The K-pop Festival Awards Ceremony was held on 9th November, together with BnS and Channa Wijewardena at the Korean Embassy premises.
The winners of the 2021 K-POP World Festival were felicitated by the Korean Embassy for their outstanding performances at the K-Pop festival. This year’s K-POP festival in Sri Lanka was organised by the Korean Embassy together with popular duo Bathiya and Santhush and the acclaimed dance choreographer Mr. Channa Wijewardena.
Korean Ambassador, Santhush Woonjin JEONG expressed his thankfulness to the guests of Honour by stating, “I really appreciate superstars Bathiya, Santhush and Channa Wijewardena for their amazing contribution to make the 2021 K-pop festival a great success.” He further said that, “It is evident that K-pop music and dance has become more important in Korean culture. Today, I hope all of our Sri Lankan friends will get an opportunity to be in love with the country ‘Korea’ as much as you love K-Pop. Love should not be one way but two ways. If I were to summarize in one phrase what my expectation for Korea-Sri Lanka relations is that more Sri Lankan people discover and enjoy Korean culture and vice versa”.
Bathiya Jayakody commended Ambassador Santhush for not only focusing on political affairs but also placing great importance on promoting cultural cooperation and people to people exchanges between our two countries.
He also congratulated all winners who were selected from the first round of the K-Pop festival. He stated, “This event is the start of a strong partnership in Arts between Korea and Sri Lanka. Don’t let this bond break and move forward to compete at the World K-pop festival. The youth in Sri Lanka should focus on taking Sri Lanka to the international forum by being able to tailor their talent to suit the international audience, this K-Pop festival is the ideal platform to display your talents and focus on becoming international stars”.
Mr. Santhush Weeraman also emphasised that these events provide a platform for Sri Lankan talent to be showcased internationally and there is much to learn from K-pop.
“K-pop is so special to us. Korea has exported the culture in a way that the world understands it and is fathomed by the world. Korea has a great history spanning for more than 2000 years. There are certain things we can learn from a great country like Korea, to incorporate international components with Sri Lankan flavours and promote Sri Lankan talent in a global scale,” he stated.
Mr. Channa Wijewardena also stated, “It is a great accomplishment to compete in a K-pop festival fearlessly being Sri Lankan. Dance is a dialogue between the mind and body and the participants have showed great talent to compete in international competitions. Dance is not only inspired from the mind, but muscle memory also plays a big role. Technique, posture and choreography are all important factors we considered when selecting the winners in this competition”.
Under the category of best K-POP Dance Performance, Island Stompers, Lachimolala, Riya Pathirana and Mandira Hippola were selected as best performers of the preliminary round after a tough competition.
The Korean Embassy will make every effort to deepen and strengthen the Korea-Sri Lanka friendship by promoting events to develop artistic skills for the youth nationwide.
