Music

Global girls

Cute group hits Bangkok

By Tatat Bunnag

Fans of Academy Fantasia will be familiar with lovely Thai singer Nalintara Hohler (Sara), whose good-natured personality and talent for performing won her many fans during the third season of AF. The pretty singer was also briefly part of local girl group G2G.

• Did you know •

All five members of iMe are big fans of Korean boy band TVXQ.

Now Sara's back as a part of a brand new international girl group called iMe. The new crew was created through a collaboration between entertainment companies from three different countries - EE Media form China, DoReMi Music from South Korea and Thai company True Fantasia.

The five girls in iMe - Sara, 24, Korean member Shim Hyun Kyung (Haley), 22, and Chinese members Li Yuan Xi (Mocika), 20, Yi Yi Zi (Niki), 23, and Liu Mei Han (Mikan), 19 - have just released their debut album and a new hit single called "AiYiYa."

The girls were in Bangkok recently to promote their latest release, so Student Weekly went along to their press conference to find out all about iMe.

Student Weekly: What does the name iMe mean?

Mocika: "I" stands for international and ideas. "Me" means each one of us, working together as a team.

Student Weekly: What where your three months of rigorous training in Korea like?

Sara: It was pretty tough. During the three months, we had to work on singing, dancing and exercises from early morning till midnight every day.

Haley: I was also trained by SM Entertainment in Korea for 10 years before joining iMe, so I've been training for a long time!

Student Weekly: Coming from different countries and cultures, did you have any problems communicating with one another?

Sara: That's been our main problem so far. We have to use body language a lot to communicate. [Laughs.]

Working in Korea was also difficult because not many people speak English there. But it's getting easier now because I've learned to speak a bit of Chinese.

Niki: After spending so much time together, we can understand one another just by our expressions. We're good friends now.

Student Weekly: Sara, was working with the international production team much different from working with Thai teams?

Sara: It was quite different. Most of the difficulties were caused by communication problems. It's been really good to work overseas and I'm proud of where I am today, but I miss Thailand a lot. I miss speaking in Thai.

Student Weekly: Can you tell us about your first single, "AiYiYa"?

Mikan: It's a fun song about being followed by an admirer and feeling embarrassed by it. We recorded the song and shot the video in Korea.

Sara: The song title is a Chinese expression. The chorus is in Thai, and I wrote it myself. I hope that Thai listeners like it!

Student Weekly: Is it true that you recently filmed a music video in Thailand?

Sara: Yes, for a song is called, "The Thin Line Between Friendship." It's a medium tempo song with good lyrics. We shot the video at Koh Samed in Rayong. It was so fun hanging out with friends at the beach. We all got suntans and had a great time.

Niki: We really enjoyed the seafood.

Student Weekly: Are there plans for an iMe concert in Thailand anytime soon?

Sara: Definitely! We plan to have a big concert in Bangkok around October. Hopefully we'll see you all then!

	lovely (adj): beautiful and very pleasant good-natured (adj): kind, friendly and patient briefly (adv): for a short time collaboration (n): the act of working with another person or group to create or produce something stand for something (phrasal v): to be an abbreviation or symbol of something rigorous (adj): done carefully with a lot of attention to detail body language (n): the process of communicating what you are feeling or thinking by the way you place or move your body expression (n): a look on a person's face that shows their thoughts or feelings admirer (n): a man who is attracted to a woman expression (n): a word or phrase tempo (n): the speed or rhythm of a piece of music