From left, JYP Entertainment founder and C.E.O Park Jin-young, female artist BoA, and YG Entertainment founder and C.E.O Yang Hyun-suk pose during a press conference for new talent search program "KPOP STAR" held in Seoul on November 24, 2011. [SBS]

Talent and potential, rather than skills, are what will win over Korean pop sensation BoA and singer-producers Park Jin-young and Yang Hyun-suk, the famed judges of upcoming talent show "KPOP STAR."

The three appeared at a press conference in Seoul on Thursday for the new show, set to premiere on December 4, which will be a global auditioning show in search of the next K-pop star.

"These are times when no matter how good a person is at singing and may even become the winner of our show, it is difficult for that person to become a popular singer in the music industry," Yang, also founder of YG Entertainment started by saying.

"So we want to choose an individual that has a singing voice that is different from the singers in the current music market and that is why our current top candidates are the ones with talent and potential."

JYP Entertainment founder and chief Park quipped in, "We dropped people no matter how good they were at singing. And what we were looking at was that they didn't have any habits. We also dropped people who were not singing in their own voice, a voice we haven't heard before."

He also added, "There are two lines that all three of us said the most, one being, 'You're really good at singing but you have failed' and the other 'You're really bad at singing but you're in.'"

One's singing skills was not and will not be a decisive factor for SM Entertainment discovered and trained BoA either. "As many of you already know, SM takes one's character into a lot of consideration and that's because if you have good character although you may lack in other ways, you'll realize and accept what you lack at."

Tens of thousands of people had tried for the show at preliminary auditions held in Buenos Aires in Argentina, Paris in France, New York and Los Angeles in the United States, and Beijing in China, as well as in Korea in September.

The three then got together in early November for another round of auditions to decide on the 75 teams that would appear on the show where they will undergo several more rounds of auditions.

Viewers will also get to see the contestants receive training by YG Entertainment, SM Entertainment and JYPE, the three major music agencies in Korea.

Contestants will be judged on various aspects such as singing and dancing and the winner of the show will receive prize money and secure a contract with one of the three agencies.

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10 아시아 Reporter : Lucia Hong luciahong@
10 아시아 Editor : Jessica Kim jesskim@
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