BTS invited fans to participate in a dance challenge exclusive to YouTube Shorts. 

From July 23 through to Aug. 14, participants can send in 15-second-long videos that cover the choreography from the band’s newest hit “Permission to Dance” on YouTube’s mobile app. It is the first global dance challenge on YouTube’s short-form video feature that was recently introduced.
The bandmates will select some of their favorite entries and create a compilation video as a prize. 

“‘Permission to Dance’ is a song that sets everyone’s heart to beat faster and makes you want to dance,” said the band announcing the challenge.

“BTS are global icons,” Lyor Cohen, YouTube’s global head of music, said in a statement. 

“Breaking record after record on YouTube, BTS’s immense contribution to the world of music has made them an undeniable force. We are humbled to be partnering with them on the ‘Permission to Dance’ challenge on YouTube Shorts, helping to spread happiness and build lasting connections amongst their fans on YouTube across the globe. We are stoked to see the BTS ARMY dance!”

2PM to release Japanese album in September

2PM will release an EP in Japanese in September, announced label JYP Entertainment. 

It uploaded a clip titled “2PM is Back,” which showed the bandmates promising the 100,000 audience at its 2016 concert at Tokyo Dome that they will be back singing one of their hit songs “I’ll Be Back.” At the end of the clip, came the announcement that an EP named “With Me Again” will be unveiled on Sept. 29. 

The band returned with all six members for the first time in five years after every member except for Thai-born Nichkhun completed serving their military duty and put out its seventh studio album “Must” last month. 

The LP landed atop iTunes Japan’s albums chart and hit No. 1 on Tower Records’ daily sales chart and weekly chart, as well as ranking among top 10 on iTunes albums chart in 20 regions.

Blackpink’s “Ddu-du Ddu-du” surpasses 400m streams 

Blackpink garnered over 400 million streams on Spotify with “Ddu-du Ddu-du” as of Monday, announced label YG Entertainment on Tuesday.

The group now has three songs, along with “Kill This Love” and “How You Like That,” that made past the milestone. The quartet is the only K-pop female band to have a song that achieved the feat on the global music platform.

Blackpink has a total of 16 songs with over 100 million streams: “Ice Cream,” “As If It’s Your Last,” “Boombayah,” “Playing with Fire,” “Lovesick Girls,” “Whistle,” “Forever Young,” “Don’t Know What To Do,” “Pretty Savage,” “Stay,” and “Bet You Wanna,” as well as Jennie’s “Solo” and Rose’s “On The Ground.”

“Ddu-du Ddu-du” is the title track from the band’s first EP “Square Up” that came out in June 2018. It set record for a K-pop girl group at the time ranking No. 40 and No. 55 on Billboard 200 and Hot 100, respectively. The music video for the song drew 1 billion views in 2019, for the first time ever for a K-pop band, and now has more than 1.6 billion views maintaining its status as the most-watched music video by a K-pop band.

Sunmi to drop 3rd EP next month  

Sunmi is returning with her third EP “1/6” on Aug. 6, she announced with a poster. 

In the poster, she gazes at the camera leaning against a dusty pink wall, wearing a white mid-baring halter top matched with pink shorts. Multi-stranded Vivienne Westwood choker and a huge white bow in her head complete the kitsch yet lovely look. 

With the poster, she also posed a question: “On the moon where gravity is one sixth, the weight of anxiety is also one sixth?” 

It has been about three years since her previous EP “Warning” and six months since her last single “Tail.” She debuted as a member of Wonder Girls in 2007 and struck out on her own in 2013 with “24 Hours.”

The songstress will also appear as one of the judges for an audition program that will start airing next month.

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