Welcome to the first ever edition of Diadem’s new series: Roundtable: Meet your fellow QUEEN’S! This new series of articles is something we are very, very excited about.

Every five to six weeks, Diadem will be publishing a new edition of a Roundtable where we interview our fellow QUEEN’S  to help our fandom either introduce QUEEN’S or help you get to know them better, and where they will be able to share some of their best T-ara stories. As not only T-ara’s international fansite, but also T-ara’s biggest fansite, we are constantly striving to make the community between QUEEN’S bigger and stronger, and with this new series we hope to take a leap forward in that goal!

For our first ever edition, we chose four very special QUEEN’S. The first is Diadem’s almighty founder, Elly, who just graduated from Design School (yay!). Elly is originally from the Philippines, but now lives in Toronto, Canada. Second up is Brandinator, who often is providing us with high quality scans and amazing GIFs via his Tumblr. Brandinator is located in New York, and has that special luxury of being able to refer to themselves as “the QUEEN’S from Queens”. Thirdly, we have Diadem’s cutest and most sought after administrator (and graphic designer and coder and so on), craZy, who is from Lahore, Pakistan. And last but not least, we have the most famous Hahmchin from Hong Kong, kkyc222!

Do you want to be featured in Diadem’s next edition of Roundtable? Stay tuned to the end of the article to find out how you could be featured in the next one!

Q1: How did you get introduced to T-ara and what attracted you to become their fan?

Elly: I was in a Skype conference with my friends and I at the time and we were complaining talking about the super massive influx of new idol groups (it was only beginning to become a thing before T-ara debuted, so we weren’t used to it) and one of us pointed out “Yeah, there’s even this new group, they’re called T-ara or something; they sing for Cinderella Man”.

All I said was “That’s a ridiculous name. Are they any good?” My friend then told me about how T-ara seems to be a ballad group and that they don’t seem to be a cutesy joke girl group. So I looked them up and stumbled upon their profiles on a blog and fell in love with Eunjung instantly (this was before I listened to or watched Good Person). After that, the rest is history.

Brandinator: When I first got into K-Pop somewhere in mid-2010 (thanks, whoever it was that linked me Gee), I spent a lot of time discovering new groups. I also spent a lot of time introducing K-Pop to my sister, since I knew she was into Korean drama. At some point in early 2011, not content with whatever it was I was sending her, she told me she saw a group named “T-ara” on YouTube, and that she wanted me to get her ALL OF THEIR VIDEOS. I had seen mentions of T-ara, but for some reason I never felt compelled to check them out. I still look back on this day as the undeniable proof that my sister is way more awesome than I am. I started collecting videos/performances for her, and every single seizure I suffered through while watching those MVs was well worth it. By the time I got to “I Go Crazy Because Of You” it was pretty much over for me, as it is to this day one of my favorite concepts/songs of all time. I was really amused by the way they managed to effortlessly change their style/attitude from concept to concept, and the amount of variety in the music they were putting out was great. Of course, being (in my opinion) top-to-bottom the most attractive girl group didn’t hurt anything, either.

craZy: One of the very first few K-Pop MVs (as well of the first girl group) I saw was in fact TTL. At the time though I did not pay attention the group’s name however I remember it, along with a handful of others, leaving a great impression of K-Pop on me. After I delved further into K-Pop, I Go Crazy Because of You became a favorite but I did not follow the group yet. Being new to K-Pop, I was still exploring. I came across their name often though. Much later I started watching Invincible Youth and came to really like Hyomin. Because of this, the next time I came across T-ara’s name, I decided to look into it. It was the song Like The First Time and it was love at first listen. I still remember thinking how this was my type of music. The rest is history.

kkyc222: Most people in this fandom probably know that I’m a Hahmchin… but I pretty much became a T-ara fan because of Eunjung. I first heard about T-ara when I saw Eunjung in Coffee House and Hyomin in My Girlfriend is a Gumiho but I never paid much attention to them until I saw Eunjung in We Got Married. I came across ZIA’s The Way I Am and saw Eunjung and Jangwoo in the MV – found out that they had filmed it in an episode of We Got Married and went to watch that episode just for fun. I started watching the WooJung episodes from the beginning because I found the two of them pretty cute together, and the more I watched, the more I started to like Eunjung – her aegyo, kindness, consideration and love for her family and her friends… the way she likes to read, the way she is thoughtful about life and relationships between people, the way she takes care of her members and the way she is respectful to her elders. Maybe we’ve all been lied to by the image idols show on TV, but I felt that Eunjung was the type of girl who would put those she cared for before herself, and she just seemed like the type of girl who is actually very lonely inside (the way she always brings up how she’s an only child) and needs and deserves to be loved. So I started to follow her and all of T-ara’s activities. And now I’m here. Somehow along the way I became really invested in this group of girls – it’s strange because I’ve never fanned any artists or celebrities like this before – but I even started translating articles, tweeting with random strangers and even learning Korean because of them. Unfortunately I don’t have as much time now to follow them, but I still keep a general tab on their activities, especially when our Baekgu shows her face from time to time.

Q2: Do you prefer T-ara’s dance/electro songs (ie: Bo Peep Bo Peep, Lovey-Dovey, Sexy Love) or their ballad songs (ie: Lies, Cry Cry, We Were In Love) and why?

Elly: Definitely the dance/electro songs. Although I like to sing and love ballad tracks, I’ve always felt like T-ara does better with dance tracks (their ballads are great as well); but that’s also mainly because K-Pop always lacks great jammin’ (no, not all K-Pop songs are a “jam”) tracks and T-ara’s one of the very few groups in the industry that can bring fun tracks out for us.

Brandinator: I’m definitely a fan of both, as T-ara has some of my favorite ballads of all time (CCM ballads in general are pretty ace). Avoiding the cop-out answer, though, I’ll go ahead and choose the dance/electro songs. In general I’m a pretty active person, and I tend to prefer more up-tempo songs that I can be active to. I can’t argue with songs like “Lovey Dovey” and “I Go Crazy Because Of You”. Have I mentioned that I really like “I Go Crazy Because Of You”? Well, I do.

craZy: I wouldn’t be able to choose to be honest. I’m not picky in terms of genre as I enjoy listening many.

kkyc222: Definitely their ballad songs although I do admit that their dance/electro songs are very catchy especially when you start listening to them more and more. I’m just generally more of a fan of ballad songs but T-ara actually made me enjoy cute/dance/electro K-Pop (especially those typical “aegyo” K-Pop songs like Gee). I would never have liked those songs (e.g. Bo Beep Bo Beep or Roly-Poly) or been even remotely interested in following K-Pop if not for T-ara. All in all, T-ara really impacted my life in a huge way. My favorites are Falling U, Hurt, I’m Okay, Bye Bye, No. 9, Hide and Seek… the list goes on. Their cover of Round and Round is really catchy too.

Q3: If T-ara HAD to change their group name to something else, what would you change it to and why?

Elly: Oh geez, most people know I laughed the hardest at the idea of “T-ara” as a group name but after five years, I don’t think I can think of a more apt name for T-ara other than SLAY-ARA. Slay Queens of K-Pop = T-ara.

Brandinator: It’s really hard for me to imagine them as anything other than T-ara. I guess if it HAD to be changed at this juncture, I would probably keep in line with something “royalty” related. Maybe something really cheesy like “Royal-T”, or something even less original like T6 or “QUEENS”…you know, because people aren’t already confused enough by the apostrophe in the official fan name. Better yet, scratch those, they’re awful. I’d change the name to “Tiara”.

craZy: Goodness, this is too tough for me. Aside from T-ara being a perfectly group name, I am rather terrible at naming things.

kkyc222: This is a difficult question because to be honest I find a lot of K-Pop idol group names cheesy and cringe-worthy (usually accompanied by a very cliche reason for the name AND a very cliched fandom name as well) (and actually the meaning for “T-ara” and “Queen’s” is quite cliched too in my opinion). But still, I fell in love with this group despite the group’s cheesy name. To be honest I don’t think the name matters – it’s the people who make up that group that matters. If they were named something else I’d still like the group for their songs and for who the members (especially Eunjung) are.

Q4: What is your favorite moment or memory of T-ara?

Elly: When Hyomin won her acting award for her Gyebaek performance, cried during her acceptance speech and forgot to thank the Members out of nervousness.

Even though it was just Hyomin in the video, I just felt like the whole moment really represented how hard T-ara as a group and individuals work. Even though they have schedules upon schedules to do in a day and are so tired, they’re still able to push themselves harder to deliver nothing less than 120% on absolutely everything they do. On top of that, the Girls don’t do this only because it’s their job; they strive to excel in everything they do and are THE BEST in everything they do. Which is why Hyomin deserved that award and is why T-ara is a top-tier girl group.

Brandinator: I guess this is more a series of moments, but for me specifically it’s everything that led up to the release of Roly Poly. As I mentioned before, I had just found out about them early in 2011, so it was a weird time just around when they were done promoting YaYaYa, but before Roly-Poly. I became a huge fan through checking out their backlog and I was pretty excited to be able to experience a new release of theirs as it was happening. I still remember essentially losing it (on the inside, of course) when I saw Jiyeon’s hair in the MV teaser.

craZy: There are many memorable moments for me. From their first ever win with Bo Peep Bo Peep, their tearful encore performance at Budokan 2012, the Bunny Style/Daily T-ara era, to the incredibly fun ON AIR concerts in China. I would as well say the Roly-Poly era. It was the first ever comeback I experienced as a fan and I remember becoming so excited when I saw the teaser. It was as well a time that brought the girls great fame. Another I must mention is their return to Korea in 2013 with Number 9. Something we all had been waiting for for so long and what a great feeling it was to finally have them back with a spectacular returning song and image.

kkyc222: Eunjung crying on Haha Mong Show because she misses her dad a lot. T-ara crying when they got their first music show win, and also when they cried for their subsequent wins for I Go Crazy Because of You and Roly-Poly – it’s like they are always surprised and never expected themselves to win. I know it’s probably quite unlikely but I really hope they will eventually win again in the future. It will definitely mean a lot after what they’ve gone through in the past two years.

Q5: In the future, what would you like to see T-ara doing?

Elly: Definitely more international expansion. T-ara’s working on it nicely focusing on it for the past two years, but hopefully they can keep expanding and reaching out to their audiences and fans in the West more. QUEEN’S in the West work just as hard and love T-ara just as much as those in the East so I think it’d be nice for them to get a glimpse of T-ara as well someday.

Or maybe they should try to do/venture into something special with things they like to do outside of the music industry. Like, I don’t know, for example, Hyomin should release a Photo Essay of pictures she’s taken or a Look-book of her fashion designs. Or maybe start up the shopping mall like the one they had before once again. Things like those, fun stuff that doesn’t always involve singing, dancing, or acting.

But if all of that is asking for too much, then maybe get more rest? I still think they’re the most overworked girl group in Korea (despite not having Korean promotion activities at the moment) because they never have a free day. It’s so difficult to squeeze in a small activity in their schedules!

Brandinator: The first thing that comes to mind is that I’d really like to see them get back to doing other activities, like participating in variety shows and acting in dramas. Shows like Invincible Youth, We Got Married, Dream High, Oh My School–seeing the members on these shows interacting with other idols was amazing, and it would be great if they’d do more of that. On the musical side of things I’d really like for them to revisit something like TTL. I really enjoyed the old school Hip-Hop/R&B vibes of TTL, so if they could somehow recapture that magic, that would bring me great joy. Someone get SPEED on the phone, please.

craZy: Take on a rock genre, a sageuk/fantasy concept (I would’ve want pirate as well but sadly it’s been done for Japan) or a step up from their usual drama MVs, [and make] a movie haha.

kkyc222: I’d like to see them come out with more mature ballad songs and in particular, release a heartfelt and thoughtful song specially dedicated to their fans (which some other groups have already done before). I don’t think they can rely on cute concepts anymore – that’s appropriate for new and young rookie groups, but not for a group whose members are in their mid-to-late twenties. I’m also always waiting for an Absolute Second Album. And hopefully they will be given more opportunities to act and participate in more variety shows as well.

For Eunjung, I’d really like to see her act in a romance or melodrama where she gets to look pretty and girly in a beautiful and sometimes heartbreaking relationship (instead of being the jealous second female harboring an unrequited love for the male lead).

For all of them, I hope they will continue to pursue their dreams even when T-ara is no longer active, be it continuing their careers as a celebrity or just living a happy life as a non-celebrity.

Follow Elly on Twitter at @fabyeolus and on Instagram at @chalicesantiago!
Follow Brandinator on Twitter at @brandinator_ and on Tumblr at http://brandinator.tumblr.com/!
Follow craZy on Twitter at @craZy18gurl and at http://t-shidae.tumblr.com/!
Follow kkyc222 on Twitter at @kclalala!

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Are you interested in being featured in Diadem’s next edition of our Roundtable series? If so, you have TWO opportunities to be chosen for it and there is only one requirement!: You must be a Diadem member.

The first way is to simply leave a comment telling us what you thought about this article and our new series.

The second way is to use your Twitter account to retweet THIS TWEET about #DiademRoundtable.

The third way is to share this article via Twitter in one of your own tweets and include the hashtag #DiademRoundtable.

All in all, you have up to three ways to enter into the random drawing to be chosen for the next edition of Diadem’s Roundtable. In three to four weeks, we will be randomly be contacting TWO different QUEEN’S who have either commented, retweeted, or tweeted about this article and asking for them to join in for our Edition #2!