Russian TV Personality Eugina Svetlana To Debut As A K-Pop Group Member

[pearlychoco.livejournal.com]

A Russian TV personality will debut as a member of a K-pop idol group this winter.

Eugina Svetlana, 21, posted the news to her Instagram Tuesday. She has been an idol trainee for two years and recently clinched an exclusive contract with an agency, according to the post.

"Did you get surprised?" she wrote.

Svetlana is from Sakhalin, in the Russian Far East. She is studying political science and diplomacy at Sungkyunkwan University in Seoul.

"I decided to come to Korea after traveling the country with my mother," Svetlana told The Daily Sports Seoul on Monday. "Korea was so much different from Russia ― it was a culture shock."

She was particularly fond of Koreans respecting others and being enthusiastic. Those she met also were kind to foreigners.

Drama was another driving factor that led to her settling in Korea.

"I fell in love with Korea after being enthralled by KBS2 TV series "Boys Over Flowers," she said.

She finally came to Korea after persuading her family. In Korea, she got a part-time job as a model, and later some agencies suggested she become a trainee.

The singer-to-be also appeared in JTBC talk show "Abnormal Summit" and MBC Every1 reality show "Welcome, First Time in Korea?" in 2017.

Source: Korea Times

Comments

[miss-suunshinee.livejournal.com]

judging only by her pics ...... if you dont tell she's russian i would have never guessed

but i suppose that's the point, we know kpop has very specific standards for non-asian idols looks

[petecarl.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I can't find a video of her to tell, but Russia does have for lack of better words a large native Asian population and a lot of Eurasian folk.

[tungatunga.livejournal.com]

There is a significant community of Soviet Koreans or Koryo-sarams in former CCCP countries. I didn't know until recently but legendary leader of punk rock band Kino, Victor Tsoy was of Korean origins (Russia has a large native Asians populations so it didn't click for me before entering Kpop ;))

[krissasaur]

I searched "Sakhalin people"" because I had never heard of that place and they have an east asian look rather than euro-russian look.

[sjtaazrz.livejournal.com]

I have no idea if she has talent, but good luck to her. She already has the "OMG Korea is so amazing! the culture! the dramas!" thing down and looks they would like, so I can see her being loved by a lot of people.

[neoreulwonhae.livejournal.com]

Is she half? She looks Asian, just from that pic. That would make it easier for her.

[dull-and-wicked.livejournal.com]

the majority of the country (land mass wise) is the eastern portion that's in asia, so there's a sizable native russians that are asian

[benihime99.livejournal.com]

I'm not really surprised by her looks
Most russian I met while studying oversea didn't look like the hollywood cliché

She's cute, I wonder who she is signed to.

[gathyou.livejournal.com]

She's cute, she'll fit in a kpop group visually
Good luck to her! it's not an easy path and I'm betting on a smaller company since she's talking about it on her own insta, hope she'll be ok

[takemydream.livejournal.com]

since ppl are commenting on her race, I'm gonna leave this here: Why do some Russians look Asian? (https://www.rbth.com/politics_and_society/2017/05/10/why-some-russians-look-asian-759856)
"There are more than 190 ethnic groups [in Russia]"

I have a Russian friend who appears East Asian. In Korea, other foreigners often asked if her family is Korean (though they didn't know about koryo saram (https://www.koreaexpose.com/koryo-saram-from-central-asia-and-russia-struggle-in-south-korea/)), however her entire family is from Russia and has been in Russia for generations. Her surname sounds Russian and all. She's from the Kalmyk ethnic group, and often had to explain that Russia is big and diverse.

[myungung.livejournal.com]

this was a good read, thanks for this!

[petecarl.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the links. They were really informative.

[scionofawhisper.livejournal.com]

She certainly has the looks, wowa.

With Kpop's popularity really exploding globally in the past few years I can't help but think there is probably quite a few international trainees that are gonna pop out in debuts soon.

[swhyeon1991.livejournal.com]

There are definitely better dramas than BOF but good luck!

[psharp10.livejournal.com]

some fun info: when let's eat dinner tgt had their russian special eps, they went to sakhalin (i think that was the one with suju d&e) and there met quite a few 2nd-4th gen koreans there (that's why they went specifically to sakhalin since it does have a connect to korea) - i think it was when korea was under japanese rule that many koreans were forced to immigrate to sakhalin to mainly, iirc, work for japanese war efforts and then after ww2 while many were repatriated, many were left behind

so there is an interesting link/connect between sakhalin and skr and idk about eugina specifically but she miiiiight have some ancestry from skr or japan, looking at the history - esp if she's from south sakhalin

[belintuchiha.livejournal.com]

I wish I was conventionally pretty tbh

[violoncelliste.livejournal.com]

gosh same it would make my life so much easier

[belintuchiha.livejournal.com]

For real!!! :(

[veep-throat.livejournal.com]

jesus lmao