancing. She was great!
The finale was Choi Baek Ho, a folksy type singer with a acoustic guitar. Not really the way you want to finish the concert but since he's the oldest, of course he gets to play last. I actually missed most of his act cuz I got an unexpected call from Korea at the same time so I was outside on the phone for the most part.
After the concert was done, they handed out the door prizes which consisted of stuff like sunglasses by Chanel and Calvin Klein, as well as a couple of round trip tickets to both the outer islands as well as to Korea. I spent $40 on raffle tickets hoping to get lucky and win the Korean airline tickets, but no luck! The guy on the table next to me won one of the tickets and he only bought 4 raffle tickets ($8)! Boo!!! Nah, just kidding.
The funniest part of the evening was when the MC was translating was the singer Tei was saying in Korean to the audience. I just had to shake my head in disbelief and felt really embarrassed for her. Tei was talking about how much he was enjoying his time here in Hawaii and he mentioned that he went surfing for the first time. But the MC for some reason thought he said shopping and she said in English, "He really enjoys the shopping here". Then...to make things worse, Tei said that since it was his first time surfing, his ribs were really sore. "Ribs" in Korean is "kalbi", like the food. But the MC said, "And the kalbi tastes really good in Hawaii". What a joke! So this is how it played out....
Tei: I went surfing for the first time.
MC (translating): I really enjoy the shopping here.
Tei: But it made my ribs really sore.
MC (translating): The kalbi tastes really good here.
Now the funniest part is, the MC's day job is being a professional translator! Can you believe that? Auwe! I was just shocked!
Anyways, the evening turned out to be pretty fun and they were able to raise lots of money for the future Korean Cultural Center.
I attended the fundraising concert for the Korean Cultural Center last night at the Hilton Hawaiian Village and I have to say that I was quite surprised at both the turnout and the performances.
I really didn't know what to expect going into this concert but was amazed at the turnout. It was held in the Coral Ballroom at the Hilton Hawaiian Village and that place was packed to the walls, and even had people standing in the back to catch the show. Must've been close to a 1,000 people there.
First up was a traditional dance group from Korea (I believe their name was Hana Dance Group) consisting of a bunch of young Korean school girls in traditional Korean costumes performing the traditional dances. The costumes were pretty amazing and the dancing was pretty good...just not really my cup of tea.
Then the headliners started. First up was Tei, a 20-something male ballad singer. He was a real hit with the audience. He sang several of his hit songs, as well as the American song "Just Once".
Next up was Shin Hyo Beom, a 30-something singer who apparently was pretty famous about a decade ago. When I asked my dad who she was, he said she was known as Korea's "Whitney Houston". She really knew how to work the crowd and was also able to convince several people in the audience to match her own $2,000 donation while she was on stage. She finished with a medley of dance songs that got the crowd up and dancing. She was great!
The finale was Choi Baek Ho, a folksy type singer with a acoustic guitar. Not really the way you want to finish the concert but since he's the oldest, of course he gets to play last. I actually missed most of his act cuz I got an unexpected call from Korea at the same time so I was outside on the phone for the most part.
After the concert was done, they handed out the door prizes which consisted of stuff like sunglasses by Chanel and Calvin Klein, as well as a couple of round trip tickets to both the outer islands as well as to Korea. I spent $40 on raffle tickets hoping to get lucky and win the Korean airline tickets, but no luck! The guy on the table next to me won one of the tickets and he only bought 4 raffle tickets ($8)! Boo!!! Nah, just kidding.
The funniest part of the evening was when the MC was translating was the singer Tei was saying in Korean to the audience. I just had to shake my head in disbelief and felt really embarrassed for her. Tei was talking about how much he was enjoying his time here in Hawaii and he mentioned that he went surfing for the first time. But the MC for some reason thought he said shopping and she said in English, "He really enjoys the shopping here". Then...to make things worse, Tei said that since it was his first time surfing, his ribs were really sore. "Ribs" in Korean is "kalbi", like the food. But the MC said, "And the kalbi tastes really good in Hawaii". What a joke! So this is how it played out....
Tei: I went surfing for the first time.
MC (translating): I really enjoy the shopping here.
Tei: But it made my ribs really sore.
MC (translating): The kalbi tastes really good here.
Now the funniest part is, the MC's day job is being a professional translator! Can you believe that? Auwe! I was just shocked!
Anyways, the evening turned out to be pretty fun and they were able to raise lots of money for the future Korean Cultural Center.
posted by Myong Choi at 10:08 AM
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