'Boy With Luv' becomes 2nd BTS music video to hit 1.1b views

"Boy With Luv (Feat. Halsey)" has become global megastar BTS' second music video to earn 1.1 billion views on YouTube, the band's agency said Wednesday. The music video, released in April 2019 as the lead track for album "Map of the Soul: Persona," reached the milestone at around 1:17 p.m., according to Big Hit Entertainment. The upbeat track featuring American singer-songwriter Halsey debuted at No. 8 on Billboard's main singles chart and stayed there for eight consecutive

Jan. 13, 2021

Pianists make their way to podium

After months of perseverance, pianist Sunwook Kim finally made his formal debut as a conductor Tuesday, following in the footsteps of the great maestros before him. Amid a heavy snowfall that hit the greater Seoul area, Kim took the baton at Lotte Concert Hall, leading the KBS Symphony Orchestra. Kim’s concert with the KBS Symphony Orchestra was initially set to be held in December, but was postponed to January due to the spike in the number of coronavirus cases across Korea. The postp

Jan. 13, 2021

Men only: Band audition show reignites discrimination furor

When JTBC’s band audition program, “Super Band,” announced the opening of registration for the second season, the application requirements reignited the gender discrimination controversy the first season of the program faced. “Any male musician in fields such as practical music, K-pop, classical music, traditional Korean music, rock, EDM, hip-hop, musical, jazz, world music among others can apply regardless of age /nationality / academic background!” said the app

Jan. 12, 2021

Korea Musical Awards recognizes ‘Marie Curie’ with four awards

Musical “Marie Curie” won four awards at the Korea Musical Awards held Monday, recognized as an outstanding original Korean musical production. 　 Presented by the Korea Musical Theater Association, the annual awards ceremony, the largest of its kind in Korea, was held at the Blue Square culture complex in Seoul. Featuring star stage actor Ock Ju-hyun, “Marie Curie” won the grand prize, as well as awards for best director, best script, and best music composition. It had

Jan. 12, 2021

(G)I-dle burns down sadness, blooms with ‘Hwa’

Continuing to carve out its own niche, (G)I-dle has released a new single, “Hwa,” named for a Chinese character that can mean both “flower” and “fire.” The rhythmic moombahton number fronts the band’s fourth EP, “I Burn,” which follows debut EP “I Am” and later editions in the series “I Made” and “I Trust.” The self-produced “I Burn” credits all six members as either composers or lyricists, wi

Jan. 12, 2021

Gamut of classical music in store for 2021

Though the COVID-19 pandemic crisis is yet to be resolved, the classical music scene is filled with high hopes for 2021, waiting to welcome audiences back to concert halls.　 Pianist Kim Sun-wook kicked the year off with a solo recital Monday. Initially slated for March 2020, the recital had been postponed three times due to surges of COVID-19 cases. On Tuesday, Kim will go on the stage with the KBS Symphony Orchestra, making his conducting debut, followed by a recital with celebrated veteran

Jan. 11, 2021

‘Wonder Woman’ fails to save Korean movie theaters

  The number of moviegoers over the weekend dropped to a new record low last week, according to data from the Korean Film Council. A total of 80,735 people went to theaters from Friday to Sunday last week, a deep plunge from 149,000 a week earlier. Over the three days, “Wonder Woman 1984,” directed by Patty Jenkins, topped the local box office with attendance of just 26,000. The Hollywood superhero movie has been dominating the local box office, with the accumulated number

Jan. 11, 2021

Treasure closes ‘First Step’ with first studio album ‘Treasure Effect’

Super rookie boy band Treasure is completing the last puzzle of the group’s first chapter with hopeful voices filling up their first studio album, “The First Step: Treasure Effect.” Ahead of dropping a new album on Monday, the 12-member act livestreamed a global press conference conducted online due to concerns of the COVID-19 situation in South Korea. Released in a depressive period of the coronavirus pandemic, the band explained the album is all about sending a hopeful me

Jan. 11, 2021

Rookie band TREASURE aims to spread positive vibes with debut full album

After selling 700,000 albums with just three singles and sweeping rookie prizes at year-end awards, TREASURE now aims to send out positive vibes to fans and listeners. The rookie band that debuted in August through a survival audition program by YG Entertainment, "YG Treasure Box," is set to drop its first full album "The First Step: Treasure Effect," a 12-track album fronted by lead track "My Treasure," late Monday. In a press conference livestreamed on YouTube,

Jan. 11, 2021

K-pop boy band GOT7 to leave JYP Entertainment: agency

Seven-piece boy band GOT7 will officially be leaving JYP Entertainment without renewing its contract, the agency announced Monday. "JYP held in-depth discussions with members of GOT7 ahead of their exclusive contract termination on Jan. 19. As a result, the two sides agreed not to proceed with a contract renewal, hoping for a new future," the entertainment agency said in a statement. JYP, led by K-pop guru and producer Park Jin-young, voiced gratitude to the band as well as its fan c

Jan. 11, 2021

TWICE's 'I Can't Stop Me' becomes group's fastest music video to hit 200 million YouTube views

"I Can't Stop Me" has become K-pop girl group TWICE's fastest music video to rack up 200 million views on YouTube, its management agency said Monday. The music video hit the milestone around 8:40 p.m. Sunday, some 77 days after its release in October, according to JYP Entertainment. The group's 2017 music video "Likey" held the previous record for the feat at 130 days. The video of "I Can't Stop Me," a retro-disco main track of the nine-member group's second full

Jan. 11, 2021

Korean director Im Sang-soo to make Hollywood debut

South Korean director Im Sang-soo, whose latest feature "Heaven: To The Land of Happiness" was selected by Cannes last year, will make his directorial debut in Hollywood, a production company here said Monday. He will take the helm of "Soho Sins," co-produced by US production studio 2W Network Entertainment, according to Yeolmae Entertainment. The film is based on the novel of the same title written by Richard Vine, the managing editor of the magazine Art in America. It fea

Jan. 11, 2021

TvN’s ‘Youn’s Stay’ off to good start

“Youn’s Stay” -- a spin-off of the popular Korean reality TV show “Youn’s Restaurant” -- got off to a good start Friday with a rating of 8.2 percent. The show features foreign guests staying at a hanok guesthouse in Korea run by a group of celebrities. It began with the production team expressing concerns about airing a program during the pandemic. It was noted that all celebrities and guests on the show had tested negative for the coronavirus. “Youn

Jan. 10, 2021

Taboo no more: Divorce becomes more common on Korean TV shows

Although a significant number of married couples decide to go their separate ways each year in Korea, divorce is not a topic that Koreans talk about casually, largely because it is still a taboo subject. The divorce rate in Korea has increased for two consecutive years since 2018, according to Statistics Korea. Although the divorce rate decreased by 4.3 percent year-on-year from January to October 2020, the number of couples that got divorced stands at 88,455. “I have a close friend fro

Jan. 10, 2021

Seventeen kicks off 2021 US promotion before online concert

K-pop boy band Seventeen made an appearance on “The Late Late Show with James Corden” as the group prepares for their first concert of the new year. The 13 members of Seventeen became the fourth K-pop group to perform on the popular talk show following BTS, Blackpink and NCT. On Thursday, Seventeen performed their retro-swing title song “Home;Run” from their latest album “Semicolon.” The singers took the stage dressed up as the studio’s stagehands, p

Jan. 10, 2021

Performing arts expands beyond stage

With the COVID-19 pandemic requiring a paradigm shift for survival, the local performing arts scene is striving to produce shows fit for the screen beyond just the stage. In the earlier stages of the pandemic, the performing arts scene tried to stay connected with audiences at home by streaming performances online. Limitations existed, however, as the productions were originally created for the stage, not mobile devices or TVs. Nevertheless, as the pandemic has been with us for nearly a year

Jan. 9, 2021

Top Korean artists reach over 10.6b streams on Spotify in 2020

Korea’s top 10 most streamed artists on Spotify chalked up a total of 10.6 billion streams on the platform in 2020, the popular streaming service announced on Thursday in its yearly wrap up. 　 Boy band BTS was the most streamed Korean artist globally, followed by Blackpink, Twice, Stray Kids and Red Velvet, according to Spotify’s 2020 Wrapped data. BTS also took the top spot in the category of the most-streamed global group in 2020. 2020 Wrapped, which compiles data from Jan. 1 t

Jan. 9, 2021

Song Hye-kyo to make return to TV with ‘Glory’

Actress Song Hye-kyo will return to the small screen in a new drama written by screenwriter Kim Eun-sook, “The Glory.” According to the production company Hwa & Dam Pictures, “The Glory,” an 8-part drama series, tells the story of a person who dreamed of being an architect when she was young but had to quit school due to severe bullying from her classmates. She later becomes a teacher to take revenge on those who bullied her and those who remained silent at the tim

Jan. 8, 2021

BTS' 'Map of the Soul: 7' tops physical album sales in US in 2020: report

The BTS album "Map of the Soul: 7," featuring hit tracks "On" and "Boy with Luv," has been tallied as the bestselling physical album in the United States last year. Physical album sales of the septet's fourth full album released in February reached 646,000 in the US, according to an annual year-end report compiled by MRC Data in collaboration with Billboard. The report encompasses US music consumption data between Jan. 1 and Dec. 31 last year. The report also show

Jan. 8, 2021

Number of daily moviegoers hits new record low amid movie drought from pandemic

The number of daily moviegoers plunged to a fresh record low this week, as new releases have been affected by the latest coronavirus resurgence in winter, data showed Friday. According to the data from the Korean Film Council (KOFIC), 14,000-16,000 people went to theaters daily this week, down from last week's 34,000-60,000. In particular, only 14,518 attendees were recorded Monday, hitting an all-time low since KOFIC began to compile official box office data in 2004. It renewed the previous r

Jan. 8, 2021