Call to action: Open investigation into the Incheon Asian Games Organizing Committee’s unilateral exclusion of JYJ from Incheon Asian Games opening ceremony
The Asian Games is the most prestigious games organized by the Olympic Council of Asia, bringing together over 10,000 athletes, team officials, and technical delegates from 45 nations every four years. The 2014 Asian Games will be held in the city of Incheon, South Korea this coming September. To promote the games across Asia, the IAGOC appointed Korean superstars JYJ as honorary ambassadors to the 2014 Incheon Asian Games last February 20, 2013. In the words of the IAGOC, “we appointed JYJ as the honorary ambassador, whose popularity is well recognized all around the Asia, to encourage the rest of the Asia to know more about the 2014 Incheon Asian Games.” Fulfilling their roles for one and a half years, JYJ performed extensive promotional activities for the Incheon Asian Games, such as travelling to Guangzhou, China and Hanoi, Vietnam to put on promotional showcases. They even sang the Games’ official theme song “ONLY ONE”, being the face of the Games on promotional advertisements throughout Asia. They have likewise filmed multiple televised commercials to better promote the upcoming Games.
On July 1, 2014, however, JYJ was neither invited nor informed of the press conference that the IAGOC held, and were unilaterally dropped from the opening and closing ceremonies’ list of performers through press releases, despite several attempts by JYJ’s management C-JeS Entertainment to clarify the matter with the Committee as the Service Contract specifically included performance by JYJ on the opening and closing ceremonies. Quite surprisingly, this incident came about after it was recently announced that SM Entertainment, JYJ’s previous management company, was named a sponsor for the Incheon 2014 Asian Paralympic Games. A boyband from SM Entertainment, who had no previous connection to the Incheon Asian Games and not once promoted it will instead be performing a pop-song of their own at the opening and closing ceremonies and also appeared at the press conference in lieu of JYJ. On the other hand, JYJ, the Games’ honorary ambassadors, are barred from performing the official theme song of the Incheon Asian Games, ‘Only One’, which they sang and promoted specifically for the Incheon Asian Games. Read More →