NewJeans' 'Super Shy' most popular summer song on TikTok

Global short-form video platform TikTok announced Friday that K-pop girl group NewJeans’ “Super Shy” generated the most music-based content in Korea this summer. TikTok’s “Song of the Summer” list by country and globally shows the top 10 popular singles used to create short-form content from June to August by collecting data on the most used songs within the platform. K-pop sensation NewJeans topped the list for Korea with its latest single “Super Shy.&r

Aug. 25, 2023

[Today’s K-pop] Blackpink to wrap up tour at Korea’s largest concert venue

    Blackpink will host the final concert of its tour at Gocheok Sky Dome, the largest indoor concert hall in Korea, according to label YG Entertainment on Thursday. The group is the first female K-pop act to perform at the venue, which can accommodate about 20,000 audience. The concert will be held on Sept. 16-17 and the second day’s live performance will be streamed online as well. The gig closes off the group’s “Born Pink” tour that spanned across 34 cit

Aug. 24, 2023

[Herald Interview] Lee Sun-kyun credits director Jason Yu of ‘Sleep’ for allowing him to just focus on acting

Prolific actor Lee Sun-kyun said the experience of working with rookie director Jason Yu on the soon-to-release “Sleep” gave him the opportunity to just focus on acting, with no need to concern himself with unnecessary things. “After a long interval, ‘Sleep’ was a project that allowed me to just focus on acting, liberated from concerns about characters or being sidetracked by other things like changes in the plot (thanks to the director’s preparedness),”

Aug. 24, 2023

Fantasy Boys to debut on Sept. 21 without winner Yu Jun-won

Fantasy Boys, the project group from MBC's namesake idol audition show, will debut without the No. 1 winner Yu Jun-won, as a feud continues between Yu and the group's agency over his contract. The team's management agency PocketDol Studio on Thursday announced that the band is set to debut on Sept. 21, pulled forward from the originally announced Sept. 25. The announcement comes a day after the agency released a statement saying Fantasy Boys will debut as an 11-piece without Yu du

Aug. 24, 2023

[Herald Interview] 'Queendom Puzzle' winners to debut as El7z Up

The top seven finalists of "Queendom Puzzle" are aiming to show a never-before-seen girl group chemistry as El7z Up. A total of 26 participans competed in the Mnet girl group reboot program over the past four months for seven spots on the project group El7z Up, to be launched next month. One member each from seven different already existing or inactive groups compose the team: H1Key's Hwiseo, WJSN's Yeoreum, Rocket Punch's Yeonhee, woo!ah!'s Nana, Lovelyz's Kei

Aug. 24, 2023

Yerin gains new insight working as solo artist

Yerin returned with her second solo mini album “Ready, Set, LOVE” on Wednesday ready to take the listeners back to the ’80s. The new album carries four singles led by the title track “Bambambam” which is a combination of city pop and synth-wave disco. “I wanted to work with a concept and musical genres that I’ve never tried before, so I came up with the retro concept for this album. The title track has an addictive melody. I’m sure the song will ke

Aug. 24, 2023

SBS Premium collects K-pop data through interactive content

SBS Premium, a website that explores major current events through expert and data-based news insights, released the second installation of its interactive “K-POP Spelling Quiz” in late July. The interactive quiz asks users to choose the correct Korean spelling of the lyrics of a song that participants listen to for 15 seconds. Participants then get a score ranging from zero to 100 and a “wrong answer note” to improve Korean spelling skills. The “K-POP Spelling Quiz&

Aug. 24, 2023

[New on the Scene] Bong Joon-ho protege Jason Yu puts focus on storytelling in ‘Sleep’

Jason Yu, who makes his feature film debut with mystery thriller “Sleep” on Sept. 6, already had garnered worldwide attention even before the movie’s opening here, with his film invited to the 76th Cannes Film Festival in May. “Sleep,” starring Lee Sun-kyun and Jung Yu-mi as newlyweds, is set in motion by Hyun-soo's (Lee) strange behavior while sleeping. His pregnant wife Soo-jin (Jung) tries to stop him some way or another, in the film that screened in the non

Aug. 24, 2023

Wavve to stream 93 independent short films

South Korea's largest streaming platform Wavve announced Wednesday that it will offer a total of 93 short independent movies. In collaboration with the biggest local independent film distributor Indiestory, the streamer released 45 projects, including the early works of renowned filmmaker Yeon Sang-ho, Cannes-winning director Park Chan-wook and more. “Judgement” (1999), a 26-minute black comedy film helmed by Park, revolves around two different families who claim the unidentifie

Aug. 23, 2023

[Today’s K-pop] BTS’ V debuts at No. 96 on Billboard’s Hot 100 with solo song

   V of BTS hit Billboard’s Hot 100 at No. 96 with the solo single “Love Me Again,” according to the latest chart published on Tuesday in the US. It is the pre-release from its upcoming solo album “Layover” due out on Sept. 8. The song was dropped in advance on Aug. 10 and landed atop Billboard’s Hot Trending Chart as well as the iTunes top songs chart in 35 regions. All seven members of the band now has made the Hot 100 chart with officially publish

Aug. 23, 2023

[Herald Interview] Rapper Kisum wants to continue telling her story through rap

It took more than a year and a half for rapper Kisum to return to the music scene with a new single, but she says the time away was necessary for her to grow as a singer-songwriter. “The time I had to solely focus on making music was a relief. It had been a long time since I had (taken time to myself), and I enjoyed writing lyrics and composing songs. I used to get so stressed out making new music when there was time pressure,” said Kisum during an interview with The Korea Herald. Ki

Aug. 23, 2023

Seventeen tops Japanese charts with best-of album 'Always Yours'

K-pop band Seventeen is sweeping Japanese music charts with its new album "Always Yours." The band's agency Pledis Entertainment on Wednesday said Seventeen released its first Japanese best-of album at Tuesday midnight. Titled "Always Yours," the 27-track package includes 25 of Seventeen's hit songs and two new original Japanese songs, "Ima -Even if the world ends tomorrow-" and "Sara Sara." Upon release, "Always Yours" soared to the to

Aug. 23, 2023

[Herald Interview] Shin Hae-sun’s first thriller leading role is ‘ordinary’

According to Shin Hae-sun, the heroine of the 2020 hit drama “Mr. Queen” and the 2023 drama series “See You in My 19th Life,” her first-ever mystery thriller leading role in “Don’t Buy the Seller” was the most “ordinary” role she has ever played. “Soo-hyun is a character without any superpowers, a character that is colorless and odorless compared to the characters I played previously,” Shin told the Korea Herald in an interview in

Aug. 23, 2023

[Herald Review] ‘Don’t Buy the Seller,’ a nail-biting thriller based on real-life secondhand marketplace scam

“Don’t Buy the Seller,” a mystery thriller directed by Park Hee-gon, tells the story of Soo-hyun (Shin Hae-sun) who works at an interior design company and lives the ordinary life of an office-worker. Soo-hyun struggles to deal with her workload and nagging boss and looks to online secondhand marketplaces for some income on the side. One day, she buys a secondhand washing machine for 300,000 won ($224), but soon she figures out that she has been scammed. She immediately reports

Aug. 23, 2023

[Herald Interview] Kim So-hyang has no room for regrets

For Kim So-hyang, the title role in the musical "Frida," was easy to resonate with. Compared to other roles that shaped her career like Marie Antoinette or Marie Curie, it was easy to find aspects of Mexican artist Frida Kahlo she could identify with. “I would say the roles of Marie Antoinette and Marie Curie were more challenging for me, as I tried to seek common aspects with the characters,” Kim told reporters during an interview on Tuesday. “To embody Marie Antoine

Aug. 23, 2023

[Today’s K-pop] BTS tops 1.7b views with ‘Boy With Luv’ video

The music video for BTS’ “Boy With Luv” reached 1.7 billion views on YouTube on Monday, said label Big Hit Music on Tuesday. It is the band’s second video to hit the milestone on the platform after that of “Dynamite.” “Boy With Luv (feat. Halsey)” fronted sixth EP “Map of the Soul: Persona” from April 2019, which claimed the top spot on the Billboard 200. The single debuted on Billboard’s Hot 100 at No. 8 and stayed on the main s

Aug. 22, 2023

SBS coverage on Fifty Fifty’s legal dispute draws backlash

Entertainment industry heavyweights have demanded an apology from the production crew of the SBS program “Unanswered Questions” for what they claim was biased coverage of Fifty Fifty’s ongoing legal dispute with its agency Attrakt. The Korea Management Federation, which represents at least 350 Korean entertainment agencies and labels, described the episode that aired Saturday, as "poor content" and "biased reporting." “We want to pinpoint two problems

Aug. 22, 2023

[Herald Interview] Lee Jung-ha on playing his favorite webtoon character in ‘Moving’

With an unexpectedly low voice and tranquil demeanor, any trace of Kim Bong-seok -- a schoolboy character from the webtoon "Moving" -- was long gone from 25-year-old actor Lee Jung-ha. At the mention of the webtoon, however, Lee's voice reached a higher pitch, revealing his excitement over the Disney+ action fantasy series. “I was a long-time fan of webtoon creator Kang Full. It might sound like a lie, but 'Moving' was my favorite webtoon among his projects and Bon

Aug. 22, 2023

Gang Dong-won returns as comical exorcist in ‘Dr. Cheon and The Lost Talisman’

Forget about Gang Dong-won as a serious seminary student Choi in “The Priests” (2015), who supports exorcism with Father Kim. In September, Gang returns with another occult flick titled “Dr. Cheon and The Lost Talisman” -- this time as a comical, fraud-committing exorcist. Directed by Kim Seong-sik, the film tells the story of fake exorcist Dr. Cheon (Gang) and his encounter with a strong demon. Heo Jun-ho, Lee Dong-hwi, Lee Som and Kim Jong-su also star. “It was a

Aug. 22, 2023

Musical 'Frida' paints empowering story of Frida Kahlo

Mexican artist Frida Kahlo is well-recognized for expressing pain through her art. Based on her life, the musical "Frida" sings of her experiences, painting her story just as vividly as her painting "Viva La Vida" (1954), meaning "Long Live Life" in Spanish. Premiered in March 2022, the original production by the EMK Musical Company follows the life of Kahlo. The 110-minute show takes on the form of “The Last Night Show,” where Kahlo appears as a guest a

Aug. 21, 2023