Changwon (South Korea) (AFP)

They came from Madagascar, Kuwait and Cuba ... and they sang or danced the most famous Korean pop hits, watched by thousands of fans attending the K-pop international festival in Changwon, Korea. South.

This event is a great showcase for the South Korean government that actively supports K-pop as an export product, despite the dramas that regularly affect stars of this hyper-competitive industry (suicides, harassment ...)

This year, the festival welcomed seven young Cubans who spent seven months training to dance the South Korean pop in the streets, parks and garages with one dream: to be at the forefront of the scene. occasion of the Changwon festival.

The Cuban government is one of the few allies of North Korea, but the Havana artist Neil Marriot Karel Rodriguez Diaz, the manners and hairstyle of a star of K-pop, is more motivated by the pace frantic and furious choreography only by geo-political questions.

"We never had a mirror in the places where we trained and we did not have a choreographer to teach us the steps," he says.

"We are very happy to represent not only Cuba, but also all of Latin America," says his team-mate Elio Gonzalez.

According to the organizers, some 6,400 teams from more than 80 countries participated in the competition.

Thirteen teams from countries as different as Kuwait and Madagascar came to the finals, where they performed on stage holding up their national flag.

- "Like the Olympics" -

"It's like watching the Olympics, the K-pop Olympics," enthused Lia, host of the event and a member of the K-pop ITZY group.

K-pop and soap operas "K-dramas" are the two flagship cultural products of South Korea that have met with great success abroad.

The Korean cultural wave that has conquered Asia in the last twenty years, thanks to its stars and the K-pop industry, is estimated at $ 5 billion.

Today, it's the boy band that is loved around the world.

The South Korean government has funded a large number of K-pop events, making it a softpower tool, says CedarBough Saeji, visiting professor at Indiana Bloomington University in the United States.

The dancers who now rehearse meticulously orchestrated choreographies "will be diplomats, journalists and business leaders in forty years".

"And I hope they will still have a thing for Korea." Korea can not conquer the world thanks to its military and economic power, but by using a mode of soft conquest even a small country like Korea has a chance ", believes this professor.

This music offers, according to her, an alternative to the Western music industry, and in particular American, which has long dominated the world market.

- A sense of liberation -

Fans come from developing countries in particular, says CedarBough Saeji, and seeing that a non-American culture is successful "gives them hope that their own countries will have similar success in the future."

But behind the glitter, hides a less glamorous image. The world of K-pop is known to be hyper competitive, the stars have no more intimate life and are under constant pressure to provide a picture of clean people on them.

Sulli, 25, a former member of the K-pop f (x) band, one of South Korea's best-known pop, was found dead Monday at her home.

The young woman was known for her commitment to women's rights and was the target of a campaign of insults and harassment on social networks.

"I think that an industry that makes money by singing, dancing, undergoing cosmetic surgeries and dieting to please others should really go out of business", said a South Korean Internet respondent after Sulli's death .

But for Kenny Pham, an American finalist in the contest last week, it's the diversity of K-pop that gives him a sense of liberation.

"I have the impression that it shows his passion for music, dance or fashion.Nobody denigrates you for what you like," said the 19-year-old to AFP.

© 2019 AFP