New Year's festival at Namsangol Hanok Village Step into the heart of Korean culture at the Namsangol Hanok Village’s New Year’s festival, a vibrant celebration that takes place 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Friday to Sunday. Throughout the weekend, visitors can engage in a variety of traditional Korean games. Start with a fortune-telling session using yut, a traditional board game played, offering a glimpse into the fortunes for the year. Visitor can write their wishes on the wish tree. A

Culture Feb. 9, 2024

K-pop powerhouse SM Entertainment is set to debut four new K-pop acts including NCT Wish this year. The frontrunner is NCT Wish which is to debut at the label concert, “SMTown Live,” slated to be held at the Tokyo Dome in Japan on Feb. 21, according to SM Entertainment on Thursday. NCT Wish is the last subunit of NCT. Other subunits include NCT U, NCT 127, NCT Dream and WayV. SM also plans to launch a new girl group, its first virtual artist naevis known as aespa’s Kwangya help

K-pop Feb. 8, 2024

K-pop girl group Fifty Fifty is set to start anew with new members joining Keena in June. “We’ve started reorganizing Fifty Fifty around Keena. The lineup will be confirmed in April and the group will release a new single in June,” announced Attrakt, the agency representing Fifty Fifty, in a press release Thursday. Fifty Fifty debuted as a quartet with Keena, Aran, Sio and Saena in November 2022. But Aran, Sio and Saena left the group as Attrakt terminated its exclusive contrac

K-pop Feb. 8, 2024

진행자: 홍유, Elise Youn Entertainment industry split over plan to mandate holdback period for state-funded films 기사 요약: 정부가 최근 영화 분야 지원 사업 조건에 '홀드백'(Hold Back) 준수 의무를 부과하자 영화계와 OTT 업계 등은 이해관계에 따라 의견이 엇갈리고 있다. [1] The Culture Ministry’s plan to mandate a grace period of possibly up to six months before films that received government funding are released on streaming platforms like Netflix is being met with mixed reactions by the local entertainment industry, including film distr

Podcast Feb. 8, 2024

Some photos of possible members to debut as a K-pop girl group under The Black Label went viral early this week, leading the agency to announce they are launching a girl group in the first half of this year. Among those in the leaked photos was Moon Seo-yoon, a granddaughter of Shinsegae Group Chairwoman Lee Myung-hee and the eldest daughter of Chung Yoo-kyung, president of Shinsegae’s department store business. In the photo, she is seen posing with other girls including actress and model

K-pop Feb. 7, 2024

Singer-songwriter and actor IU is collaborating with Tweety Bird, the famous yellow canary character from the animated cartoon, “Looney Tunes,” produced and distributed by Warner Bros, to promote her upcoming album. That includes releasing a special version of the upcoming album with Tweety Bird on its cover, and various merchandise, according to Edam Entertainment on Wednesday. IU has some history with this character as she has been using Tweety Bird as the profile picture of her In

K-pop Feb. 7, 2024

P1Harmony returned to the K-pop scene Monday with its first studio album, “Killin’ It,” exuding confidence following the group's successful world tour and performance at the Jingle Ball concert in the US. “Three years after our debut, we are finally introducing our studio album. We are happy but nervous at the same time. We tried to put a lot of our group’s strengths into this album," said Keeho of P1Harmony during a press conference in Seoul on Monday. Al

K-pop Feb. 6, 2024

Singer-songwriter and actress IU took part in the production of her sixth EP, “The Winning,” to be released on Feb. 20, according to Edam Entertainment. IU is recognized as a talented music producer, having participated in album production since her fourth EP “Chat-shire” in 2015. The upcoming extended play will be led by two title tracks — “Shopper” and “Spore.” Composer John Lee who has previously worked with IU on her hit tracks “Leo

K-pop Feb. 5, 2024

A string of health issues plaguing (G)I-dle members is impeding the group’s promotion of the new album, “2.” (G)I-dle’s Shuhua is taking a break from group activities due to health concerns, according to Cube Entertainment. “Shuhua has not been feeling well since Friday, and plans to suspend all of the schedule planned,” announced Cube Entertainment via fan community platform Weverse on Saturday. The group had been scheduled to hold a fan signing event that da

K-pop Feb. 4, 2024

Stray Kids is headlining major music festivals in Europe in July -- I-Days in Milan and BST Hyde Park in London -- for the first time as a K-pop boy group. Stray Kids is taking the stage at the Ippodromo Snai San Siro in Milan, Italy, on July 12 for I-Days. They will then perform at Hyde Park in London on July 14 at BST Hyde Park. I-Days is a music festival that began in 1999 and has since then boasted a star-studded lineup of performers including Green Day, Liam Gallagher, blink-182 and Justin

K-pop Feb. 3, 2024

For some 20 years, K-pop artist Kim Jae-joong has been hounded by fans stalking him to get a sneak peek into his private life. A week ago Kim Jae-joong decided to stand up for himself and take legal measures against “sasaeng” fans -- industry slang referring to fans who invade an artist‘s private life, often exhibiting problematic and obsessive behavior. “We are currently gathering information about Kim Jae-joong’s sasaeng fans and the private taxis they hired to st

K-pop Jan. 31, 2024

South Korean laws have limited scope in enforcing ticket scalping regulations, according to the Record Label Industry Association of Korea's Chairman Yoon Dong-hwan, who spoke in response to the association's recent report on ticket scalping laws in several foreign countries. The report, published Tuesday, compares the ticket scalping policies and laws of seven countries -- Japan, China, Taiwan, the US, Canada, France and Belgium. Ticket scalping in these countries is subject to fines

K-pop Jan. 30, 2024

Singer-songwriter and actress IU will release her sixth mini album, “The Winning,” on Feb. 20, according to Edam Entertainment. The artist’s new album is the first in two years and two months after the release of her special extended play, “Pieces," in December 2021. The teaser clip of IU’s upcoming album uploaded to her official YouTube channel shows the artist with long bleached hair, wearing a red outfit. IU is seen spraying a red-colored spray at the camera

K-pop Jan. 30, 2024

South Korean boy band Vanner is contending for victory in the K-pop scene this year with a full transformation of their image from fresh youth to powerful and charismatic artists. “We want to show that Banner is a group that can handle sexy, powerful and charismatic themes through our second mini album, ‘Capture the Flag,’” said Taehwan of Vanner during a group interview in Seoul on Thursday. The quintet’s new album, scheduled to be released on Tuesday at 6 p.m., is

K-pop Jan. 30, 2024

JYP Entertainment’s new girl group VCHA debuted with the single album “Girls of the Year” Friday. VCHA is the first multinational girl group that JYP has launched in the US. The group consists of six members from Korea, the US, and Canada. They were chosen through JYP and the American music label Republic Record’s K-pop girl group production project “A2K” which aired on YouTube in July last year. The single album is led by the titular track “Girls of the

K-pop Jan. 26, 2024