‘A2K’ Aims to Create a North American Girl Group Using the K-Pop Training Model
Always wanted to be a pop star but never had the opportunity? Here’s your chance — on Monday (July 25), JYP Entertainment (TWICE, ITZY, Stray Kids), Republic Records and Federal Films announced they will be joining forces to find the next global girl group in a joint venture titled America2Korea, or A2K.
A video accompanying the announcement featured Monte Lipman, founder and CEO of Republic, and J.Y. Park, founder and chairman of JYP Entertainment, discussing details of the competition.
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“The name of this project is A2K, which is an abbreviation of America2Korea so the final artist that comes out of this procedure will be the first American artist made out of a K-pop system,” Park explained. “It’s like talented artists who goes through a training system like an Olympic gymnast will go through. That’s the K-pop artist that the global audience fell in love with because of their dedication, their discipline and their hard work and the values they carry. That’s what separates them from a lot of artists.”
Lipman added: “We are going to find, identify and curate this incredible talent coming from America, but we’re applying the K-pop system, the JYP system in developing a super group, which we’ve never seen before.”
A2K will consist of a competition process for American and Canadian hopefuls ages 12 through 16 and will take place across five cities. The in-person auditions will take place in Atlanta (Sept. 10), Chicago (Sept. 14), New York City (Sept. 17-18), Dallas (Sept. 20) and Los Angeles (Sept. 23–25).
Contestants who make it to the next round will be chosen to go to A2K‘s boot camp in Los Angeles. Semifinalists will then travel to JYP’s headquarters in Seoul, South Korea and will train intensively with top executives, choreographers and producers to hone their skills. The winners of the competition will make up the final members of the super group.
Watch Lipman and Park talk about the joint venture in full in the video below.
