Kim Hyun Joong and Super Junior members receive trophies at the Yahoo! Asia Buzz Awards. (Publicity photos)

Last December 20, the 2011 Yahoo! Asia Buzz Awards honored top artists at the Hong Kong Convention Center. The Yahoo! Buzz awards, already on its 7th year, honors top celebrities based on Yahoo search statistics over the past year.

Hallyu star Kim Hyun Joong proved once again that he is extremely popular in Asia after going home with four awards during the star-studded event. Fans of the Korean singer-actor-model know that this is the third year in a row where Kim Hyun Joong took home top prizes during this annually held ceremony. In 2009, he took home three awards including the Korean Top Buzz Male Artist, Taiwan's Top Buzz Korean Artist and Asia Top Buzz Male Artist. In 2010, he took home the Hong Kong and Taiwan Top Buzz Korean Artist and the coveted Best Search Asia Buzz Award.

This year, Kim Hyun Joong took home four awards including the Hong Kong, Taiwan and Korea Top Buzz Solo Artist Award as well as the Asia Top Buzz Solo Artist award. Kim Hyun Joong expressed his gratefulness

Dong Yi (Photo courtesy of GMA Network)One of the most successful Korean period dramas of 2010 "Dong Yi" is currently airing on local television. "Dong Yi" is a 60-episode period drama starring Han Hyo Joo, the beautiful actress from the hit drama "Shining Inheritance" (or "Brilliant Legacy"). The beautiful epic drama was produced and partly directed by Lee Byung Hoon, the director of much loved 2003 K-drama "Jewel in the Palace."

The story of "Dong Yi" revolves around the life of a lowly servant who rises to become a significant person in the Korean monarchy. As a child, Dong Yi enters the king's palace as a slave maid for the Bureau of Music. Her beauty, talent and personality eventually won the heart of the king. Dong Yi becomes a lady of the court, then a royal concubine. She bears a son who later becomes king.

According to the official Philippine Facebook page for "Dong Yi", the drama has achieved key drama recognitions including the 2010 MBC Drama Awards for Drama of the Year, Male Excellence Award (Ji Jin Hee),

ZE:A (Publicity photo)Fans of K-Pop idol group ZE:A are ecstatic because their idol dreams are about to come true. Warner Music announced that ZE:A, also known as Children of Empire, will be visiting the Philippines early January 2012 for a series of mall appearances to promote their CD entitled "Exciting."
ZE:A (Philippine Promo Tour Poster)
ZE:A is composed of 9 members including Kevin, Kwang Hee, Si Wan, Jun Young, Tae Heon, Hee Chul, Min Woo, Hyung Sik, and Dong Jun. The group gained popularity when they released their debut single "Mazeltov" early last year. Since then, ZE:A has released a total of 8 promotional singles, a full-length album, as well as Japanese, Taiwanese and Thai releases. ZE:A will be touring Ayala Malls in Manila including Trinoma (January 12, 6PM), Glorietta (January 13, 6PM), and Market! Market! (January 14, 6PM).

For more details on ZE:A's Philippine promo tour, visit the official Warner Music Facebook.

To experience the music of ZE:A, watch the videos below.

ZE:A "Exciting"

ZE:A "Here I Am"

Catherine Deen blogs

INFINITE (SportsKorea)Korean idol group INFINITE is having quite a successful year. The seven-member boy band scored #1 hits on respected music chart shows M! Countdown and Inkigayo earlier this year with "Be Mine" and "Paradise," and delivered another all-kill with its first holiday single, "White Confession (Lately)," a feat made even more impressive considering the Christmas release was timed against powerful comeback singles by artists like IU, Wonder Girls, and collaborative duo Trouble Maker, composed of 4Minute's Hyuna and B2ST's Hyun-seung.

Already known and respected for its powerful dance moves - K-Pop fans will remember the sizzling-hot "scorpion dance" from their single "Before The Dawn" - INFINITE broke into the big time when "Be Mine" went to #1 on M! Countdown in September 2011. When "Paradise" topped both M! and the even more difficult-to-win Inkigayo, Inspirits (as INFINITE's fans are known) went ballistic.

To see photos of INFINITE, click here.

Even internationally, INFINITE is making

K-Pop lovers know that it is not just the music that make K-Pop great. It is also the look and not look is complete without an eye-catching hairstyle. K-Pop fans often imitate the cool, fearless, and at times crazy K-Pop hairstyles their favorite stars wear. Here are some of the craziest and coolest hairstyles that came out of the K-Pop world.

Sandara Park (2NE1)

Sandara Park of 2NE1 is well-known for her trend-setting hairstyles. Her most popular hit is the byeomeori hairstyle which she sported as early as her debut days. The byeomeori hairstyle involves braiding the hair and styling it on top in a rising fashion. Sandara Park, also known as Dara, has made this her signature hairstyle and has since sported various redefined versions of this gravity defying hairstyle.

Photos courtesy of Dara's me2day and publicity photos

Taeyang, G-Dragon and T.O.P. (Big Bang)

The members of Big Bang with special mention to Taeyang, T.O.P., and G-Dragon have proven that they are unafraid of bold hair transformations. Since their debut in 2006, these guys

Christmas becomes more special for K-Pop fans as SMTOWN, the official name of all SM Entertainment artists as a group, releases its first Christmas album in 4 years! Entitled "The Warmest Gift", the 2011 SMTOWN Winter album will be released on December 13. Local K-Pop fans better go to your favorite online store to purchase the album in time for the holiday season.

As if releasing a Christmas album is not enough to make their fans ecstatic, all songs in the album were sung in English which is an additional treat to their international fans. "The Warmest Gift" features popular SME artists such as Girls' Generation, Super Junior, SHINee, f(X), Kangta, TVXQ, BoA, Trax, Dana and Sunday, Zhang Li In, and J-min. The album track list is as follows:

Santa U Are The One by Super Junior
Sleigh Ride by TVXQ
Last Christmas by SHINee
Diamond by Girls' Generation
1, 2, 3 by f(x)
Distance by BoA
For The First Time by Kangta
Like A Dream by TRAX
The First Noel by Zhang Liyin
Amazing by CSJH Dana &

Super Junior (Publicity photo)

The Philippine K-Pop community is a vibrant group of people, young and young-at-heart, who express their passion for Korean music, drama, food, pop culture and all things K-Pop.

To recognize and celebrate this energetic subculture of fan clubs, talents, and personalities, Yahoo! Philippines OMG! is featuring "Fanday Mondays." Yahoo!  Philippines OMG!, through its "oK Pop" blog, will feature one local K-Pop fan club or personality. The goal of this series is to increase awareness and foster camaraderie among local K-Pop fan clubs and K-Pop fanatics.

Previous Fanday Monday features include those for Shinhwa Philippines, CloudPH, Triple S Philippines, BoicePH, and CassPH.

Today's feature is on Super Junior United, arguably the biggest K-Pop fan club in the Philippines.

Club Name:  Super Junior United

Website: http://sjuph.org
Related K-Pop Star(s):  Super Junior, Leeteuk, Heechul, Donghae, Yesung, Sungmin, Kangin, Kyuhyun, Shindong, Eunhyuk, Siwon, Ryeowook, Kibum, Hangeng, Henry, and

Karla Carreon (Courtesy of KCCP)A 17-year-old Filipina teen named Karla Carreon bagged the coveted Grand Prize for vocals during the '1st Kpop World Festival' held in Changwon, South Korea last December 7.

Carreon got the chance to represent the Philippines after winning the local 'Pinoy Kpop Superstar' competition hosted by the Korean Cultural Center in the Philippines last October 8. She was sent to Korea as the official Philippine representative. A statement from the Korean Cultural Center in the Philippines described how Karla wowed the audience which included top K-Pop stars such as T-ara, CNBLUE, Secret, Sistar, Infinite, MBLAQ, K-Will and Boyfriend, with her powerful voice through a duet performance with Jam from Kazakhstan.

The "1st Kpop World Festival' is organized by the Korean Culture Information Service (KOCIS) and pitted representatives from all over the world. Karla Carreon is another Pinoy to be proud of! Congratulations Karla!