Here’s something of the biggest news to hit K-pop this week, Because I Know y’all need to keep up with your K-pop fix and don’t always have the time.
Singer Rottyful Sky, aka Kim Han-eul, passed away on October 8th at the age of 25. She had been battling a brain tumor for the past year, her services were held on the 10th. (Sports Seoul)
- There was a lot of news about 2AM this week. First was the announcement that they will be having a concert, Nocturne, in Los Angeles on December 15th, but next was news that maknae Jinwoon was involved in a serious car accident. Although he suffered an injury to his leg that required surgery he’s doing okay and the other staff members that were in the car are recovering as well. (joins, hankooki)
- It hasn’t been a good week for JYP groups maknaes, miss A‘s youngest, Suzy, was caught up in a dating scandal with Gu Family Book co-star Sung Joon after Sports Seoul released pictures of the two hanging out and being ‘close.’ The reactions are bad either way for Suzy as her fans are criticizing her both for dating (if she is) and for having ‘skinship’ with Sung Joon if she isn’t. So this is where the saying “Damned if you do, damned if you don’t” comes from.
- Justin Bieber had a concert in Korea this past week with many of your favorite idols attending the concert and the after party. G-Dragon made a surprise guest appearance at the concert and performed “Crayon” for fans. The day before the concert, Bieber and staff had a team dinner at the infamous YG Cafeteria. Justin was reportedly arrested for assault while in South Korea for punching DJ Michael Woods tour manager Alex Madden in a night club. (US Magazine)
In K-pop:
- Rookie boy band PURE made their come back with “Wedding Day,” Jung Joon-young released the MV for “The Sense of an Ending” another track off of his debut album which stared his virtual wife actress Jung Yu-mi, VIXX released the song “Girls, Why?” which was a collaboration with female indie band OKDAL for a project album from their company Y.BIRD from Jellyfish Island, GI came back with “Gi-Yeuk,” AoA are a bit “Confused” in their latest comeback and SHINee is back–again–with “Everybody.”
- T-ara made a comeback with the release of two MVs one for “Number Nine” and “Because I Know.” “Number Nine” is a good song and has T-ara written all over it–mostly because it sounds very reminiscent of “Day By Day” and the MV reminds one of “Sexy Love 2.0.” The MV for “Because I know is simple, but the song is great in showing off the vocals of the group.
- Graduated After School member Kahi returns with her second solo album Who Are You? She released the MV for the title track “It’s Me” which features L.A. based rapper Dumbfoundead. Love Kahi’s sexy and mature sound and look.
- MYNAME made their comeback with “Day By Day” featuring legendary rap duo Deux‘s D.O. (Lee Hyun-do). It’s a nice ballad from the group and shows off their vocals well.
- The Nation’s Little Sister, IU made her musical return with the release of the MV for “The Red Shoes.” The MV is a whopping eight plus minutes, making it more like a mini movie, and stars some of her famous uncle fans including Yoo Hee-yeol. This is one of the rare cases where I enjoyed the MV way more than the song itself–even though I love the big band swing sound.
- Block B released a ‘maximum close up‘ MV version for “Very Good,” but if you’re very good–how much better could it get? Boys Republic think “You Are Very Special, Teen Top released an MV fro “Date” featuring behind the scenes moments, Jay Park released the MV for the hard hitting and explicit “Trill” featuring Dok2, Cho PD released “Made in Itaewon” featuring Jinbo where you can find a ‘tasty party,’ Kim Jin-pyo released an MV for “Walking Dead” featuring the vocals of Lyn.
- V.A teased “Right There,” Nine Muses shared a review of their upcoming album Prima Donna, hip hop trio Rhythm Power released a teaser about a “Bond Girl” and female duo Sweden Laundry released a mysterious teaser for their next new song.
- Congratulations to VIXX who recently celebrated their 500th day since debut and had an ‘official’ inauguration ceremony for their fan club Starlights. (edaily)
In K-drama:
- This week in K-dramas we said Goodbye to Good Doctor which had a Good ending. But the talk of K-dramaland was the debut of Medical Top Team and Heirs in their Wednesday/Thursday time slots. Which drama ruled the Wednesday/Thurdays? The Ji Sung/Hwang Jung-eum K-drama Secrets which debuted on September 25th on KBS. It’s understandable since Secrets had already grown a following and has been getting rave reviews. Heirs is only a few points behind in ratings and has the possibility of cutting into the lead–if it gets better–all I can say after watching the first two episodes is I hope it gets better. As for Medical Top Team, it came in third place and fans might just be a bit tired of medical dramas–especially if they have lackluster debuts. Entering into the Monday/Tuesday fray next week will be the Yoon Eun-hye, Lee Dong-gun and Jung Yong-hwa‘s time traveling drama Future’s Choice. (Joy News)
- John Park contributed the song “Light” for the Medical Top Team OST and F.T. Island front man Lee Hong-ki sang “I’m Saying” for the Heirs OST and even though he recently returned to the US for his studies, Roy Kim apparently recorded the song “Seoul, Here” for the Reply 1994 OST before leaving. Reply 1994 will debut on tvN October 18th, but released an episode 0 that aired on the 11th.
- Dal Shabet‘s Woo-hee will make her acting debut in the SNS drama remake of the popular webtoon Infinite Power. She’ll be acting alongside the drama’s leads 2AM‘s Im Seulong and former member of SNL Korea Kim Seul-gie. The Wonder Girls’ Yenny will make her acting debut in a co-starring role in tvN’s new Monday/Tuesday drama Basketball which stars Do Ji-han and Lee Elijah and debuts on October 21st. (Sports Chosun, MBN Star)
In K-variety:
- The biggest news in K-variety this past week was that BoA would not be a judge in K-pop Star 3 and would be replaced by Yoo Hee-yeol. BoA’s choice to leave the show is said to be based upon her career and how the show was taking up too much of her time to also pursue her activities. SM Entertainment is reportedly still part of the show, even though they’ll have no representative judge, and will still be an option for training competitors and for the winner to choose as a management agency. I wonder if the fact that SME has not been chosen by any of the past winners or finalists have something to do about it? (Sports Seoul)
