Miyawaki Sakura of the now-disbanded girl group IZ*ONE is leaving her original group in Japan, according to reports on Thursday.

In an interview with Japanese fashion magazine ViVi, Miyawaki announced that she has “graduated.”

Her activities as a member of IZ*ONE came to an end recently and she returned to her original group HKT48, but she recently said that she will leave the girl group, according to the article.

There has been speculation that she will join HYBE, formerly Big Hit Entertainment, and a K-pop group, but the article implied that she may have her eyes set on global ambitions.

A tweet revealing details from the magazine interview was deleted after about two hours and official announcement regarding her future whereabouts has not been made yet.

The July issue of the magazine will go on sale on May 21. 

Kang Daniel gets candid about music

Kang Daniel released a new single via Universe, a K-pop platform, on Thursday.

The new song, titled “Outerspace,” features Loco and is a retro synth pop number that adds the rapper’s smooth verses to Kang’s gentle voice. It is part of the entertainment platform’s monthly project that started in January with IZ*ONE’s “D-D-Dance.”

In time for the release of the single, Kang released an interview on YouTube speaking openly about his music.

He recently wrapped up his three-part Color series, and “now that the series is over, I have to come up with what’s next. But since I’ve been releasing EPs in short sequence, I’m still hyped up. So I’ll probably need time to cool down and go over what I’ve gathered in terms of music,” he said.

He thanked his fans for supporting him saying: “Who listens to music these days from a CD? I know that the act of buying my CD is purely out of love, and the best thing you can for a singer.”

Heize returns with star-studded collaborators

Heize is coming out with her seventh EP “Happen” on May 20, said her agency P Nation on Thursday.

The EP’s tracklist showed that the songstress has collaborated with a slew of musicians, from ballad singer Kim Feel and rapper Gary to singer/songwriter Ahn Yeeun.

Heize had her hand in writing the lyrics and melodies for all of the tracks except for the song “Destiny, it’s just a tiny dot,” on the eight-track album. Tablo of Epik High co-wrote the words for “Cold” while Ahn wrote the song “Do You Hear The Rain?” featuring herself.

“Happen” comes about one year after her previous EP “Lyricist” and is the first album since she moved to P Nation headed by Psy in September last year.

Berrygood disbands despite company’s denial

Girl group Berrygood is disbanding and only Johyun will remain with the agency JTG Entertainment, which will be merged into Starweave Entertainment, said the company on Wednesday.

This confirms Johyun’s comment from two months ago that the band would be breaking up. The agency denied her statement at the time.

Two of the group’s four members, Seoyul and Gowoon, already decided not to renew their contracts last month. Sehyung, after a long deliberation, decided to leave as well, said the company in a statement thanking her for doing her best despite the difficulties from COVID-19.

Berrygood debuted in 2014 as a six-piece girl group with “Love Letter.” Johyun turned to acting and in March, during a roundtable interview before the release of her movie “Hypnosis,” she admitted that the other members’ contracts expired and she will return as a solo artist.

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