Brahmas dance along star
In their matching bowl cut wigs and orange school uniforms, Diamond Bar High School students and alumni grooved in the background of K-pop star Tiffany Young’s music video “Over My Skin.”
“It happened spontaneously; Mr A. [Acciani] asked if I could play the guitar or bass and I said guitar and he said perfect. You’re going to be in Tiffany Young’s music video,” senior Kevin Kuo said.
Young—who was in the widely popular Korean pop band Girl’s Generation—is a former student of DBHS music director Steve Acciani. She was searching for background performers with instrumental experience, and her manager contacted Acciani about the music video.
“I was really excited because I haven’t seen her since school, so getting a chance to see her again, I thought, was really cool thing, and we love giving our students opportunities to do great things like this,” Acciani said.
Young attended South Pointe middle school before heading to Diamond Bar High School. However, after her freshman year, Young went to South Korea to pursue her passions.
The opportunity came in July, and Acciani allowed everyone who wanted to participate to volunteer for a chance to be in the music video. However, the students had to meet certain requirements, such as specific instrumentation, height and look.
“So you had to be a guy, you have to be Asian, you have to be over 5’7 and under 5’11,” senior John Lee said.
Lee performed along with alumni John Kim, Steven Liang, Jeremy Kim, Ryan Chao and Kevin Lew. Seniors Jungwoo Lim, Kevin Kuo, Aaron Tamura, Carter Sun, Jerry Cheung and Daniel Lo and juniors Cyrus Lo, Sol Lee, Ethan Liao and Kyle Kato also participated. The students who volunteered rehearsed the choreography that was put together by senior Grace Chun and music teacher Marie Sato at school for a few days before heading to Hollywood to perform in the new music video.
“I think we rehearsed like twice,” Lee said. “It was just like an hour or two to get to know the choreo and memorize the music even though it wasn’t a lot.”
At the music studio, the students were fitted into the costumes before rehearsing for the music video and performing. In between breaks, the students had the chance to talk to Young.
“When we weren’t recording, those couple minutes in between she would have an actual conversation with us,” Lee said.
According to Lee, she asked them about the type of music they listened to daily, and Kuo said they were able to talk about Harry Potter and found out she was a Slytherin. Both Kuo and Lee agree that the absolute best part of the trip was meeting the surpringly casual Young.
“The kids really enjoyed it because they got to meet a superstar who was incredibly down to earth, humble and friendly,” Acciani said. “She spent time hanging out with the kids and telling them old junior high things like that, and she’s supportive of the music program here so it was just a very fun time.”
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