[From the Scene] 2022 Mid-Season Invitational lights up esports arena in Busan

BUSAN -- The Mid-Season Invitational, one of the most important international League of Legends tournaments, kicked off at Esports Busan Arean in Busan on Tuesday. Coming from competitive League of Legends regional leagues including South Korea, China, Europe, and North America, the 11 spring season champions are set to clash for the prestigious MSI Championship. Starting with the congratulatory speech from the legendary Korean esports caster Jun, the opening video introduced the tournament p

May 11, 2022

Global pop artists to visit Korea as distancing rules drop

With South Korea’s COVID-19 social distancing rules lifted, big-name global pop artists are returning to the country. Norwegian singer-songwriter Jakob Ogawa will be the first pop artist to hold a concert after the government scrapped distancing restrictions. The musician will hold his solo concert “Jakob (fka Jakob Ogawa) Live in Seoul” at Rolling Hall in Mapo-gu, western Seoul on May 20. It will mark the artist’s first meeting with local fans. Icelandic iconic post-r

May 11, 2022

Paramount+, HBO Max set to launch services in S. Korea

As new American players like Paramount+ and HBO Max are set to start their services in South Korea later this year, competition is expected to intensify in the local streaming service market. US media giant Paramount Global said earlier this month that Paramount+, its subscription-based video streaming service, will land in South Korea next month in partnership with Tving, a local online video-on-demand platform run by CJ ENM. Its original and library content from Paramount Pictures and CBS like

May 11, 2022

BLACKPINK's 'How You Like That' choreography video tops 1.1b views

The choreography video for "How You Like That," a 2020 hit single by K-pop girl group BLACKPINK, has surpassed 1.1 billion views on YouTube. The group's agency YG Entertainment said Wednesday the video hit the milestone slightly after midnight, one year and 10 months after it was uploaded on the global video streaming service. The number 1.1 billion is the largest for a K-pop choreography video. The song's official music video has garnered 1.09 billion streams as of 9 a.m. Including th

May 11, 2022

[Today’s K-pop] TXT tops iTunes chart in 43 regions with 4th EP

Tomorrow X Together landed atop the iTunes top albums chart in 43 regions with its fourth EP “minisode 2: Thursday’s Child,” said label Big Hit Music on Tuesday. 　 The EP was released on Monday and sold over 910,000 copies on the day. The band is the second K-pop band to sell more than 900,000 units on the first day of sales, second only to BTS. 　 The main track “Good Boy Gone Bad” was No. 1 on the iTunes top songs chart in 19 regions, and the music video amassed 5

May 10, 2022

Tving’s ‘House of Lies’ a mystery thriller to satisfy your inner detective

Amid the flood of sci-fi, rom-com and period dramas, director Chang hopes to draw viewers’ attention with a bizarre mystery thriller, “House of Lies.” “I recognize that many Korean content creators produced terrific TV series in different genres, allowing viewers to see occult creatures and zombies. Our series is dealing with a rather realistic story in South Korea, the rising price of old apartments that are being redeveloped, director Chang said in an online press con

May 10, 2022

Two Grammy-winning string soloists to perform with orchestras in Seoul

Two Grammy-winning artists, violist Richard Yongjae O’Neill and violinist Hilary Hahn, are scheduled to perform in South Korea in the coming weeks. O’Neill will join the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra for two concerts on May 19 and 20 at the Lotte Concert Hall in Songpa-gu, Seoul, marking the first time in 15 years for the US-based violist to perform with the orchestra.  During the 90-minute concert, O’Neill will premiere Paul Chihara’s “Concerto for Viola an

May 10, 2022

World DJ Festival to return to physical stage in August

As South Korea scrapped most COVID-19 social distancing restrictions, the World DJ Festival, an annual outdoor electronic music festival, will return to the physical stage in August at Auxiliary Stadium in Jamsil Sports Complex in Seoul. This year’s festival will be held for three consecutive days starting Aug. 11 and is expected to be the biggest in-person event since the pandemic, accommodating around 70,000 to 80,000 people, according to festival organizer BEPCTangent Creative on Tues

May 10, 2022

Psy returns to Billboard Hot 100 after 7 years with 'That That'

South Korean singer-rapper Psy has put his name onto Billboard's main singles chart for "That That," his collaborative tune with Suga of K-pop supergroup BTS, the US music magazine said Tuesday. The main track from Psy's ninth full-length album "Psy 9th" debuted at No. 80 on this week's Hot 100 songs chart, Billboard said on Twitter. All charts will be updated on the company's website a day later. The album was the first release from the singer in five years. The Hot 100 rank

May 10, 2022

Tomorrow X Together talks about heartbreaks and growth from first breakup in new album

No one finds their first breakup easy, but it does not have to be all tears and anger. That’s the message from K-pop boy band Tomorrow X Together on their new album “minisode 2: Thursday’s Child.” Before dropping the album, Tomorrow X Together, also known as TXT in short, held an in-person media showcase in Seoul on Monday. Leading the album is “Good Boy Gone Bad,” a hardcore hip-hop track infused with a rock sound that depicts an innocent boy engulfed in

May 9, 2022

[Today’s K-pop] GOT7 to reunite for new EP

All seven members of GOT7 will make a comeback in an eponymous EP on May 23, according to Warner Music Korea on Monday. 　 The last time the group created new music was for the digital single “Encore” from February last year. The previous physical album, its fourth, was “Breath of Love: Last Piece,” which came out in November 2020. 　 “The album is for those who have waited for us, and everyone who is there for us,” the bandmates said in a statement, describi

May 9, 2022

[Herald Interview] Nomadic soprano Park Hye-sang finds sanctuary in music

For the last four years, Park Hye-sang, an emerging South Korean soprano, has lived as a cultural nomad, bouncing between New York, Berlin and Seoul to further her career as an opera singer. The first four months of this year alone were a whirlwind of concerts and long-haul flights for Park. In January, she was in New York to perform Pamina in Mozart’s “The Magic Flute” with the Metropolitan Opera and in Prague for an Opera Gala with Prague Philharmonia. From there, she hop

May 9, 2022

'The Sound of Magic' lands at No. 4 on global Netflix chart

Netflix’s new Korean fantasy series, “The Sound of Magic,” made a successful debut on the platform, soaring to No. 4 on the service’s global top 10 chart. The musical drama ranked seventh on Netflix’s global chart as of Saturday, a day after its release, before climbing up to land at the fourth slot on Sunday, according to data released by streaming analytics firm FlixPatrol. “The Sound of Magic,” helmed by director Kim Seong-yoon who was behind hit w

May 9, 2022

Star-studded lineup marks return of Beautiful Mint Life

Beautiful Mint Life 2022, an annual outdoor indie music festival, will take place from Friday through Sunday at the Olympic Park’s 88 Jandi Madang in southeastern Seoul. This year’s Beautiful Mint Life was originally planned as a two-day event, but additional performances have been scheduled for Friday on huge demand for stage performances amid the eased quarantine measures. The tickets for Saturday and Sunday sold out in just five minutes, according to the festival organizer Mint

May 9, 2022

Le Sserafim sets first-week sales record with debut album

Le Sserafim, the first girl group from K-pop powerhouse Hybe, has recorded the most first-week sales of any debut album by girl groups in South Korea ever, the group's management agency said Monday. "Fearless," the group's first EP released last Monday, sold 307,450 copies in the first week of its release, Source Music said, citing data from Hanteo, a local album sales tracker. The opening-week figure is the highest among all debut albums by South Korean girl groups and ninth highest f

May 9, 2022

NCT Dream to drop repackage album this month

Boy group NCT Dream will release "Beatbox," a repackage of its second full-length album, this month, the group's management agency said Monday. The new album will come out on May 30 and has a total of 15 tracks, including four new songs, SM Entertainment said. NCT Dream's second LP "Glitch Mode" was released on March 28 and sold 2.1 million copies in the first week of its release. The group debuted in 2016 as the third subunit of K-pop supergroup NCT with its song "Chewi

May 9, 2022

'Doctor Strange 2' tops 3m admissions in first week

Hollywood blockbuster "Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness" has topped a cumulative 3 million admissions at the fastest pace in the pandemic era, box-office data showed Monday. The latest Marvel Studios' flick attracted 1.7 million people from Friday to Sunday, bringing its combined total to 3.5 million, according to the data by the Korea Film Council. It surpassed the 3 million threshold Saturday, the fourth day of its theatrical release, becoming the sixth film to achieve the

May 9, 2022

[Newsmaker] Iconic Korean movie star Kang Soo-youn dies at 55

Kang Soo-youn, the iconic Korean movie star who brought home the nation’s first acting award from the Venice film festival, died on Saturday at the age of 55. The tragic news came two days after she was taken to hospital on Thursday for a cardiac arrest. Kang died of a cerebral hemorrhage at 3 p.m. at a hospital in southern Seoul, her family said. Kang’s funeral committee is led by Kim Dong-ho, founder of the Busan International Film Festival and the current Gangneung Internatio

May 8, 2022

’KCON Premiere 2022’ opens doors in Seoul to cheers of K-pop fans

Cheers rose to deafening levels as a fully masked crowd of about 200 K-pop fans invited to “KCON 2022 Premier” packed into the CJ ENM Center in Sangam-dong, western Seoul, on Saturday celebrated the return of fan chants and screaming out loud. The first edition of the premiere shows leading up to the main event, “KCON 2022,” was significant as it not only marked the return of the annual global K-pop festival, but also the lifting of a noise ban imposed on audiences at co

May 8, 2022

'Squid Game,' director Ryoo of ‘Mogadishu’ win grand prizes at Baeksang Arts Awards

The Netflix sensation “Squid Game” and director Ryoo Seung-wan of the period action thriller “Mogadishu” have won grand prizes at this year‘s Baeksang Arts Awards. The Netflix’s South Korean original series and Ryoo were honored respectively in the TV and film categories during the 58th awards ceremony at the Korea International Exhibition Center in Goyang, just northwest of Seoul, on Friday night. The advances made by the streaming service‘s original

May 7, 2022