K-Pop
Fan Chant: Last Chance to Get Your Spotify Wrapped Under Control
Welcome to Fan Chant, a weekly column for K-pop fans, stans, and newbies alike. Each week, I’ll be rolling out interviews, lists, and all kinds of content to keep you in the loop on the latest and greatest from our friends in Seoul and beyond. Also, make sure to subscribe to my companion newsletter! Friends, believe it or not, we have almost reached the time of year when Spotify’s data collection period ends and the streaming service begins assembling the beloved Spotify Wrapped. It might feel super early, but the official deadline is the end of this month, October 31st. The company then spends November preparing the yearly breakdown to roll out at the start of December, which, more often than not, sends me into a yearly breakdown of my own. The thing is, when I love something, I love it e...
TWICE Celebrate 7th Anniversary by Sharing Their Most Meaningful Singles Yet: Exclusive
When a K-pop group hits the seven-year mark, it traditionally marks a decisive and sometimes challenging moment for an act to decide whether or not its members would like to renew their contracts and move forward together. Luckily for TWICE, their upcoming seventh anniversary on Oct. 20 can be a day of pure celebration for the group and their fans as all nine members of the K-pop super group renewed their contracts with longtime label JYP Entertainment in July. “Ahead of the expiration of their exclusive contracts this fall, all members of TWICE completed renewing their contracts,” JYP Entertainment shared with the media. “TWICE, who played a crucial role in establishing JYP’s status, and JYP, which became a reliable source of support for TWICE growing to become a representative K-pop girl...
Jin Unveils Details for Solo Single ‘The Astronaut’ Ahead of Military Service
Get ready, ARMY! Jin announced the release date for his new solo single, titled “The Astronaut,” on Tuesday morning (Oct. 18). The track is set to arrive from the BTS singer at the end of this month, on Oct. 28, via BigHit Music. According to BigHit’s press release, the song is “meant to be a gift for the fans.” The K-pop idol also shared the very first logo trailer for the song, which features a tiny astronaut exiting a massive, futuristic space station as he floats high above the earth. From there, he travels through a meteor shower, past moons and planets, satellites and asteroid fields before arriving at an otherworldly source of light that envelops him completely as the song’s official logo takes over the screen. Additionally, BigHit Music laid out the entire rollout schedule leading ...
NCT 127 Talks ‘2 Baddies’ Album & Reconnecting With U.S. Fans on Tour
NCT 127‘s North American takeover continues, this time with a visit to Billboard News to discuss what its been like coming up during the K-pop boom as well as the success of the group’s recently released album, 2 Baddies. The K-pop stars sat down with Billboard News host Tetris Kelly and shared their thoughts on 2 Baddies cementing a new accolade for the group, making them the second K-pop group to have three top five albums in the United States. “‘2 Baddies’ is our fourth album, and within our company [SM Entertainment], there’s this legendary line of fourth albums,” rapper Taeyong explained. “Likewise, since this was our 4th, it’s an album that our team is very satisfied and happy with. As much as our fans have been waiting, we were able to come all the way way here to the States because...
BTS Say They’ll Perform Until They’re “70 Years Old,” Jin Announces Solo Project
BTS gave their first live performance together since announcing their “second chapter” (not hiatus) at the group’s “Yet to Come” concert in Busan, South Korea on Saturday. While the K-pop septet’s long-awaited reunion was momentous in itself, the event also broke the news that Jin will be releasing a solo project. The “Yet to Come” concert at Busan’s Asiad Stadium was a free event hosted by the group in an effort to bring awareness to the city’s bid to host the 2030 World Expo. Packed with 55,000 attendees, the performance was also livestreamed via Weverse. Featuring the full lineup of Jin, Suga, j-hope, RM, Jimin, V, and Jungkook, the performance lasted two hours and shed more light on the boy band’s status as they explore solo work. According to Billboard, Jimin sent encouragement out to...
BTS’ Jin Announces Solo Project: ‘A Single Will Come Out Soon’
BTS‘ Jin will release a solo single soon, making him the second member of the superstar K-pop group to release a new solo project since they announced their hiatus. Jin’s news was delivered from the stage Oct. 15 at the massive BTS “Yet to Come” concert in Busan, South Korea, which was livestreamed in partnership with Weverse. The boy band announced in June that its seven members — Jin, Suga, J-Hope, RM, Jimin, V, and Jungkook — would be taking a temporary break from active group activities to pursue solo work. “I got the opportunity to work with someone I like, so a single will come out soon,” Jin revealed to screaming ARMY at the show. Fans have previously gotten a taste of solo material from Jin with a handful of one-off tunes, including “Tonight” (2019), “Abyss” (2020) and “Y...
A Day Before Debut, K-Pop Concert KAMP LA 2022 Loses Multiple Artists Over Visa Issues
Update (Oct. 15, 12:33AM ET): KAMP LA 2022 shared the following update across its social media accounts regarding scheduled artists being unable to perform at its inaugural festival. “To our KAMP LA 2022 ticket holders, we regret to inform you that we learned today that the following artists are unable to travel as planned due to the unforseen [sic] U.S. work visa issues and circumstances outside of the artists’ and promoters’ control: BamBam, Jeon Somi, Kai, Lapillus, Taeyeon and Zion.T. Most of these artists were scheduled to appear on Saturday’s lineup “We have increased artist set lengths on Saturday and have added MOMOLAND and T1419 as special guests on Saturday as well. MOMOLAND and T1419 will both still perform Sunday as originally planned. Super Junior, iKON and P1Harmony will stil...
Wonho Embraces His Rock Side in Emotional New Single ‘Don’t Regret’: Watch
Wonho is putting his all into his latest single. The K-pop superstar returned with an emotional new single “Don’t Regret” on Friday (Oct. 14). Exploring a rock sound for the first time in his solo career, the track sees Wonho encouraging listeners not to regret memories from the past, but instead recognize that they have created the current moment. Told through a love story, “Don’t Regret” was co-written and co-produced by Wonho alongside his longtime collaborator Brother Su who has worked on singles with the likes of BTS, BLACKPINK, Monsta X and more. “Don’t Regret” is accompanied by a music video that sees Wonho forgoing the intense choreography and showmanship he’s known for in his visuals and instead stripping down to simple clothing and scenery to tell his story. A...
NewJeans Team With Baby Shark & Pinkfong for Cute ‘Ninimo’ Performance Video: Watch
Baby Shark and friends have teamed up with one of the most promising and freshest faces in the K-pop world. Girl group NewJeans, Baby Shark and Pinkfong shared a new video singing and dancing to a catchy new song “Ninimo.” The collaboration came from The Pinkfong Company, the Korean educational entertainment company behind the massively popular “Baby Shark Dance” which is the most-watched video on YouTube with more than 11 billion views. This new video sees NewJeans members Minji, Haerin, Danielle, Hanni, and Hyein rocking their signature baggy jeans and trendy T-shirts alongside the yellow Baby Shark, magenta fox Pinkfong, and other characters. Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, charts and news The first tease of the collab came via a clip that referenced NewJea...
Fan Chant: A Stray Kids MAXIDENT Breakdown and Beyond
Welcome to Fan Chant, a weekly column for K-pop fans, stans, and newbies alike. Each week, I’ll be rolling out interviews, lists, and all kinds of content to keep you in the loop on the latest and greatest from our friends in Seoul and beyond. Also, make sure to subscribe to my companion newsletter! It’s been a busy past week for STAY, as Stray Kids dropped their latest mini-album, MAXIDENT, and plenty of content has been rolling out around the eight-piece act. This, of course, includes our own interview with the group — in case you missed it, I sat down with Stray Kids recently to chat about the album, their ongoing world tour, and how they’ve been filling their time lately. You can find the full interview here! This is the second time I’ve had the joy of speaking with Stray Kids (wa...
J-Hope Says Featuring on ‘Rush Hour’ Was an ‘Important Step in My Career’
BTS ARMY, get up! There’s more behind-the-scenes content from Crush and J-Hope‘s video for “Rush Hour” to devour. BTS’ official YouTube page shared a video on Wednesday (Oct. 12) about J-Hope’s experience filming the visual. The video starts off with a few snippets of the BTS rapper on set, before showing him in the green room. “‘You are my Hope.’ Crush prepared this for me. He decorated my green room so beautifully, with flowers and a handwritten letter too. How touching!” J-Hope said with a smile. “That’s right, today! It’s my first time featuring. It’s my first solo featuring song. This is an important step for my career as well. It’s the day of the music video shoot.” In between scenes of Hope expertly hitting choreography alongside dancers in the video’s New York City, urban-inspired ...
Stray Kids Unveil New Album ‘MAXIDENT’: Stream It Now
The time has come, STAY! Stray Kids are back with their brand new album MAXIDENT, which arrived on Friday (Oct. 7) via JYP and Republic Records. The album comes less than four months after the release of Stray Kids’ Japanese-language EP, Circus, which arrived on June 22. Last week, Stray Kids — which consists of members Bang Chan, Lee Know, Changbin, Hyunjin, Han, Felix, Seungmin and I.N. — shared a video for each track in a series of three with the titles 3-1 “3RACHA,” 3-2 “TASTE,” and 3-3 “I Think I Like You.” “Our goal ever since we debuted was to reach as many ‘stray kids’ as possible,” member Bang Chan previously told Billboard in the group’s recent cover story. He continued, “to deliver our music and give strength to people who really need it.” Explore Explore See lat...
