Hi, I’m Erina from the business team and I am a huge fan of K-pop since elementary school! Today I would tell you how K-pop artists contribute to SDGs with specific examples and from my experience.
K-pop artists like BTS, Red Velvet, EXO, NCT and so on, have been emerging in the global music field and they have been collecting their fans from all over the world. (I even saw a BTS poster in a small village in Nepal.) Their voice and actions have been bigger and bigger that it gives great impact our society. For that, I guess, many K-pop groups have started to join in campaigns that will contribute to solving global issues. I will give you two examples.
Super M & BoA - announced that they will join the ‘Global Goal Live: The Possible Dream’ (hosted by Global Citizen) event in 2020 Sep (which was postponed to 2021 Sep). This event is a year-long campaign to raise the awareness of UN SDGs and to secure $350 billion each year until 2030 to end poverty.
BTS - ran a global campaign with UNICEF called ‘LOVE MYSELF’ since 2017, pursuing love and a better place to live for all and to prevent violence against children and teens. Members have agreed to donate a portion of their income from album sales and 100% of all profits from the sale of goods to numerous social programs. They have collected about 260,000,000 yen since the start of the campaign. Not only have they driven messages on various media, but they have been spreading their messages directly to their fans. For example, they open an official booth for their campaign in every concert and share their own voices and visions to their fans. I went to one of their concerts in Seoul 2019, and went to their booth. The staffs their explained to me about the campaign and how I can contribute to the project. They handed out original cards and pamphlets too.
I really thank them for making these actions and creating social impact. Their voice will change how people-especially the youth, to think and act towards global issues. Of course, their financial impact is another point to thank them, since projects cannot be done without budgets. I hope that their campaigns and events will be accepted to the new K-pop generations in the future.
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