Entertainment Feb. 24, 2009 - 05:54AM JST ( 0 )

TOKYO —

The final round of Avex’s “World Audition” was held at Zepp Tokyo in Ome this week, with Chinese entertainers taking out several of the awards. More than 19,000 people from Asia, the U.S. and Europe applied to enter the six-category competition held by entertainment giant Avex to celebrate its 20th anniversary.

Exchange student Shin Ko, 24, took out the grand prix and commanded most of the attention. Ko came to Japan two years ago and is currently in his second year at a Japanese school in Tokyo. He sings and plays the piano at bars in his evenings, and sang one of his Japanese songs in the final round on Sunday. Singer Kumi Koda, 26, who came close to taking out the grand prix in 2000, presented Ko with a bouquet of flowers on stage. She offered some advice to Ko and told him to try not to imitate anyone else, but to preserve his individuality.

Yuchi Ryu, a 22-year-old Chinese model, won in the model category. After she accepted the prize, she declared in Japanese her ambition of becoming one of the world’s top supermodels.