American Accountant Wins The World’s Largest K-pop Competition In Changwon!

An American accountant has won the grand prize at the largest K-pop singing and dancing competition in the world amid of the increasing popularity of K-pop around the globe.

Britney Chanel, a 26-year-old American accountant blows-off the stage with her performance of "U & I" by Ailee. Chanel did not expect to win the top spot at the 2016 K-Pop World Festival in held in Changwon. Two weeks earlier prior to the competition, she flew to Changwon from Los Angeles in order to compete in the final competition.

"I feel amazing, it feels crazy. Right now I work for the Grammies, the award show. At some point, I want to be a singer-songwriter," Chanel told Yonhap News.

Meanwhile, the best vocalist award went to team Italy and the best performance award got by the team Nigeria. The excellent vocalist award and the excellent performance award were given to team India and team Sweden. Moreover, team Russia and team Hungary won the audience's choice awards.

A total of 15 teams competed, who all topped the preliminaries during the regional competitions in 65 countries around the world. This year's competition has been so pressuring and impacting due to the teams' dedication in singing, dancing, and performing their best to win the competition.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs, KBS television broadcaster, and the Korean Culture and Information Service hosted the largest K-pop Competition with the aim of promoting the "Hallyu" or K-pop culture around the world.

The audience is blown away and nervous every time the host announces the winners in every category. The favorite teams during the competition who won a prize received a loud scream from the crowd while some audience did a protest cheer when their favorite team did not win a prize.

The countries who participated in the event were: Nepal, Russia, Malaysia, Nigeria, Mexico, the U.S., Vietnam, Israel, Italy, India, Sweden, Indonesia, Japan, China and Hungary.

The competition has two sections including stage performance and vocal performance. In the previous year, Nigerian team won the crown for their awesome performance of "Dope" by Bangtan Boys.

The panel of judges in the competition is composed of K-pop producers, choreographers, and composers who evaluated the participants' stage presence, vocal skills, delivery, choreography, and technical aspects of their performances. This year's judges includes R&B singer-producer Kim Jo-han, singer-songwriter & DJ Koo Jun-yup, singer Seo In-young and popular songwriter Blackeyed Pilseung.

The popular K-pop groups like TWICE, EXID, Bangtan Boys, Monsta X and Astro performed in small sets during the competiton.

Ahn Sang-soo, who is the mayor of Changwon together with officials from S.M. Entertainment, which is one of the biggest entertainment agencies in South Korea, was also present at the competition.

"S.M. Entertainment gave its word to pick outstanding performers and foster them as K-pop musicians," arousing frantic cheers from the international audience. I hope the global popularity of K-pop will blast like flames, to have more world talent make efforts to become excellent K-pop artists," Ahn said.