Yesterday marked the first U.S. performance of K-Pop girl group 2NE1 (pronounced either “To Anyone” or “Twenty-one”). For anyone who missed MTV Iggy’s Best New Band livestream or are unfamiliar with the four-member outfit from South Korea–CL, Park Bom, Dara, and Minzy–you can read all about them on this gloriously exhaustive write-up but for the rest of you…ZOMG, YOU GUYS! THE CONCERT WAS SOOOOOO GOOOOOOOOD.
First of all, the line for the show which began at 4 p.m. ET was out of control by 10 a.m. and since the Best Buy theater in Times Square is, like, a yard-and-a-half away from MTV, every time 2NE1’s exuberant fanbase (known as Blackjacks) cheered, our office windows would shake. And, yeah, hi, we’re on the 17th floor. So you can imagine the excitement when the ladies (clad in varying iterations of scarlet military uniforms with gold metal armor panels) stormed the stage. There was so much screaming you could feel the reverberations on your ribcage.
Jeremy Scott presented and each number was filled with pyro, animation, synchronized moves and the crowd (who by the way knew all the lyrics to the songs that were SANG IN KOREAN and they knew all the dance moves) went berserk. After the show ended, we were able to sneak backstage to chat with the ladies about their first time in New York, their adidas collaboration with Jeremy Scott (“He’s a good friend”), how style relates to their diverse sound (“We never decided to be fashionably edgy. Fashion is a lifestyle so you don’t try [to be edgy] it’s just there), and of course we got good-and-close to their nail situations because these ladies know how to WORK. Psssst Bom, who you’ll see in the vid, DOES HER OWN NAILS.
Plus, we grabbed Jeremy for a quick chat, too (okay, so maybe we accosted him, professed our undying love, hugged him violently and pleaded him to). For the record, the man is a national treasure and had the most insightful thing to say about 2NE1, who he calls his muses. #LOVEFEST.
On music and fashion:
“I think that 2NE1’s style and their music go hand in hand. I think that they’re really speaking to a whole new generation and it is mixing up all different things. Not only culture and languages and musical genres, but style genres and I think that’s one of the things that is one of their traits that’s made them so popular.”
On what it’s like to style 2NE1:
“The girls are really easy to work with. When we do things together, it’s always from music videos to styling just for photo shoots or whatever we’re working on, or live performances. They’re really easy because they know what they like. You have to know that Minzy really has to move because she’s got her dance moves, and Bom has those great legs that she likes to show off, and CL has a very tough style she has, and Dara loves baggy, baggy things even though she’s the littlest thing you’ve ever seen. So there’s certain things that I already know about them and then we just play around and it’s lots of fun.”
On their appeal:
“Each one of the girls is so unique and has their own characteristics, and that’s where the lines and the lyrics came from for ‘Ugly.’ I mean, it was really kind of about this, because CL said to me, ‘You know, not everyone thinks we’re beautiful. You think we’re really beautiful, but all these other people don’t think we’re beautiful because we don’t look perfect.’ And I explained to her that she is perfect and they are perfect because they are unique. And that’s what I think the world will appreciate.”
YOU CAN CHECK OUT MTVSTYLE’S EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW VIDEO OF THE GIRLS HERE!
Credit: MTVStyle
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