They call it the rise of a new global culture. For the past few decades or so, Western music dominated our radio channels, pop culture and films, but the ‘Hallyu’, the global wave of love for Korean music, television and film, has taken Egypt by storm. Many will remember that South Korean director Bong Joon-ho’s film Parasite became the first non-English language film to win best picture at the Oscars in 2019. Yet, international appreciation for South Korean culture has been growing for some time. K-Pop group ‘Wonder Girls’ first cracked the US Billboard Hot 100 chart with their hit “Nobody” in 2009, and, since then, South Korean artists have started to become increasingly popular, with acclaimed boyband BTS becoming the first K-Pop act to ever perform one of their own songs at the Grammy Awards in 2021. The industry’s global outreach grew to amass $USD 5 billion of export revenues for South Korea’s economy, and Egypt has become a popular market. According to a Spotify statement in 2020, Egypt’s growth rate for K-Pop streaming was at 33 percent, followed by Vietnam at 30 percent, and France at 13 percent….
Crossing Cultures: How K-Pop and Korean Drama Took Egypt By Storm
April 9, 2021
