Author: Mariel Abanes

NME

South Korean entertainment company CJ ENM is building the first major arena in Seoul dedicated to K-pop.

• READ MORE: SM Entertainment moves closer to being acquired by CJ ENM

The project, named CJ LiveCity Arena, is being spearheaded by the entertainment giant’s subsidiary CJ LiveCity. The company held a ground-breaking ceremony on Wednesday ( October 27) to mark the start of the building’s construction phase. The arena is slated to open its doors in 2024.

The arena is designed to accommodate 20,000 indoor attendees, with the capacity to extend to another 40,000 outdoors, per Variety. It will be equipped with “the most powerful live performance infrastructure in the world”, including stage facilities, sound and lighting systems, per a press release.

Apart from the showcase area, it will have a dedicated rehearsal space to maximize the quality of stage production and performance. It is also fitted to enable set up and deconstruction of large-scale concerts in just one day.

During the ceremony, CJ ENM also shared their vision to turn the arena into “Live K-Content Experience Districts”, BusinessWire reported, with the aim of becoming the destination for the 100million fans worldwide.

The site will utilize Korea’s IP for music, films, TV series and entertainment shows to showcase the “Spatial experience of K-Content both online and offline”. Features of the CJ LiveCity Arena will include content-experience facilities, which will house a ‘global content business town’ composed of cultural content companies and landmark facilities. Retail shops, accommodation and waterfront gardens will be mounted as well.

Meanwhile, its digital space called the “Virtual LiveCity” will displace the area through Metaverse – a first in the world. This enables a fully immersive experience, where the audience can interact and communicate with each other in real time as well as enjoy a content experience beyond time and space constraints.

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K-pop boyband SEVENTEEN have released the video for ‘Ready To Love’, from their brand-new mini-album ‘Your Choice’.

• READ MORE: SEVENTEEN’s Hoshi reveals the inspiration behind ‘Spider’

The pastel-hued clip, which dropped today (June 18), features the 13-member group on various floral-themed sets – many featuring phrases such as “you are my escape” and “we used to be friends” in the background – as they perform the EDM-inspored pop song. At the end of the visual, the boyband also showcase their sleek chorography with a dance break in the rain.

“I’m ready to love / Tell me, can we stay together, can we stay together / I’m a fool of love for you / My heart by your side forever, by your side forever,” they sing on the chorus.

‘Ready To Love’ is the title track of their newly released mini-album ‘Your Choice’. The six-track project is SEVENTEEN’s first domestic release as a group since ‘Semicolon’, which dropped in October 2020.

‘Your Choice’ is also the first release in SEVENTEEN’s new ‘Power Of Love’ project, which is set to continue into the rest of 2021. The group had previously released an animated trailer for ‘Power Of Love’, featuring various scenes from everyday life that showcase different facets of love. It includes scenes that showcase moments of youthful infatuation, unexpected encounters, living out one’s passion, lasting friendships and more.

Earlier his month, South Korean media outlets reported that the group were working on the final touches of a new album, but at the time Pledis said that a comeback date had “not been decided”.

In April, Pledis hinted that all 13 members of the group might release solo music in the future. Earlier this year, members Hoshi and The8 dropped solo songs ‘Spider’ and ‘Side By Side’ respectively.

In a glowing four-star review, NME called Hoshi’s ‘Spider’ a “captivating, sultry R&B tune – where he is credited as a lyricist, composer and choreographer – that seems to lay the groundwork for a potentially iconic future solo career”.

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K-pop rookies P1Harmony have opened up about how all the members quickly formed a bond with each other from the group’s very beginning.

• READ MORE: NCT Dream – ‘Hot Sauce’ review: a spicy and sweet smorgasbord from the youngest of SM’s boyband clan

During their interview with Rolling Stone on Twitch, member Intak said that they “clicked right away” when they met for the first time. He further explained that everyone had aligned goals and thoughts, both artistically and personally, that made them understand each other so well.

“Right from the beginning, we were already like a family. We already had so much harmony,” the 17-year-old added.

Meanwhile, Jongseob talked about working on their performance when they first got together as a group. The artist pointed out that it took them a while to build chemistry and bring out their individuality, especially in dancing. “It did take some time, but I think it’s definitely worth it and the result is good,” he said.

Keeho also spoke about doing their first movie P1H: The Beginning Of A New World priot to their debut. The K-pop idol described the experience as “scary” and “nerve-wracking”, but emphasized how it served as a great opportunity to practice their presence in front of the camera.

P1Harmony – composed of members Keeho, Theo, Jiung, Intak, Soul and Jongseob – debuted in October 2020 with the EP ‘Disharmony: Stand Out’. They recently made a comeback in April with ‘Disharmony: Break Out’.

In other K-pop news, NCT Dream have announced ‘Hello Future’, a repackaged version of their debut album ‘Hot Sauce’. The repackaged album will reportedly feature three brand-new songs – including the title track ‘Hello Future’, plus B-sides ‘Life Is Still Going On’ and ‘Bungee’ – alongside the 10 songs on the original version of the record.

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Minhyuk of MONSTA X has spoke up about how approaching his troubles with a different mindset helped has him deal with them better.

• READ MORE: MONSTA X release new Japanese-language album, ‘Flavors of Love’

In a recent interview with W Korea, the K-pop idol confessed that he had been experiencing a lot of “worries”, particularly before the past year came to a close. He said that he was “in a slump” and “feeling a bit exhausted”, but acknowledged that everyone goes through a phase like this, as translated by Soompi.

“Slumps come to everyone and I didn’t want to hide it just because I’m an idol. At the time, I thought, ‘Let’s just feel tired if I’m tired’,” he said. “When I struggled against it, it felt like I was sinking deeper. ”

The singer opened up about his troubles with insomnia and how he would “worry about how tired I would be the next day if I couldn’t sleep”, and how changing his mindset has helped him overcome those feelings.

“Now I think, ‘Oh well, I’ll just be a bit tired tomorrow. I can rest once I come home from work.’ After that, I didn’t feel as bad as before,” he added. “I was going to feel tired either way, but the difference was how I approached that state of mind.”

MONSTA X have released the new dates of their rescheduled United States and Canada tour in 2022. The month-long 13-date tour will kick off in January in New York City and will end in late-February with one final stop in Los Angeles, California.

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Rookie K-pop girl group aespa have made their first-ever appearance on Seventeen Magazine’s ‘8 Bit Melody Challenge’ series.

• READ MORE: Jessi reveals how PSY persuaded her to join P Nation: “I was not convinced at first”

During the guesting, the quartet – Giselle, Winter, Karina, and Ningning – were tasked with guessing 11 mystery songs by different pop artists. Over the course of the video, the girl group performed sang a number of hit songs, including ‘Bad Guy’ by Billie Eilish, ‘Old Town Road’ by Lil Nas X, ‘Shake It Off’ by Taylor Swift and more.

Elsewhere in the video, aespa also revealed their personal role models. Ningning said that she hoped to meet Beyoncé someday, while Karina confessed that Camila Cabello is her favorite singer.

Meanwhile, Winter revealed that Karina did her vocal training with Dua Lipa‘s songs because her voice is “very low”. On the other hand, Giselle admitted to being a fan of Justin Bieber since she was young. She added that she particularly enjoyed his latest album ‘Justice’, and singled out ‘There She Go’ and ‘Hold On’ as her favorites.

aespa are the latest K-pop act to appear on Seventeen Magazine‘s ‘8 Bit Melody Challenge’ series, following The Boyz, ATEEZ, ITZY and more. The girl group also recently released the single ‘Next Level’, which is a remake of Aussie singer Aston’s 2019 song of the same name, which was featured on the soundtrack of the film Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw.

Earlier this month, K-pop boyband CRAVITY made their debut appearance on ELLE’s popular video series ‘Song Association’. The group performed tracks from their latest mini-album ‘Season 3. Hideout: Be Our Voice’, as well as hit songs from pop stars such as Fifth Harmony (‘Worth It’), Kesha (‘Tik Tok’) and more.

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MONSTA X’s postponed North American tour has officially been rescheduled to 2022, their agency Starship Entertainment confirmed.

• READ MORE: MONSTA X’s Shownu to sit out of promotional activities for ‘One Of A Kind’

In a statement released yesterday (May 24), the South Korean label announced that the dates for the rescheduled 2022 US and Canada tour have been finalized. The company also noted that all existing tickets will be accepted for the new dates.

“We have been keeping an eye on the COVID-19 situation and are pleased to inform you for the newly coordinated 2022 MONSTA X World Tour In US/Canada tour schedule,” Starship said in its statement. “All existing tickets will be honoured for new dates.”

MONSTA X’s 2020 North American tour will kick off the 13-date on January 29 in New York City, followed by a quick stop in Toronto, Canada. The six-piece boyband will then return to the US for the remainder of the tour, ending the tour in Los Angeles, California on February 27.

The MONSTA X World Tour in US/Canada was originally scheduled for June and July 2020, but was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It was later set to begin the tour in April 2021, but was also postponed for the same reason.

Meanwhile, the K-pop act recently released the 11-track Japanese album ‘Flavors Of Love’. The record included Japanese versions of their Korean hits ‘Follow’, ‘Fantasia’ and ‘Love Killa’, as well as a number of original Japanese-language songs.

The boyband are also gearing up for the release of their latest domestic mini-album, ‘One Of A Kind’. This upcoming project will mark the group’s ninth mini-album since their 2015 debut and first Korean comeback since they dropped their fourth studio album ‘Fatal Love’ in November 2020.

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DJ Snake has given fans a sneak peek of his supposed collaboration with BLACKPINK’s Lisa.

• READ MORE: (G)-IDLE’s Yuqi drops edgy teaser for ‘Bonnie & Clyde’ music video

Yesterday (May 19), the French producer uploaded a four-second snippet of an unreleased song on his Instagram Story, tagging the official Instagram accounts of both Lisa and BLACKPINK. The clip also features a female vocalist singing the lyrics, “all night with you”, although its currently unclear who the singer is.

Earlier this month, DJ Snake claimed that he worked with the Thai-born K-pop singer-rapper in a series of now-deleted tweets, as captured by Uproxx. At the time, the producer had also claimed that the collaboration with Lisa was “done”.

In April, Harper’s Bazaar Thailand had shared a photo of the Thai-born K-pop star on its Instagram page, alleging in the accompanying caption that the singer would be making her highly anticipated debut as a soloist later this June.

However, her agency YG Entertainment has yet to confirm the news. In a statement to The Korea Herald, the company confirmed that “Lisa is still working hard on the album” but did not confirm a release date.

Meanwhile, the 24-year-old is set to appear on an episode of Mnet’s reality competition Kingdom: Legendary War where she will perform alongside labelmates iKON. (G)-IDLE’s Miyeon will also appear as a guest performer alongside her labelmates BtoB.

In other K-pop news, SEVENTEEN’s Mingyu and Wonwoo have teamed up with singer Lee Hi for the upcoming digital single ‘Bittersweet’, due out on May 28. The song follows recent solo releases from fellow SEVENTEEN members Hoshi (with ‘Spider’) and The8 (‘Falling Down’).

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GFRIEND have confirmed disbandment through newly released handwritten letters, where they also expressed their gratitude towards fans.

• READ MORE: BTS’ Suga says mental health needs to be “discussed and expressed”

On Wednesday (May 19), the all six members of the K-pop girl group released handwritten letters on the Weverse app (per Newsen), where they confirmed their forthcoming disbandment. The group had been rumoured to be breaking up after their label Source Music announced that the K-pop act had not renewed their contract with the agency.

In their letters, the GFRIEND members opened up about the impending disbandment – which is likely to take place on May 22, when their contract with Source Music expires – and also thanked their fandom (also known as BUDDY) for their unwavering support over the past six years.

“Although GFRIEND has officially ended, this is not the end for us,” wrote the group’s leader Sowon. “Even though I’m slightly worried about going on a path I haven’t been on before, I will work hard to move forward while thinking of BUDDY, who are always supporting me.”

On the other hand, Yerin recalled GFRIEND’s successful six-year career, descibing those moments as “unforgettable”, while Eunha called her time with the group “the happiest and most beautiful six years”.

Meanwhile, Yuju, SinB and Umji expressed their gratitude towards GFRIEND’s supporters, as well as their fellow members. In their letters, the group also hinted that they were going to stay active in the entertainment industry moving forward, although details are scarce at the moment.

GFRIEND made their debut through Source Music in 2015 with their first mini-album ‘Season Of Glass’. The following year, the group released their breakthrough hit song ‘Rough’ and topped the Gaon Digital Chart for the first time. Source Music later became a subsidiary of Big Hit Entertainment (now HYBE) after a high-profile acquisition.

Over the course of their six-year career, the girl group have dropped 10 mini-albums and three full-length records. Their most recent project was their third studio album ‘Walpurgis Night’, which was released in November 2020 and featured the single ‘Mago’.

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Suga of BTS has spoken up about addressing mental health issues openly and expressing his emotions through songwriting.

• READ MORE: Queen show their support for BTS’ upcoming single ‘Butter’

In celebration of BTS’ Rolling Stone cover feature, the magazine released several individual digital covers and breakout interviews with the boyband’s members. During Suga’s interview, the rapper opened up about his struggles with mental health and how he relates his emotional struggles through his lyrics.

The 28-year-old revealed that it makes him “feel very good” when fans are able to find comfort and consolation through his words. “I think, for anybody, these emotions are not something that need to be hidden. They need to be discussed and expressed,” the artist pointed out. “These emotions are not something that need to be hidden.”

He also said that his feelings can come in cycles and waves, describing it as “almost like cold weather”. He added: “I’m comfortable now and feeling good, but those sorts of negative emotions come and go… It may come back in a cycle over a year, year and a half.”

Later on in the interview, Suga expanded on his songwriting process, noting that it differs from track to track. “Sometimes it may be a word that pops up and I build on that word, or someone could make a request for a certain way they would like a song to be developed,” he said.

“Oftentimes, we decide on a theme and then we sort of freely work from the larger overarching theme that we may have,” Suga added. “But generally, when I work on a song, I create the beat first and then the melody and the rap and then finally the lyrics. That’s generally how I build them.”

In other individual interviews with Rolling Stone, BTS’ Jungkook talked about his admiration for Ariana Grande and how watching her life “really stayed” with him. Meanwhile, RM shared more about how he found his musical identity.

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K-pop girl group Brave Girls are set to return with new music this June, their agency Brave Entertainment has confirmed.

• READ MORE: Brave Girls’ music returns to Spotify after being taken down

Eaelier today (May 18), South Korean news outlet Xsportsnews reported that the quartet are set to make a comeback in mid-June with new music. The publication also claimed that the girl group would be adopting a “summer queen” concept.

Brave Entertainment later confirmed the report in a statement to Sports Kyunghyang. “Brave Girls are preparing hard for their new album, aiming for a June comeback. The exact schedule will be announced later on,” the company said, as translated by Soompi.

Last Month, Brave Brothers, the group’s producer and the agency’s CEO, teased Brave Girls’ forthcoming return during his appeared on the MBC reality series, I Live Alone. “I’m working on a mini-album that will come out in the summer,” he said at the time. “I think that it could come out in June.”

Brave Girls achieved widespread popularity earlier this year after their 2017 song ‘Rollin’’ went viral in South Korea. The track has since topped the charts of several streaming platforms – including Bugs!, FLO and Melon – and also reached number one on the Gaon Digital Chart (the Korean equivalent of the Billboard Hot 100).

In other K-pop news, boyband 2PM are also set to make their long-awaited comeback this June. Their agency JYP Entertainment confirmed the news on May 18 in a statement to South Korea media. “2PM is preparing to make a comeback in late June. We will announce the exact date once it is confirmed,” it said.

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