K-pop star Joshua rose to fame in Seoul, but remains loyal to Los Angeles: ‘My roots are here’

Joshua wasn’t expecting the popular quiz show “LA Accent” when he signed up for a Zoom interview from Seoul. It was a vacation in South Korea, but Joshua Hong, aka his first name, took one day off to talk about his band’s upcoming world tour. The impromptu test came as a surprise.

“Okay,” Joshua says calmly, preparing to speak the words flashing before him.

It’s been over 11 years since the 28-year-old artist moved from Los Angeles to Seoul to begin his K-pop journey as one of the 13 members of global superstar group Seventeen. Dominating the Korean charts and winning awards, the group has skyrocketed to international success, reaching No. 1 on the Billboard Artist 100 chart last year and having several albums peak in the top 10 of the Billboard 200. This weekend they return to Los Angeles for performing two sold-out shows at BMO Stadium as part of their fourth world tour, titled Seventeen Right Here.

Joshua feared that his knowledge of Los Angeles would be limited or that he had forgotten the manners and landmarks of Los Angeles.

“It was so much bigger than I remembered,” Joshua recalls of all the places he frequented in Los Angeles. “It’s much smaller now. I couldn’t experience the (adult) changes in Los Angeles.”

According to latest tiktok trendCalifornians are known to drop the “t” sound in words in a process called “flapping.” He begins to react with alarm to the pronunciation of California landmarks – “Monterey Park”, “Santa Ana”, “Sacramento” and others. His eyes widen as he recognizes the small towns of Southern California. While accent test controversialmost non-English speakers tend to pronounce words phonetically, including Wilshire Boulevard, which many outside Los Angeles pronounce as “Vil-shay-ur” rather than “Vil-shur”.

“Wilshire Boulevard in K-Town!” Joshua proudly states that he is correct.

Joshua was born and raised in Los Angeles and is no stranger to Koreatown and downtown. Before becoming a global K-pop star, Joshua attended Magnets High School in Downtown, attended church in K-town, and was active on the church worship team, which began his love for music. He often visited Disneyland, Six Flags and the beaches with friends.

“I have a lot of good memories,” he recalls. “I was just hanging out with my (friends) in and outside of church.”

His weekday routine consisted of going to school, usually followed by a trip to get boba at Quickly’s in Chinatown or some random place in Koreatown. Some evenings he would go to practice with his worship team; on other nights, he went with friends to the many Mexican restaurants in downtown Los Angeles.

“I love Mexican food,” Joshua exclaims. “It’s still very important to me. When I lived in Los Angeles, I ate Mexican food almost every day.”

He started listing all the different types of Mexican food, pausing to ask if I knew what a torta was since it wasn’t common in Korea. Realizing he was talking to a Los Angeles native, he thought about all the local restaurants he frequented, including Philippe Original’s French dip sandwiches (“I always forget to buy them when I go back to L.A.”), King Taco and Japanese Wasabi Noodles.

“I used to go to King Taco all the time,” he says. During the previous interviewHe expressed his love for network that went viral, prompting business answer with a proposal visit anytime and try your favorite carne asada and lengua (“hot sauce”) tacos.

Joshua was shocked to learn that King Taco made a video for him.

“Are you serious!?” he says. “I’ll check it out when I go to Los Angeles. I like King Taco.”

He joked about a possible future collaboration between the two. “It would be cool (to collaborate). They could take my favorite dish and call it the Joshua Set!”

However, not everything remains the same for the former Los Angeles resident. He lived downtown, near what he remembers as Staples Center, now known as Crypto.com Arena. He admits that he still get used to the name change.

“It’s weird,” he says skeptically. “Crypto dot com Arena? “Staples Center is so ingrained in my brain that I can’t call it anything else.”

Although it’s been a while since they played at Crypto.com Arena (then Staples), Joshua and his bandmates S.Coups, Jeonghan, Jun, Hoshi, Wonwoo, Woozi, The 8, Mingyu, DK, Seungkwan, Vernon and Dino have been busy preparing for the tour, which began last month in Seoul and is currently taking place across North America.

“It’s been a long time since we’ve done a world tour,” Joshua exclaims. “I’m excited to see all the new fans we can meet. They’ve been waiting for us for so long. I can’t wait to show them what we have in store for the tour. I’m excited about it.”

It’s been almost two years since Seventeen performed in Los Angeles during the Be the Sun Tour and the LA3C Music & Food Festival. Joshua expressed his joy at returning to his hometown during his farewell speech at the Kia Forum, greeting several of his school friends – something that has become a tradition since his last two world tours.

“(I miss) my friends,” he explains. “In Korea there is a term called ‘gohyang chingu,’ Referring to friends from hometown. My participants sometimes meet up with their old school friends. I don’t have it with me in Korea. So, that’s what I miss the most—my friends.”

Although his schedule is quite busy during the tour, he plans to try to see his friends. Being in Los Angeles reminds Joshua of his youth and a time when things were simpler.

“I tend to forget a lot about my roots because I’m so focused on what I’m doing now,” he says. “But when I go back to L.A. and hang out with my friends, it reminds me of all the good times I had in school and all the good times I had in L.A.”

In 2012, when he was 16 years old, Joshua was approached by a K-pop scout at the Los Angeles Korean Festival, an annual festival celebrating Korean culture and cuisine. He recalls being suspicious of a recruiter who wanted him to film an audition tape and send it to Pledis Entertainment, Seventeen’s label.

“It was iffy at first because she gave me the hotel address,” he laughs. “I went to the hotel, we shot a video and sent it to the company. They told me that we will call you back if they want you to come (to Korea).”

Although Joshua initially had doubts about moving to Korea, he decided that he would give it a try for a month. During his training, he became homesick many times. Initially thinking he was debuting as an acoustic singer, he suddenly found himself dancing several hours a day (“I didn’t know I was going to dance at all because at that time the only music I sang or practiced was acoustic music ). “). Although Joshua was not a professional dancer, he quickly mastered the choreography. He was still struggling with his fluency in Korean and adapting to the culture. When he met his fellow performers for the first timeHe extended his hand to shake their hands as they bowed traditionally to greet each other. He once got in trouble for bowing to a company executive with his hand in his pocket, which is a major taboo in Korean culture.

“I came (to Korea) alone, without anyone,” Joshua says. “My family lived in Los Angeles, so I felt very lonely. I felt it would be hard. Everything is a competition, so I have no one on my side. That’s how I felt.”

He credits his colleagues and Seventeen staff for helping him adapt to his new life in Seoul. “They were nice and helped me through this fight. It helped me gain self-confidence and get rid of the loneliness and homesickness I had when I first came to Korea. It helped me.”

That’s why Joshua believes the group’s 12th mini-album, Spill the Feels, released on October 14, best captures his journey from California to Seoul.

In K-pop, a mini album usually contains four to seven songs. Similar to an EP, an EP allows you to release more songs in a shorter period.

The album’s title is an anagram of “I Felt Helpless”, reflecting a transformative journey through the album’s concepts: feeling blue, symbolizing feelings of helplessness and loneliness; feel new, symbolizing renewed emotions of positivity and liberation; and feel you, reflecting the solidarity and unity of the 13 participants.

“I found my dream in Korea,” agrees Joshua. “I could not have done this alone because my members and I worked together to achieve the same goal. We achieved this with Carats (the official name of the group). (Despite) the difficulties, everything became so positive because we came together.”

Joshua returned to Los Angeles and was excited to show his participants the city where he grew up. Los Angeles was chosen as the location for the Seventeen event. In the city official pop-up events.

From November 7 to November 11, Carats will be able to visit a pop-up store featuring exclusive Seventeen city-themed merchandise, as well as a K-pop and EDM pre-party at Club Academy LA, a rooftop party exclusive to Carats. our joint stores and restaurants, and see special digital billboards throughout Los Angeles. Other attractions include the Santa Monica Pier Ferris wheel, which will be lit in Seventeen’s official colors of pink, quartz and serenity.

“I visited these places when I was younger, so to see them lit up with our colors is cool,” he says. “I make sure to take pictures and tell all my friends about it.”

Celebrating Seventeen’s arrival in Los Angeles, the Los Angeles City Council will present the band with a certificate of appreciation on Friday for their contributions to music and youth empowerment. Joshua will be present to receive the award on behalf of the group.

Although the singer has no plans to return to Los Angeles anytime soon, he would like to try his hand at Hollywood.

With films like “Everywhere at Once,” Joshua is happy to see more Asian Americans playing leading roles in film and television, something he didn’t see growing up.

“I watch Netflix and all these programs, and we see more Asian Americans in the industry than when I was younger,” Joshua says. “It was great for me to see that. It’s great to see all the Asian American actors and actresses in Hollywood. I don’t know what else I dream about in the future, but maybe I’ll go back to the US and try to audition or learn acting.”

He didn’t think about When he will be doing this as the world tour continues until 2025.

However, this may happen sooner rather than later, as some members of the group are planning to undergo mandatory military service in South Korea, temporarily changing the dynamics of the group. Fellow Seventeen member Jeonghan was the first to begin his military service in September.

Joshua and the other members can still perform as a group or take time off to pursue solo activities. Chinese member Jun is currently on leave from tour to pursue acting and other opportunities in his home country, but he will participate in group schedules when time permits.

Joshua remains tight-lipped about his future plans. Instead, he’s focused on touring the world and seeing as many carats as possible, especially in Los Angeles.

“This is my hometown,” he says. “This is where my roots are. I’m proud to be from Los Angeles and to be a part of Seventeen.”

For the most part, Joshua has retained his Los Angeles accent and smiles widely when told he passed the quiz. He responds in L.A. style: nodding with a smile and quietly answering under his breath, “Cool.”