The following are some of the biggest news and events that happened in the K-popiverse the past week. Just giving you all some new Options for all your K-pop Love.
The Wonder Baby is officially here. Through a tweet on October 16th, Wonder Girls‘ leader Sun shared with fans that she had safely given birth to a daughter named Hailey. (@WGsun)
- DMTN‘s Daniel was sentenced to one year in jail and a fine for selling and using marijuana in a sting operation that caught several celebrities. Actor Cha Seung-won‘s son, Cha No-ah who was also involved in the case, received a lighter 2 years suspended sentence with a six month probationary period for using marijuana. Not sure how the probation period will work out if he is found guilty on the kidnapping and rape charges he is also currently facing. (Sports Donga)
- The son of trot singer Sul Woon-do, Lumin, joined the boy band M.Pire. Some of you might recognize Lumin by his former stage name LeeU and the fact that he used to be a member of F.Cuz. (Sports Donga)
NH Media announced that U-Kiss‘ maknae, and one of its most popular members Shin Dong-ho, would be leaving the group and the entertainment business as a whole. The reasons mentioned for Dong-ho leaving were his health and the desire to live as a normal citizen. It was definitely not an easy decision to make, to walk away from the idol life, we wish Dong-ho good health and all the best in his future endeavors. (Xsports News)
In K-pop:
- SPICA‘s Kim Bo-hyung released her first solo effort with the song “Crazy Girl,” soloist Jjun wants to know the “Way To Your Heart,” BESTie sang of their “Love Options,” Park Ji-yoon sang of “Mr. Lee” which was written and composed by Primary and features San E, Girl’s Day released the cheering song “Let’s Go” to encourage college students, singer Moon Myung-jin has gained a lot of attention after his appearances on Immortal Song 2 recently and has just released a digital single “Listen,” for their new comeback 9Muses were armed with “Gun,” T-ara released another MV for “Number Nine,” indie band Standing Egg released the MV for the song “Today Of All Days” and Amoeba Culture‘s hip hop trio Rhythm Power released “Bond Girl” featuring Zion T–loving it’s funky beat.
- Former We Got Married virtual wife (although soon to be real wife) Jung In featured soon-to-be-hubby Jo Jung-chi in the MV with her for her latest release “Autumn Guy.”
- This week SS501‘s Heo Young-saeng released his special mini album She which includes five tracks. The MV for the title track “Weak Child” was also released and features Japanese actress Fujii Mina. He will also be holding a concert on October 26thThe album and concert is a last gift for fans before he enlists on October 31st at the Nonsan Korean Army Training Center. After completing basic training, Heo Young-saeng will serve his two years as an enlisted police officer.
- Kim Ji-soo, the Superstar K2 finalist/singer/songwriter/actor released the MV for his newest song “Sleep 5 More Minutes” which stars actress Nam Bo-ra. His releases have all been enjoyable because the songs are great and his MVs are always entertaining.
- K-pop Star 2 finalist Shin Ji-hoon debuts with the song “Right There” which was written by Beast‘s Yong Jun-hyung and composer Kim Tae-joo. It’s solid debut for the 16 year old solo singer.
- According to reports from his management company CjeS, JYJ‘s Kim Jaejoong will release his first full length solo album WWW: Who, When, Why? on October 29th. The album is said to feature a variety of genres including a punk rock song “Loveholic” featuring Ha Dong-gyun and a soft rock song “Don’t
Walk Away” featuring Beast‘s Yong Jun-hyung. On the 15th, Jaejoong released the sad love ballad “Sunny Day” featuring Lee Sang-gon of Noel through online music sites. He will also pre-release the song “Butterfly” on October 23rd as part of the promotions leading up to the album’s release on the 29th. Jaejoong will then begin his Asia concert tour on November 2nd in Seoul.
- Female duo Sweden Laundry released another teaser this time for “Good Night Baby,” ballad Shin Seung-hun released a teaser for “I’ve Changed A Lot,” Stardom Entertainment has dropped a group teaser for their new boy band ToppDogg, K.Will released a couple of teasers for his Will in Fall album including a hilarious one lamenting his fate of competing against IU and SHINee and the other a peek at the MV for the title track “You Don’t Know Love” which stars Exo‘s Chanyeol and model Lee Ho-jung and new boy band I-REX released a teaser for their debut track “You’re My Girl.“
- Congratulations to MBLAQ who Beast who both celebrated their fourth anniversary since debut this week, MBLAQ debuted on October 15th and Beast a day later on October 16th.
In K-drama:
- 2AM‘s Changmin contributed the song “Moment” to the Heirs OST and Kim Tae-woo sang “My Lady” for Mirae’s Choice OST.
- This week in K-dramas were the debuts of Mirae’s Choice on KBS and Your Neighbor’s Wife on JTBC for the Monday/Tuesday slot and tVN debuted Reply 1994 on Friday. Was able to check out Mirae’s Choice and Reply 1994 and both were fun and had good story lines.
- Although Mirae’s Choice had a good debut, in ratings it is still lagging behind The Suspicious Housekeeper, although the points spread isn’t much. Secrets still rules the Wednesday/Thursday drama time slot, but now that The Heirs have returned to South Korea and the story line is picking up, will that change? And I just have to say, thank the K-pop gods that The Heirs have returned to the motherland.
In K-variety:
There’s a new survival reality show coming to K-variety. It’s called Fashion King Korea and will pair eight celebrities; SNSD‘s Tiffany, Sistar‘s Bora, Kim Na-young, Boom, Yoo Gun, Lee Ji-hoon, Choo Mi-rim and Lim Dong-wook with eight fashion designers; Park Yoon-jung, Lee Joo-young, Jung Doo-young, Ji Il-geun,Lee Ji-eun, Jang Hyung-chul, Lam Yoon-jae and Kim Hong-bum to design a fashion item from conception to production while competing against the other teams. Hopefully, the show fares better than the K-drama of the same name. (NewDaily)
- For the upcoming taping of the next Kim Byung-man’s Law of the Jungle which will take place in Micronesia, new members 40 year old female actress Ye Ji-won (who will be the oldest female to have ever appeared on the show), ZE:A‘s Im Siwan and EXO‘s Chanyeol who at the age of 20 will be the youngest member to have ever participated. They’ll be joining veteran members Kim Byung-man, Ryu Dam, Park Sang-chul, Oh Jong-hyuk and will begin filming in Micronesia at the end of October. (Union Press)
Who Is Next in the line up of artists from YG Entertainment? You’ll be able to find out after the last episode of WIN:Who Is Next which pitted YG’s two boy band trainees Team A and Team B against each other. Personally, I’m cheering for Team B–the competition has been fierce with the voting percentages varying by only a couple of points. Will Team A hang on to the WIN or will Team B come from behind and take the crown? (Star.fnnews)
- tVN announced that they were contacted by representatives from NBC‘s Saturday Night Live for a possible collaboration with SNL Korea celebrating SNL’s 40th anniversary. SNL’s 40th anniversary actually occurs in September of 2014 so no concrete plans for the collaboration have been made yet, but look forward to one possibly in a year. Don’t miss this week’s episode as the actor Tom Hiddleston who plays Loki in The Avengers series of films, takes part in a couple of hilarious skits. (Style M)
(YouTube [1], [2], [3], [4], [5], [6], [7])
