Backstage at Justin Bieber's Hong Kong show in May, five female pop fans have got the dream ticket.
'I'm so nervous,' says 25-year-old South Korean Lee Ji Hae. 'I can't believe we're here!' squeals 19-year-old Alisha Budhrani, a Hong Kong resident of Indian origin.
As two-fifths of the night's support act Blush, they are about to perform in front of 14,000 screaming Beliebers—the name adopted by the teen phenom's legions of fans. The rest of Blush are 21-year-old Angeli Flores of the Philippines, Victoria Chan, 28, from Hong Kong, and Natsuko Danjo, 20, of Japan. In a moment, the smoke machines power up, the girls disappear out onto the stage, and their first major performance is under way.
The story sounds like a teenage dream. But, in the mold of The Monkees or the Spice Girls, Blush is the product of a team of producers with a hard-nosed business plan. Five years in the making, the group's sound and image has been carefully managed and tested against focus groups of teenage girls. Already, band members have adopted cute nicknames Queen V, Nacho, Jelly, Ali B and Tiger Lady.
'This all started with a simple thought: Why hasn't a singer of Asian descent ever made it really big in the West?' says Jon Niermann, a youthful 45-year-old who founded Far West Entertainment, the Hong Kong-based media production company behind the band. (Mr. Niermann says Far West is backed by four investors who have put up to $6 million in Blush and another project, 'Asia Uncut,' a late-night talk show hosted by Mr. Niermann on Asian cable channel Star World.)
The long list of top pop performers who have tried, and failed, to translate multimillion-dollar sales in Asia into success in the U.S. includes Hong Kong star Coco Lee, Japanese duo Puffy Ami Yumi, and Korean girl-band The Wonder Girls.
'For those performers, the quality and the hits weren't there,' says Bill Werde, editorial director at Billboard Publications in New York.
With Blush, says Mr. Niermann, the talent comes from Asia, but the production is all Hollywood.
The making of Blush began in earnest about 18 months ago when Far West started work on 'Project Lotus,' a reality television series that will air on Asian music channel Channel V and Star World later this year (both channels are owned by Fox International Channels, which is owned by News Corp, the parent company of The Wall Street Journal). Over six months last year, 3,500 applicants were narrowed down to the five members of Blush, who were immediately signed to multiyear contracts.
Most of the band's day-to-day affairs are managed by Mr. Niermann, the former Asia head of Disney and Electronic Arts, and his wife, Stacey. But some heavyweight music industry connections are provided by their partner and Mr. Niermann's former EA colleague, Los Angeles based music-industry veteran Steve Schnur, who is also chairman emeritus at the Grammy Foundation.
Mr. Schnur says he believes the timing is right for a band made up of Asian faces to crack the U.S., and cites the popularity of young Filipino singer-actress Charice Pempengco from the hit TV show 'Glee' and Asian-American electronica band Far East Movement who topped the U.S. charts late last year with 'Like a G6.' He also mentions the success of multiethnic bands like The Black Eyed Peas.
'When Jon first asked me to get involved, I gave him the typical answer that an Asian band couldn't work in the U.S.,' says Mr. Schnur. 'There's no big audience for it. It used to be a band would be five white girls and one of them would have brown hair to be different. But Asia's not just an angle now. The idea of an Asian artist making it in the West gets a 'Why not?' response from the new generation.'
Mr. Schnur has already secured Blush the services of songwriters and producers who have previously penned hits for Lady Gaga, Madonna and Britney Spears, among others. For their debut single, 'Undivided,' Mr. Schnur called up Snoop Dogg, who agreed to add a rap vocal to the track and to make a cameo appearance in the video. Also, in addition to opening for Justin Bieber in Hong Kong, Blush is slated to perform on the July 21 episode of the current season of hit U.S. TV show 'So You Think You Can Dance,' which drew 9.5 million viewers for its recent season premiere. They're also set to perform in front of 12,000 Girl Scouts at Girltopia, the organization's annual fair in October at the L.A. Convention Center. An early release of 'Undivided' has already been playing in dance clubs in West Hollywood and Miami. It was released on iTunes on Tuesday.
The management team at Far West knows that pop music fans can be a fickle bunch.
Bernie Cho, chief executive at DFSB Kollective, a Seoul-based company that was the first aggregator of Korean pop, or K-pop, for Apple's iTunes, agrees that America is ready for an Asian band. But Mr. Cho says Blush should hang onto 'that Asianness.' 'The minute it gets whitewashed or when it tries to mimic American style, people will read right through it,' he says. 'I look at how Latinos broke into the U.S. in the 1990s. They kept their Latino elements, singing the verses in Spanish, keeping the Latino energy and musical style.'
Far West is focused on getting Blush as much U.S. exposure as possible. Reversing the approach taken by other Asian acts, his plan is for Blush to shoot for success in the U.S. before returning to Asia as global stars.
'If it were up to me, if I could get a free download on every single girl's iPhone in the U.S., I'd do it,' says Mr. Schnur. 'That's not to say the music has no value. I'm not saying the music is a loss leader. It's the core attachment. What we want to do is create a fan.'
