‘Whole’ EXO, Leaping Over Nationality’s Wall as a “Family’”

◆ The ‘whole’ with no rivals have come back

‘Although we weren’t born in the same year the same month the same day, we’d like to die together on the same year the same month the same day’ is one of scenes that appears in Romance of the Three Kingdoms’s Oath in the Peach Garden (t/n: Romance of the Three Kingdom’s is a Chinese novel and in one of the scenes, the men swore themselves as blood brothers in the peach garden). In the music world, there have also appeared twelve blood brothers that are grouped tightly together through loyalty like them. It is the story of ‘global family’ EXO who gathered a lot of interest through the meeting of Korea and China.

Ranking in the upper rank for various music charts and the offline album sales volume being in first place for two weeks straight is natural, at the three major broadcast music programs, they swept the top and made the ‘EXO craze.’ Their energy source is ‘whole EXO.’

читать дальшеEXO-K (Suho, Baekhyun, Chanyeol, D.O, Kai, Sehun) and EXO-M, (Luhan, Tao, Chen, Lay, Xiumin, Kris) who were active in Korea and China respectively, have become one for their official first album. They announced ‘XOXO(Kiss&Hug)’ on the third of last month and are in the midst of animatedly promoting their title song ‘Wolf and Beauty(Wolf).’

“I didn’t know we would receive love from so many people. Whenever we go up on stage, we try to pour out all our energy. I think that is the side of us that they enjoy looking at. Thank you so much” (Suho)

“As the twelve members joined together, more synergy effect occurred. We can make a more diverse majestic performance, and the biggest strong point is that our twelve members can tightly fill up the stage. Thanks to that aspect, I think our music is able to gain more love” (Chanyeol)

◆ Twelve family members ‘global family’ under one roof

The twelve members of EXO have leaped over ‘nationality’s wall’ and became a family. Their lifestyle that has their warmth is making the group EXO’s fantastic breathing. (t/n: when they say breathing, they mean like keeping in step with one another)

“Because our twelve members are living all together, we really are living like a family. Especially leader Suho is our team’s mom. He’s always next to us thriftily taking care of us. The father role is Kris who has a manly personality. And another reason is because he’s tall…. haha” (Chanyeol)

The twelve members who grew up in different backgrounds, see each other’s different sides while living together. EXO chose member Xiumin as the most diligent and member Tao as most unique.

“Woomin (t/n: Xiumin without the Xi) usually wakes up two hours before a schedule and prepares. I wake up at the sound of Woomin washing and putting on toner. Also Tao is the most unique amongst our members. Should I say he’s four dimensional? He calls himself Dracula and drinks watermelon juice instead of blood. Besides this he also does a lot of fun actions like ‘kind Tao’ and ‘bad Tao’, ‘boy Tao’ and ‘girl Tao.’ Haha” (Kai)

One of the reasons why many of the members were able to get along with one another is because they overcame the ‘obstacle of language.’ EXO’s Chinese members (Kris, Luhan, Tao, Lay) are all proficient in Korean. Especially Kris is proficient in four languages and gathered attention.

“It’s not that I was interested in languages since I was young. When I was young I was born in China and lived there for ten years before moving to Canada. I lived in Canada for ten years. Thanks to it I became proficient in four languages: Korean, English, Mandarin, Cantonese. I am thankful to my parents(laughter)” (Kris)

◆ Korea and China, grab ‘two rabbits’ (t/n: that saying is similar to ‘killing two birds with one stone’)

The first official album ‘XOXO (Kiss&Hug) that was released in Korean and Chinese has a total of 24 songs. The title song ‘Wolf and Beauty(Wolf)’ is a dance song with a collaboration of dubstep and hip hop and tells the unique story of a wolf meeting a girl and feeling love’s emotion.

They especially put in twice as much effort than others in order to grab the two rabbits that are Korea and China. The result of that is EXO reformed as a serious ‘skilled singer’ and not a common ‘visual singer.’

“Because this album has two versions of Korean and Chinese, we had to master two types of choreography parts for performances. We had a lot of amount of practice compared to others. Thanks to it, we haven’t made a mistake on stage once” (Chen)

“Because of the language it was a bit difficult. Especially the Korean members suffered a lot because the Chinese pronunciation is hard. We put in our biggest effort to make it not seem awkward when a Chinese person listened to it” (Baekhyun)

Also, while going back and forth from Korea and China, EXO who is steering the Hallyu craze, has stood on stage with a lot of senior singers on international stages and is a reliable group that has seen and learned a lot.

“While doing overseas performances, we meet a lot of big seniors. I’m so happy that we could perform with a senior that I had respected, and above all else there is so much to learn. We study a lot from seeing our seniors’ performances. They also give us a lot of advice” (Suho)

◆ “We want to become a group that has a long life like a zelkova tree”

The zelkova tree is a tree that easily lives over 300 years once it lets down its roots and is also the tree that symbolizes prosperity and development in our country. Like the zelkova tree, EXO wants to become the group with the longest life informing Korea’s status and always remaining near their fans’ side.

“Our team’s biggest goal is to become the group with the longest life. And we want to do a world tour for sure. Like SHINHWA seniors right now, we want to be a team that lives for 15 years, 20 years and remains by our fans’ sides for a long long time!” (all of EXO)



EXO, who is currently solidifying their positions while traveling not only Korea and China, but other countries as well, is running towards a better tomorrow with their unending passion and challenge. We’re anticipating how EXO, who returned as a ‘whole,’ will be like in the future.

source: Asia Kyungjae
translation cr; nahbit @ exok-trans