Welcome back to another edition of Week in Review! Here’s your news:
Serious News
- Koreans are preparing for Lunar New Year on Monday, with a five-day public holiday for the occasion. While many are journeying to their hometowns for celebrations, there is also a rising trend of Koreans booking holidays and travelling overseas as well.
- Exo‘s Lay has been injured during film shooting in China. Hopefully Lay will get the rest he needs, and feels better soon.
Comebacks & Debuts
Your girl crush 4Minute is back with the Skrillex-produced “Hate” and mini-album Act. 7. You should buy it because [insert emotional blackmail here].- Winner is finally back with Exit: E. Check out our reviews of “Sentimental” and “Baby Baby;” the “I’m Lonely” review is up next!
- SNSD‘s Taeyeon kicked off SM‘s new Station with “Rain.”
- Jung In has released “UUU.”
- Sonnet Son released “Ms. Burgundy.” Laboum‘s Yul-hee stars in the MV.
- Rapper Reddy dropped “Think,” which also features Jay Park.
- Yoo Seung-woo and Crucial Star teamed up for “Whatever.”
- Wassup‘s Nada has released her 1st mixtape.
- The JYJ members have been making their return to variety with Fruitful Trip. The show is straight-to-DVD, but is also being broadcast on Naver and V app by C-JeS Entertainment. Are you watching?
Teasers & Announcements
My favourite 2012 rookie group Nu’est is making a Korean comeback! Their fourth mini-album Q is drops on the 17th.- Mamamoo is gearing up for the release of first studio album, Melting, on the 26th.
- B.A.P update: the group has been teasing their upcoming mini-album, Carnival, which will drop on. Check out the album cover and image teasers released so far! There is also a video teaser up for B.A.P’s upcoming world tour, which kicks off in Seoul on the 20th.
- Rainbow has revealed the names for their new mini-album and title track: Prism and “Whoo” respectively. Check out more block-colour teasers like Jae-kyung‘s (above) here.
- Brave Girls will be making a comeback with five new members and track “Deepened.”
- As discussed last Sunday, f(x) now has a fandom name: MeU, or μ!
- Seventeen‘s vocal unit will be next to feature in Yoon Jong-shin‘s monthly project, with the Valentine-themed “Chocolate.”
Real men will be airing a new female soldiers special. Confirmed guests include Fiestar‘s Cao Lu, After School‘s Nana, Lee Chae-young and Gong Hyun-joo.- AOA‘s newest sub-unit, AOA Cream, is going the magical girl route with members Yuna, Hyejeong and Chanmi.
- Fantagio‘s new boy group Astro is expected to debut on the 23rd.
- Exo leader Suho‘s debut film One Way Trip (AKA Glory Day) is set for a March release. The film also stars Ji-soo (Sassy Go Go), Ryu Jun-yeol (Reply 1988) and Kim Hee-chan (The Producers)
- Crooner Dean is working on a new album!
- Block B is said to be preparing a comeback; and while March is being touted, Seven Seasons is yet to confrm a date.
- And finally, SM announced its highly ambitious new group, NCT. Read Erianne’s in-depth analysis here.
Other News
- February 4th saw South Korean high schools hold graduation ceremonies for their senior students. Idols graduating from Seoul School of Performing Arts got the most attention: Jiho of Oh My Girl, Yuju and Eunha of G-Friend, Eunjin and chaeyeon of DIA, Soojung of Lovelyz and DK of Seventeen.Congratulations to all the new graduates from all schools!
(Instagram, Korea Herald, Lonely Planet, My Daily, Naver[1][2], Osen, Sports Donga, Top Star News, TV Daily, Twitter[1][2][3]. Images via: DSP Media, SM Entertainment, Cube Entertainment, TS Entertainment, FNC Entertainment)
