Sanchita Bathija, Gwalior, Madhya Pradesh

Madhya Pradesh/Bhopal Regional round of K-Pop India contest 2022 was held on 4 June 2022 at 2p.m. IST on the Youtube channel of Korean Cultural Centre India. This article contains excerpts from the statement of the winners of the dance and vocal categories and regional rounds organiser MPKFC_hallyuwave regarding their experiences of this event.

Dance Category

Kunika Kharonia (Winner)

Hello everyone I am Kunika Kharonia. I am 19 years old and I’m the winner in dance category of Bhopal Regional Round of K-Pop India Contest 2022. About the experience, even though I’ve been participating since last two years this year’s contest had a different level of energy. I was really happy to win for the second time and I’ll try my best to make everyone more proud. And I thank all the admins and organisers for their hard work. My love for K-Pop and K-culture has been the biggest motivation for me to keep going on and show my talent to others, but what motivated me more this year was other participant’s energy and enthusiasm to do my best. All I would like to advise the future participants is that don’t perform for the sake of winning or losing just have fun , get good experience and enjoy the process. Just perform with confidence and believe in yourself.  Thank you

Amann Sharma (First runner up)

Hello everyone! I am Amann Sharma. I am 17 years old boy and I am the first runner-up in dance category of K-Pop India contest 2022 regional round. I was surprised when I saw my name in K-Pop India contest 2022 first round winners as I did not expect that I will clear first round. My experience with regional round team was so good as they help me a lot. Also, the others participate members were also good. I came to know about K-Pop for the first time in 2020, then my interest about K-Pop increased and after that I got to know about K-Pop India contest. Then I decided that I am going to participate in this contest. There are many idols in K-Pop industry but my favourite and the one who inspires me is Kai (Kim Jong-in). His powerful dance moves and face expressions; and charming personality are so good. One advice I would like to give to future participants is that you just need to perform with confidence. If you are performing in dance category so make sure that your moves are clear and you dance with lots of energy.

Vocal Category

Yashaswini Joshi (Winner)

Hello, my greetings to everyone. I am Yashaswini Joshi, and I am the winner of the Bhopal Regional Round of the K-Pop India Contest 2022 in the vocal category. I’m 19 with a passion for music, especially singing. This year’s K-Pop Contest has a lot of energy. This is my second year in the event, and I was also the regional champion, yet everything seemed so new and revitalised, and it was beyond my expectations. Every candidate was fantastic, and I applaud them all for presenting their work so well. There was a wide range of performances, and it grew to be a fierce battle as everyone excelled in their own genres. In the vocal category, I discovered that everyone had their own genres and they sang them in their own unique style while being true to the original. So did me. The organisers were extremely helpful and made everything very clear.

After learning more about Korean culture, I became so enamoured with it that I spent the entire day listening to K-Pop. Millions of Korean artists work hard to make music and convey themselves to people all over the world, with their melodies breaking down language barriers. Their music has a calming effect on me. I was blown away by how music can transform your life. That was the case for me. Music is its own language that does not necessitate the listener’s comprehension. I could easily recall the lyrics of the songs I had heard earlier in the day, but attracted by Korea’s beauty and culture, I began learning Korean. I was last year’s Bhopal Regional round winner. So I wanted to go ahead in the contest and expand my boundaries. I just have one piece of advice for future participants: Be yourself and sing in your own style. Choose a song that complements your voice and mood. By practising, you may give your best and attempt to be true to your performance.

 Vaishnavi Deota (First runner up)

Hello everyone! I’m Vaishnavi Deota, 1st Runner Up in Vocal Category of K-pop Contest India Bhopal regional round. I’m 17 years old and I’m an aspiring rapper. I am really fond of K-Pop and hip hop rap scene and love to post covers of my favourite raps and rap based songs.

This year’s K-Pop contest was the first contest in which I got the chance to participate in regional round. Seeing all other participants giving their best really motivated me and made me feel that my interest in rapping/singing is valid. Everyone encouraged me a lot and many new people got to know me through this contest. Talking with contestants having same interests as me really motivated me to continue pursuing this path. We had a lot of talks related to music, beats, expressions etc. I think the experience and exposure I gained through this contest is definitely going to help me in future. I believe I’ll keep learning and try doing better every time I participate in this contest.

I had seen the LG K-Pop contest 2019 videos on YouTube during pandemic. As I was really passionate about rapping, I had waited since then for the next K-Pop contest to happen. Seeing the exposure and fame all the contestants of previous years got really made me desire to take part in this contest too. I think it’s really hard to get a chance of showcasing my talent in India, and I think this contest is one of the best ways to do it, especially when I have also learned some of the Korean language in order to improve my pronunciation. Make sure to practice your expressions and presence multiple times till they’re perfect according to you. Also wear an outfit that makes u feel very comfortable and confident in yourself since that’s all you need to rock this contest. 

Now lastly I’d like to thank everyone who showered me with all their support and encouragement! I really appreciate all the votes I got and I promise you all I’ll try to do better next time.

Honey and Vibhuti Lal (Second Runner up)

Namaste everyone! We are Honey and Vibhuti Lal, 2nd Runner Up in Vocal Category of K-pop Contest India Bhopal regional round. We are 18 and 16 years old and we are really fond of K-pop and love to sing of my favourite groups. Our love for Korean pop and k-culture and specially BTS was a big motivation for us to continue on and show our talent to others and learn from their talent too.

This year’s K-pop contest was the second contest in which we got the chance to participate in regional round. Seeing all other participants giving their best really motivated us and made us feel that our interest in singing is valid. New people got to know us through this contest. We had a lot of talks related to music, beats, expressions etc. We think the experience and exposure we gained through this contest is definitely going to help us in future. We believe we’ll keep learning and try doing better every time we participate in this contest.

We have just one advice for future participants: is that sing in your own style. Always choose a song that matches your voice and mood. By your hard work, you may give others your best.

 

Audience Choice Winners

Deshna Chidar – Vocal category

Hi I’m Deshna Chidar, winner of audience choice popularity award in the vocal category from Bhopal region. Participating in this contest was such a great experience; I got a lot to learn from it. The event was organized in such an amazing way and I had a lot of fun. What inspired me the most was the energy and the dedication every participant had. At last I would like to say that I’m genuinely grateful for everyone who gave us this opportunity to showcase our talents, and I want to thank everyone who voted and supported me. Thank you.

Shailly Shrivastava –Dance category

Annyonghaseyo everyone! I am Shailly Shrivastava, audience choice popularity award winner in “Dance Category” from Bhopal Region. I am a 23 years old Youtuber known as Indian Unnie (Shailly) and a die hardfan of K-pop and K-drama. I have been dancing since the age of 5 but I had only performed Bollywood dance styles but after being interested in K-Pop I started to learn and practice K-Pop and hip-hop choreographies. I mostly like to do self choreographies. My Hobbies are Dancing, Photography, Listening Music, Learning new things and Watching K-dramas.

I had seen many audition videos of previous participants of this contest and I always wondered how they all are so good, this competition is so interesting, should I ever try in it ? But honestly I didn’t have courage to apply because I thought I am not competitive enough. What if I will lose but after uploading my dance Videos on YouTube I got much appreciation and also some tips to improve myself and then I got confidence and my thoughts also got clear that it doesn’t matter if I pass or fail, I should definitely try and experience new things. So, in 2021, I 100% decided to participate in this contest and I practiced on “Forever Young Song by BLACKPINK” but my Banking exams started just at that same time so I couldn’t participate last year and finally this year I participated in this contest and also passed in Online Round and Won Audience Choice Popularity Award in Regional Round.

I was so happy after seeing my name in the list of selected participants of online Round. It was too much fun to participate and experience something new. I got chance to interact with more K-Pop fans and share our same interests. Seeing other participants’ enthusiasm motivated me more to do my best. The organizers organized this event too much well and mostly I am thankful to the admin of our Whatsapp group for always helping me and clearing my doubts. K-pop India Contest 2022 Team is very well experienced and helpful . I will always remember this beautiful experience. Thanks @koreanculturecenterindia and @mpkfc_hallyuwave for organizing this event and giving us chance to show our talent and interest in K-Pop.

My first and most important advice is don’t push yourself back, don’t lose your confidence ,trust yourself and just Participate with your full confidence and enthusiasm and let the judges decide whether you are good or not. I participated in Dance Category so I will give tips for it. First thing you need to do is understand the rules very well. If you don’t understand any point then ask them because following rules is very important otherwise you will be disqualified, make sure your camera quality is good and arrange good sound system so that music can be heard clearly. Judges give you numbers on 3 main points – Your moves, Face Expressions and Costume.

So, make sure to work on your moves and for that practice before a mirror and also practice while watching yourself in front of selfie camera of your mobile and after this record your dance in camera( without getting ready or well dressed) just record and check which move you are doing wrong and check your facial expressions also. Do image practice to remember your moves more, practice on your facial expression in front of a mirror (without moving) and also practice while lying in bed and listening your Performance song. Definitely watch YouTube video tutorials to practice for your Performance song and tutorial videos of those who teach us while dancing before a mirror, helps more. It gives us clear idea to know which hand or leg we need to move. Select a concept which will show your personality and which you can do best.

I got much appreciation for cute concept videos on Youtube so in this contest I chose Dumb Dumb song and tried to show cute expressions. So, you need to figure out which concept suites you best. And in both Online and Regional Round I chose my outfit which fitted best with my concept. I tried what I could to do my best and now it’s your turn to do what you can do best. However I didn’t win Regional Round but participating in this contest boosted my confidence more and more and if I will get time then I will surely like to participate next year with same enthusiasm.

Regional Round Organiser 

MPKFC_hallyuwave

Madhya Pradesh Korean Fan club (MPKFC) was founded in 2018 by Ms. Monica Sankule and since then she’s been actively conducting offline and online activities. The fan club has been actively involved in organising various events to promote K-pop and Korean Culture since then. K-pop Contest Bhopal Regional Round is one of the many events organized by MPKFC every year. By profession into HR domain she has been into Korean culture for last 10 -12 years. Her immense interest in learning further made her to step up a level and go up for learning language and culture directly from native Koreans. She’s actively working with her team and Korean YouTube influencer to promote about not only K-Pop but everything related with Korean language, culture, tradition, music, food etc. So, many talented contributions seen on digital platform (due to Covid) performing on their favourite song both in vocal and dance category. Selecting out of them for finale was tough decision as incredibly everyone have strong choice in flavour they produced on stage but yes everyone was awesome. I wish our final participants all the best for the future endeavours in this field.