K-pop stars serenade for a good cause to make a difference on Earth Day

You might think that you don’t know much about South Korean culture, but if you take the time to ponder on it, you will soon realise you know more than you realise.

Think back to 2012 and you will remember a song by South Korean rapper Psy, called Gangnam Style. It was the first video to reach 1 billion views, some of which were thanks to South Africans.

In fact, the music video has been viewed more than 2 billion times, forcing YouTube to increase its view limit from just over 2 billion to 9 quintillion. Yes, that is 18 zeros!

Glass skin is a phrase gifted to the world by K-beauty and it quickly dominated social media. Glass skin is described by Alicia Yoon, founder of Peach & Lily, Aa ‘”when your skin is at its very healthiest” when it appears poreless and luminous, as if your skin is made of glass.

Beauty clinics and self-care salons in some of South Africa’s major cities are now offering glass skin treatments as locals get into the craze.

Even K-food has taken over the culinary scene, with a fair share of Korean restaurants such Banchan, Love Me More and Crazy Korean making their mark.

It is no surprise to learn Korean culture in South Africa is rapidly gaining popularity, with Google searches for K-dramas and anime leading the pack.

Last year, DStv introduced tvN, a South Korean entertainment pop-up channel and dramas such as It’s Okay Not To Be Okay and  proved to be some of the watched K-dramas in 2020.

To mark this year’s 41st Earth Day, members of popular K-pop bands such as Oh My Girl, BTOB and The Boyz have kicked off a campaign calling for climate action.

The campaign – Kstars4Climate – is the first of its kind in South Korea and encourages fans, including those in South Africa, to join in.

Thirty one stars from seven K-pop groups will launch a video expressing their thoughts on climate change. In the clip they are write a short sentence about climate change and explain what it means to them.

The seven groups joining the project are Oh My Girl, BTOB, Day6, The Boyz, Ateez, Weeekly and AB6IX. Climate change can be a complex and challenging topic, so by putting it in their own words, the stars aim to raise awareness by delivering a message that resonates with fans.

The video and their photos are now available on the campaign’s official website, kstars4climate.com, and also on Youtube (kstars4climate), Instagram, Twitter and Facebook (@kstars4climate) under the hashtag #Kstars4climate.

Earth Day is an annual event on April 22 to demonstrate support for environmental protection.

First organised in 1970, the day’s activities now include a wide range of events coordinated globally by www.earthday.org.