- Quote: ‘Linzi had her own competitive group, that used to travel to Orihuela and Murcia to train and dance competitively’
By Andrew Atkinson Exclusive
Former Orihuela based Linzi Ray has featured as a backing dancer in a K-Pop – Korean Pop – video shoot in London.
“Linzi was backing dancer on a video shoot in London which will be good experience for her.
“It’s mega big – Korean Pop introduced to Linz by Jessica Drewett. Linzi is studying dance at Uni,” said Jenny Ray, owner of The Grand Design House in Orihuela.
K-pop is breaking the internet, with Korean pop bands in the rise and rise of K-culture with techno beats, colourful aesthetic, trend-defining fashion.
K-pop has become a global phenomenon and its stars, including BTS ‘Hallyu’, depicting the ‘Korean wave’ used to refer to the colossal and ever-growing impact of South Korean culture.
K-pop, an industry worth $5 billion, with one of the K-pop’s most successful bands, BTS, selling more albums than Taylor Swift, Billie Eilish and Ariana Grande in 2020.
BTS had 100 million fans to their online concert in October 2020, titled ‘Map of The Soul ON:E’.
BTS became the first K-pop musicians to receive a Grammy nomination, with ‘Dynamite’ up for ‘Best Pop Duo/Group Performance’.
BTS, a seven-member boy band has taken the world by storm, being the biggest name in K-pop performing in sell-out arena shows across the US and UK, achieving two No. 1 albums in the US, and boast 16 million monthly listeners on Spotify, having sold 16 million albums.
Map of Soul is the best-selling album in Korean history, and best-selling artist to debut in the 2010s.
The seven members are rappers Suga, RM and J-hope, and vocalists Jimin, V, Jin and Jungkook.
Other K-pop groups include SuperM, Big Bang. The Nation’s Girl Group in South Korea, Girls’ Generation’s album in 2017, Billboard crowned them the ‘Top K-pop Girl Group of the Past Decade’. The group eight members are Taeyeon, Sunny, Tiffany, Hyoyeon, Yuri, Sooyoung, Yoona, and Seohyun.
Blackpink members Jisoo, Jennie, Rosé, and Lisa, are a Seoul-born girl group who became the first ever K-pop band to join YouTube’s ‘billion views club’, when their single Ddu-Du Ddu-Du was played more than a billion times in 2019.
K-pop group EXO have had four No. 1s on Billboard’s World Albums chart; formed in 2012, the group performed at the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang.
Linzi, 18, is studying BA (Hons) Dance with Bath Spa University, with the facilities in Weston-super-Mare.
“Not only is K-Pop a global phenomenon for the music, but for the dancers as well.
“They have special dance competition in their own right, linked to Anime, which is HUGE in Spain too.
“Linzi had her own competitive group, that used to travel to Orihuela and Murcia to train and dance competitively. Equally in London it is just as big, if not bigger.
“Linzi danced competitively with her local group and a mixed group, many of whom were dance teachers, in Murcia,” added Jenny.
