Bae Yoon Jung exposes dance royalty drama, says she was stiffed millions for “Abracadabra” choreography
Bae Yoon Jung, the mastermind behind iconic K-Pop choreography for acts like KARA, Brown Eyed Girls, and EXID, revealed she never got her fair share for one of the biggest hits ever.
On the YouTube show B-Class Hearing, Bae dropped a bomb: she created the viral dance for Brown Eyed Girls’ “Abracadabra,” but got paid a mere ₩4.00 million KRW (~$2,890 USD) while the company and lyricist Kim Eana raked in ₩10.0 billion KRW (~$7.23 million USD).
She also said a Chinese imposter claimed credit for her moves, reportedly making billions by posing as the main choreographer.
Bae said the 2nd gen K-Pop industry didn’t pay choreographers properly back then.
“Now choreographers get paid a lot for their work, but back in our day, as you know, if you were close to a company CEO, you might choreograph something easily—but you wouldn’t make much money from it.”
— Bae Yoon Jung
Her legacy includes legendary routines for EXID’s “Up & Down,” KARA’s “Mamma Mia,” and Girls’ Day’s “Expect.” Yet her story shows how past K-Pop industry structures shortchanged choreographers, despite their cultural impact.
