Hello and welcome back to another edition of SB Week in Review! Here’s all the news you may have missed:
Serious News
- The Mayor of Seoul, Park Won-soon, gave a firm warning to the Seoul Music Awards for not inviting JYJ‘s Junsu to the awards ceremony earlier this month — despite him being the winner of a popularity award. With the JYJ Law in affect, the blacklisting of former idol group members should have come to an end. The mayor warned that should artists continue to be banned, the city will withdraw its sponsorship of the event.
- Tensions continue to escalate between North and South Korea this week, as South Korea released satellite images that suggest North Korea is prepping for a missile launch.
Comebacks & Debuts
Gfriend continues to ride the wave of their late 2015 rise to success and are back this week with “Rough.”- Zico put out a pair of digital single releases this week following the success of his Gallery mini: “I Am You, You Are Me,” and “It was Love” sung by f(x)‘s Luna.
- Rookie boy group Imfact debuted this week with pastel hair and the cutesy track, “Lollipop.”
- Super Junior member Ryeowook made his much anticipated solo debut this week with “The Little Prince.” In conjunction with his solo debut, Ryeowook is also slated to participate in SM’s Agit concert series next month.
- For K-indie fans: The Royal Pirates released a new MV for the track “Dangerous” off their November 2015 mini album 3.3.
Teasers & Announcements
- Sad news for fans: Nega Network announced this week that LC9 has disbanded.
- After School leader Jung-ah has graduated from the group. Her contract with Pledis has also expired. Wishing her the best wherever she goes next!
- 4Minute will return on February 1st with Act. 7 and the lead single “Hate.” Who’s excited for the Skrillex collaboration title track?
- Mamamoo will be making a comeback later this month with their first full album. In celebration, the group also pre-released a free digital single.
- KBS 2‘s Moorim School will be wrapping up a little early — at 16 episodes — due to low viewer ratings.
Lovelyz are getting their first variety show in the form of Lovelyz in Wonderland (working title) on SBS MTV. The show will begin boradcasting February 2.- FNC Entertainment plans to debut an AOA sub-unit made up of members Chanmi, Yuna and Hyejeong at some point following Lunar New Year.
- Rainbow plans to comeback on February 15. No details yet on the album or concept, but it will be nice to see the group after a year of no promotions.
- SM Entertainment, surprised, shocked and confused fans this week with the complicated debut announcement for rookie boy group NCT. In an attempt to “localize” hallyu, SM plans to create an umbrella group of 40 members that is divided into multiple units to promote around the world. The units themselves have the potential to change, and members have free will to leave. As for music, NCT will release a single song in multiple languages. The teaser videos (and tron-esque conference entrance) did little to convince fans. But hey, this isn’t the first time SM has had a totally wacky, out of this world concept with multiple units — and we remember how well the last one worked out for them.
- Keeping with the SM news, the company also announced their new Studio digital release series. Over the course of 52 weeks, the company and it’s artists will release one digital single a week. First up is Taeyeon with “Rain,” sometime in February.
- As if they’re not already busy enough with Produce 101, Mnet has announced their intentions to launch a girl group survival show in China. The network also announced that for the first time, Show Me the Money 5 auditions will also take place in the United States.
- SS501 sub-unit SS301 released the teaser for “Pain.” The unit is set to release the album Eternal5 on February 16th.
Other News
- Sistar member Dasom has been dealing with a series of malicious comments on Instagram. This week she finally responded publicly. Hopefully Starship will take some form of action.
- For some good news, Exo Kai‘s fanclub donated 23 Million won to the Korea Childhood Leukemia foundation.
- News broke early Friday morning that SNSD Tiffany and rapper Gray have become an item. However, SM quickly stepped in to deny the claims.
(Naver: [1] [2] [3] [4] [5], Nate, Sports Seoul, Osen: [1] [2] [3], Newsen, Ilgan Sports, TV Daily, Daum. Images via: VApp, SM Entertainment, Source Music, Starship Entertainment.)
