Vernon of Seventeen will put out his first solo mixtape on Dec. 23, announced agency Pledis Entertainment on Friday.

A teaser image for mixtape “Black Eye” showed him standing on what looks like an all-terrain vehicle, and said “Turn up the radio” piquing interests of his fans.

In the meantime, the 13-member act left for Manila on Thursday to resume touring Asia. It has toured three cities in Japan earlier this month and performed on stage at the 2022 Asia Artist Awards in Japan in Nagoya on Tuesday. It was one of the artists who won the grand prize at the annual awards ceremony.

On Tuesday in the US, Time magazine picked “Sector 17,” a reissue of its fourth studio album “Face The Sun” as one of the best K-pop songs and albums of this year.

BTS’ RM to appear in prime-time news

RM of BTS will have an in-depth interview on primetime news on Sunday.

This is the second time appearing in the program, having appeared in it with bandmates in 2020, but first on his own. He is likely to talk about sending off Jin, who enlisted this week, and share thoughts on both being a leader of the super band and releasing his first solo album.

On Friday, he uploaded a video of his solo gig held in Seoul on Dec. 5.

“I’ve waited 10 years for this moment,” he said on the small stage. He chose the venue so that he wanted to go back to the beginning and share why and with what thoughts he began his music career with his fans, the artist told the audience.

Winner to host year-end concert online

Winner announced Friday that it will hold an online concert on Dec. 29.

In a video clip, Lee Seunghoon and Song Mino told fans that the band has prepared the event “wishing they could wrap up the year with all Inner Circle across the world.” Inner Circle is the name of its official fandom community.

The poster for the concert “White Holiday” had sketches of the four members as well as those of a snowman and Christmas tree, drawn by Kim Jinwoo.

Meanwhile, Song is having his first solo art show in Korea in Seoul. The exhibit, “Thanking You,” will showcase about 20 artworks at a gallery in Seoul from Thursday to Jan. 15, 2023. He began painting seriously since participating in a group show in 2019 and was invited to show his works at the Saatchi Gallery in London.

NewJeans to open pop-up stores

NewJeans will open two pop-up stores in Seoul from Dec. 23 to Jan. 21, 2023, according to agency Ador on Friday.

It will be a collaborative work with dessert maker Nudake and offer five exclusive types of cakes. The cakes appear in the music video of “OMG,” the titular track from its upcoming single album that will roll out on Jan. 2. Rearranged songs of the rookie girl group will be played as background music at the stores.

The group will drop “Ditto” from the single in advance to the full release of the album on Dec. 19.

Separately, its debut song “Cookie” made Best Songs of 2022 listed by New York Times last week, as the only K-pop tune.

By Hwang You-mee
(glamazon@heraldcorp.com)