Girl group ‘Golden Girls’, with an average age of 59.5 years, prepares for a new start based on achievements

The new girl group ‘Golden Girls’, with an average age of 59.5 years, stands at the new starting line. Golden Girls is a project girl group in which leading divas from the music industry, including Insooni (66), Park Mi-kyung (58), Shin Hyo-beom (57), and Lee Eun-mi (57), joined forces through an entertainment program of the same name that aired on KBS 2TV since October of last year. Since their formation, they have been engaged in various activities such as releasing new songs, performing guerrilla performances, and appearing on music broadcasts for the past 4 months, and will conclude with a donation concert broadcast on the 26th.

Although the entertainment program will end soon, the members have decided to continue girl group activities for the time being, including planning a national tour under the name Golden Girls. This is thanks to the success of ‘Golden Girls’, which contains the process of their activities, in breaking the gap between genres and generations and gathering domestic and international fandom by focusing on the subject of challenge. ●Trot and Idol, Between The program is about people who have lived their entire lives as solo singers and are ‘persuaded’ by singer Park Jin-young, the head of JYP Entertainment, to promote in a group for the first time in their lives. It depicts the process of challenging. These people, who have been active for over 30 years and have numerous hit songs, even change their singing style to the trendy style these days and perform ‘sharpened dance moves’ to other girl groups’ songs, such as Miss A’s ‘Good Bye Baby’ and Twice’s ‘Feel Special’. The dance looked unique, capturing the attention of viewers in their teens and twenties as well as middle-aged people.

In particular, as they presented not only girl group songs but also songs of various genres such as hip-hop, swing jazz, and ballads, both inside and outside the broadcasting industry were evaluated as having become a new model in the music entertainment format polarized by trot and idol music. Producer Yang Hyeok, who directed the show, said on the 18th, “It is thanks to the divas’ activities and challenges that brought out viewers’ memories and musical enjoyment,” and added, “The fact that divas who had established themselves in their field and were not afraid of challenges attracted the attention of a wide generation. “I think it is a decisive factor,” he explained.

●Japan also ‘cheers’… National tour begins

Their ‘challenge’ even broke down the barriers of generation and nationality. As a fandom consisting of various generations was formed through broadcasting, as many as 800 fans flocked to the guerrilla concert held at COEX Live Plaza in Gangnam-gu, Seoul on the 5th of last month. The charity concert held at KBS Hall in Yeouido, Seoul on the 12th was sold out in an instant.

Expanding their activities to Japan, they attended and performed at the ‘2023 Music Bank Global Festival’ held at Beruna Dome in Saitama Prefecture, Japan last month. An exclusive interview was also conducted with Mainichi Shimbun, a leading local daily newspaper. The newspaper reported their debut process in detail, introducing them as “legendary female singers who dominated an era in the 1980s and 1990s.”

In this way, the production team focused on the group itself rather than entertainment fun, thereby securing a strong fan base and laying the foundation for future activities. The Golden Girls, in collaboration with performance production company PK ENT, will begin a national tour in more than 12 cities, starting with a performance at Kyung Hee University Peace Hall in Seoul on February 3-4. Afterwards, overseas performances are also being considered. The members and production team are also looking into the possibility of Season 2. Producer Yang Hyuk expressed his determination, saying, “I want to make season 2 a story about these people challenging the stage in an unfamiliar country with only their skills.”

Yoo Ji-hye, Sports Donga Reporter yjh0304@donga.com