Minami of the girl group RESCENE shared a story about being teased by her friends in Japan.
She appeared on MBC's variety show "Radio Star," which aired on the 16th, alongside Lee Hyung-taik, Lee Hye-jung and Cho Jun-ho.
Host Kim Gu-ra brought up the topic, saying Minami had been the target of teasing back in Japan.
"My friends in Japan got in touch with me," Minami said. "They tease me, asking, 'You're getting a lot of attention these days, but why are you suddenly doing gyaru?'"
She explained that her friends were surprised because she had told them she was going to audition to become a K-pop idol, only to show up with a gyaru image.
"They asked me if I had lost my mind," she said. "I told them, 'This is the only way I'll get noticed.'" She described how desperate she had felt at the time.
Gyaru is the Japanese pronunciation of the English word "girl," and refers to women who wear bold, distinctive fashion and makeup. The style was popular among Japanese teenagers in the 1990s and 2000s.
RESCENE went largely unnoticed for two years after its debut, then drew wide attention as Minami's gyaru concept and the "Geoje Yaho" meme spread on YouTube.
"I had never been exposed to gyaru culture when I was in Japan. I started it for the first time in Korea," Minami said, explaining why her friends were so taken aback.
"My mother used a style and a way of speaking similar to gyaru," she added, drawing laughs. "When I was imitating gyaru, I learned the know-how from my mother."
The conversation also turned to Minami's catchphrase, "Geoje Yaho." "Fans ask me so often to shout the catchphrase that I think I do it about 30 times a day," she said. "The 'Yaho' video has topped 13 million views. 'Yaho' is a friendly greeting used in Japan."
"I think I've done 'Yaho' enough," she declared. "I'll shout it here one last time to my heart's content and then graduate from it." Yoo Se-yoon then chimed in to talk her out of it, adding to the laughter: "Don't graduate from 'Yaho.' I'm still doing my baboon bit."
Newsis
