Kim Kibum

7 September:

Former U-KISS member Kim Kibum has revealed that he’ll be starting solo promotions in Japan under the new name, ‘Allen‘.

On September 10th, Kibum will be greeting his Japanese fans for the first time at the ‘K-Pop Music Festival 2011 in Kagoshima‘ as an MC for the concert. He’s planning to show off his Japanese language skills, which he’s been honing for some time now.

Kibum stated, “I’m excited and looking forward to meeting my fans in Japan. I have experience MCing in Korea but it’s my first time for a K-Pop festival in Japan, so I’m determined to do well. There’s a bit of pressure since I have to speak Japanese, but I’ll be working hard to make sure I don’t make any mistakes.”

He continued, “My English name was ‘Allen Kim’ so I changed my stage name to simply show who I am. I’m using this name change as an opportunity to start anew.”

Kibum is currently spending busy days traveling back and forth between Korea and Japan for his musical, ‘Kizuna‘.

Source: TV Report via Naver - allkpop

5 June:
After leaving the group U-Kiss, Kim Kibum (aka Allen) has been keeping himself busy with various activities.

Most recently, on May 20th, the idol turned young CEO attended a special launch event / fan meeting in Singapore for the toy character ‘Piro Piro’ which was held together with Warner Singapore.

The character is from his jointly owned company named HnB Company that he set up with his brother,SS501’s Kim Hyung Joon.

The promotional event was held to help spread the name of Piro Piro for export business purposes, it was stated that around 1,000 fans attended the event.

At the event, the idol was greeted by fans who prepared a special audio and video message for him. Because of their kind actions, when he returned back to Korea, he posted a thank you message to the fans on his twitter account.

With much exuberance, Kibum stated, “Now that I’m alone, I have much more responsibilities to handle. To show my appreciation to fans all around the world for showing their love, I’m in the progress of composing music to eventually return to the entertainment realm. At the same time, I’m also handling my business obligations.”

Source + Photo: xsportsnews via allkpop

18 Maret: Back in February, NH Media officially announced that Alexander and Kibum would depart from U-KISS. Recently, Kibum and his mother were guests on a corner of tvN’s morning talk show, “Brunch“, through which they elaborated on details about his contract termination, while simultaneously clearing up some misconceptions.

Kibum revealed that he was in a 10-year contract with NH Media (of which he only served 3), which prompted the show’s MCs to mention ’slave contracts’.

He responded, “I received notice of my contract termination very suddenly.  We were all doing well, and had recently came back from an overseas schedule.  I did notice that my personal schedules began disappearing about a month before I was told of my termination.  My appearance for shows I was canceled to attend would be canceled, or another member would take my place.  I didn’t think much of it, but after I was told, I realized that they had been preparing my departure since then.”

He went on to add that although there were consequences for the artist terminating his contract with the agency (in terms of fines), there were no penalties for agencies when they cancel their contracts with the artists.  Kibum revealed that although the contract between the members and the company were similar, there was an unequal distribution of income, as well as uneven contract lengths.  In addition, he stated thatU-KISS had never received a cent from their album sales, physical or digital. When they earned money from CF deals, it was split twice – the first cut would be between the company and the group, and then the remaining share was divided again amongst the individual group members.

Kibum’s mother also made an appearance on the show, and she shared that she divorced her husband while her two sons were still young. However, despite the difficulties she faced as a single mother, she said she never once regretted encouraging her sons to be idol singers.

The interview also saw Kibum confessed that he regretted dropping out of school during his trainee years. He said that now, he would encourage trainees to stay in school if possible, because unexpected things can happen, even to top stars.

Although he didn’t reveal much in the way of future plans, it doesn’t seem like we’ve heard the last of Kim Kibum!

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To watch the full 20-minute interview, check out the subbed videos below!

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Part 1

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Part 2

Source: allkpop

27 Februari:
Following the news of U-KISS’s Kim Kibum and Alexander leaving the group due to the agency desiring member replacements, Kim Kibum recently made an appearance on KBS’s “Entertainers” to explain the current situation in a bit more depth.
You can read the transcription of his interview down below.

—
Hello, this is Kim Kibum.
First of all, I’m very sorry for having to meet everyone for this news.
And I’m immensely sorry for having to reveal my no make-up face… I’ve been having a hard time you see… (Laughs)
Q: What is the current situation?
A: My contract with my former agency has been cancelled. Around February, the agency told me that they would like to do some member replacements, and when I asked if it was me who was to get replaced, they replied yes.
First of all, they said my vocal role in the group was weak. I respected my agency’s opinion and agreed to cancel my contract.
Q: What is the reason behind “Kim Kibum withdrawing” being such a hot topic of discussion?
A: (Laughs) Well, I think there were a lot of areas I lacked in. I think my capability as a singer was lacking.
Q: There is talk that you withdrew to focus on your business?
I don’t know how that rumor came about. Because my activities ended after my contract was cancelled, for about a month I didn’t participate in activities during U-KISS’s promotions.
To be honest, I didn’t say anything in that time because I didn’t want it to affect the other members. I think that caused the misunderstanding. Our fans were misunderstanding the situation, and were saying things like, “Has he stopped U-KISS promotions because of his business?” and “If you’re going to put your focus on your business, then just become an entrepreneur. So I think that misunderstanding came about during that one month.
Q: What is the response from fans?
A: There are a lot of fans who’ve told me to come back, and there are a lot who say it’s not U-KISS without seven members. I’m apologetic towards the fans because of how this situation came out to be. They believed in me, so I’m hurt that Alexander and I had to withdraw from U-KISS. I’m a bit disappointed that I didn’t get to stay on my will.
If U-KISS becomes more successful with member replacements, then I guess I’m fine with that.
Q: What was your brother’s reaction to the situation?
My brother seemed really hurt that we couldn’t go right till the end together, and that I ended up getting off the bus halfway through. He said to me, “I wanted you to do well, I don’t know how the situation came to be like this.”

I was okay with it, but my brother got angry (Laughs). But he said that things like this can happen, and told me to always have strength.

I’m planning to push forward with my personal activities, and I’ll working hard to achieve success with my character business.

I’m very sorry that I had to show myself in a situation like this, but I will do my best to show a better image of myself.

Source: allkpop
23 Februari:  

Kim Kibum recently confessed his feelings about leaving the team.
“I didn’t quit, they canceled my contract,” said Kim Kibum in a phone conversation with Newsen on the 23rd. Kibum added, “the agency first told us they are going to replace two members. They demanded me to sign an agreement on canceling my contract, so I did.”
Kibum was puzzled about the news that said he had quit the group. “I feel sorry to our fans,” said Kibum.
Kibum posted a long tweet to his fans:
That tweet began with, Hello, I am U-Kiss Kibum, no, I was U-Kiss Kim Kibum.”
Kibum says he didn’t voluntarily quit U-Kiss to focus on his Piro Piro character business but was required to sign the contract cancellation agreement and leave the group. Kibum says his business never distracted him from his U-Kiss activites and prioritized U-Kiss over anything else.
I thought of the members like my family…no, more than that. I’m so sad to say good-bye to them like this but I do respect the agency’s decision to replace me with someone better.”
Kibum thanked his fans and promised that he’ll continue to appear on air by himself as both a talent and business man.
This was also the case for member Alexander. “I did leave U-Kiss,” said Alexander on the phone with Newsen. “But it wasn’t because of school like they stated.”
U-Kiss’s agency NH Media will be replacing Kim Kibum and Alexander with new members, believing that it will strengthen the group vocals and bring about a change to U-Kiss.
Source: Newsen + @90KKB via allkpop

21 Februari:  

Alexander and Kim Kibum from idol boy group, U-KISS.
Moments ago, Kibum explained his decision through a long tweet, which read:

“Hello this is U-KISS Kibum, or more specifically, an ex-member of U-KISS, Kim Kibum.

After two months of delay, I’ve finally plucked up the courage to write this post.
First off, the agency and I have made an agreement about my exclusive contract on February 2011.
As the agency desired a member replacement, we wrote out a consent document for a contract dissolution, and from that day on, I became a former member of U-KISS.
Contrary to what most of you might be thinking, this is unrelated to my Piro Piro business… nor is it about losing interest in U-KISS.

I always thought importantly of U-KISS more than anyone, and I’m proud to say that not once did my Piro Piro character business impede my schedules with U-KISS..
I always thought of the members as more than family. I’m extremely upset that I have to part with them like this, but it was because of my lacking areas which warranted my former agency to desire a member replacement.

I may be leaving on a one-sided decision, however, I was able to learn a lot and meet many people, as well as the U-KISS members.

My feelings are very mixed up on the thought that the few lines in this message could hurt a lot of people I love.
I will continue my personal activities on broadcast.
Thank you to all the people who supported me wherever I was, and I will meet you once again as an entrepreneur,

Thank you.”

Source: Kim Kibum’s Twitter (@90KKB) via allkpop