Happy Lunar New Year, and welcome to another edition of SB Week in Review! Here’s all the news you might have missed:

Headlines

Seungri (Big Bang) | Arena Homme Plus
  • (Waring for discussion of sexual assault.) A November 2018 assault at Seungri‘s club, Burning Sun has lead to a flurry of revelations about the club’s questionable business practices. The inciting incident involved a man surnamed Kim who came forward on January 28 and said that in an attempt to prevent a woman from being sexually assaulted, he himself had been assaulted by security and arrested. Separate CCTV footage of a woman being dragged out of the club by security was also released last December, and re-surfaced with the increased scrutiny on Burning Sun’s activities.
  • Burning Sun responded by attempting to explain the two separate incidents, and also by clarifying that Seungri no longer has much direct involvement with the club. Unfortunately for Burning Sun, the investigation did not end at that, and Dispatch uncovered staff text messages that allude to staff members seeking out intoxicated and or drugged women to meet VIP customers. While Seungri did release an apology, and he appears to have no direct involvement with the events in question, many still see him as partially responsible for allowing, or even condoning this behavior from his staff.

Debuts & Comebacks

  • CLC once again switched up their image for the bold and confident “No.”
  • BTSV used Soundcloud to share his latest composition, “Scenery.”
  • Got7‘s Yugyeom also released his Soundcloud track “Just A Little More.”
  • VIXX gifted fans the MV for “Walking.”

Teasers & Announcements

  • ONF will be back on February 8 with We Must Love.
  • Taemin is giving fans everything they Want in the teasers for his February 11 mini album.
  • TST will also return on the eleventh with the single album “Wake Up.”
  • JYP‘s much-anticipated girl group Itzy shared the teaser for their first single, “Dalla Dalla,” out of February 12.
  • Monsta X have begun to tease their February 18 comeback with the concept film Are You There?
  • Banana Culture is ready to debut their new boy group, Trei on February 19.
  • Yoon Jisung will be the first Wanna One member to release a solo album with Aside on February 20.
  • Davichi’s Kang Min Kyung will make her official solo debut on February 27.
  • It may time for a solo from A Pink‘s Namjoo, who shared a mysterious clip of “Sugar, Please” on her Instagram.
  • Loona continues to share member teaser images, but their official comeback date has yet to be revealed.
  • Big Hit introduced TXT members Beomgyu, Yeonjun and Taehyun in their latest Questioning Film YouTube series.
  • In addition to the new group Treasure, YG has also announced a second new boy group made up of Treasure Box contestants, Yoonbin, Mashiho, Doyoung, Yoshinori, Asahi and Jihoon. Do you think YG is ready to manage two more boy groups?
  • Brown Eyed Girls will make their first comeback in 4 years sometime this year!

Other News

  • Both Hoon and Kiseop (U-Kiss) will begin their military service this March.
  • According to the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, there were no distinct chart abnormalities that would make Shaun‘s chart-topping success with “Way Back Home” suspicious. Similarly, Nilo‘s single “Pass” also followed typical user streaming patterns.
  • In a strange turn of events, it was revealed this week on True Story Exploration Party that Kang Sunghoon is in a relationship with the moderator of his fanclub, Hoony World. Both Kang and his fanclub came under attack for poorly managed fan events and money troubles, causing Kang to announce his departure from Sechskies earlier this year.
  • SM and Chinese music company Tencent Entertainment have struck up a new strategic partnership.

(YouTube: [1] [2]. Naver: [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7]. Images Via: Arena, NH Media, SM Entertainment.)