Hello our dear users and welcome to yet another edition of In Case You Missed It! It was indeed a busy week with quite a few news that shocked us, many new releases we enjoyed and discussed widely on the forum, and of course, celebrated many achievements of our favorite groups! This is a chance for you to see a whole recap of this week’s events in the world of Asian Entertainment, so let’s dive in together!
MONDAY:
#1- Monday started off with a “bang”, as EXO’s Chen posted a handwritten note to fans announcing that he is getting married! Soon, the rumors about his fiancée being pregnant started circulating, and SM Entertainment was quick to confirm both. We congratulate him and his fiancée and wish health and luck to this future family!
#2- To continue EXO members’ news, it was revealed that Chanyeol has purchased a building worth more than 2 billion wons back in August. We are interested to see what he will use the building for!
#3- The Philippines airport closed on Monday due to volcanic eruptions, so Cherry Bullet girls were unable to return to Korea. We are glad the girls are fine and have safely returned to Korea now.
#4- It was announced that NCT 127 will attend Rodeo Houston on March 10th! Rodeo Houston is the world’s largest livestock show with a humanitarian note, so we are glad the boys got a chance to attend it!
#5- On a sadder note, Jellyfish Entertainment announced that VeriVery’s Minchan was hospitalized due to bruising his head while Oh My Girl’s Jiho was announced to take a hiatus due to worsening of anxiety symptoms. We wish both speedy recovery and hope to see them performing again soon!
#6- To end Monday’s news, Monsta X and Stray Kids both announced world tours. First, Monsta X announced Seoul part of the tour, and later added US and Canada stops to tour. Meanwhile, Stray Kids have announced “District 9: Unlock” world tour with many stops! Hopefully many fans will have the chance to go see these acts!
TUESDAY:
#1- Produce 101 Japan’s final lineup group, JO1 has scheduled their anticipated debut in March with the single album “Protostar”! Are you excited like we are?
#2- Ex-4minute Son Jihyun will be pursuing her acting career from now on under Wells Entertainment! We wish her all the luck in her new agency and in future roles!
#3- While the week was full of comeback news, Pengsu will sadly not make a music debut, as confirmed by EBS. Hopefully, we will see this cute penguin in other engagements soon though.
#4- Famous Korean movie, Parasite, has received 6 nominations from upcoming Oscars, including the ones for Best Picture, Original Screenplay, and Directing! We will be watching the ceremony hoping for many wins as well!
#5- Tuesday brought many announcements from C9 Entertainment. First off, they announced a special new label, J9, that will manage their girl groups from now on! They also announced that their new girl group will be called Cignature. We will be able to see this group’s debut on February! Following the news about their new girl group, C9 also announced that their artist Juniel will form a duo with labelmate Doko as “Poetic Narrators”! Let’s anticipate both debuts from C9!
WEDNESDAY:
#1- Wednesday welcomed us with a piece of sad news for all the fans of the Japanese co-ed group, AAA, as they have announced that they will go on indefinite hiatus at the end of 2020. Let’s enjoy their last year before hiatus and wish them luck in the future!
#2- We have some good news for all fans of Halsey, Chanmina, and The Rose! American singer announced that the Japanese star Chanmina will be performing at her Tokyo concert, while K-pop band The Rose will be a supporting act on the Seoul leg! Will you go to these concerts?
#3- It seems like a new MNET survival show is coming our way! This time, MNET will launch a hip-hop survival show called “Do You Know Hip-Hop?” and it will feature some of the 1st generation hip-hop rappers! Will you watch it? We look forward to it!
#4- To ensure their artists’ privacy and security, JYPE has submitted complaints regarding privacy breach and intimidation of 2PM members. Hopefully, this will have a positive impact and the 2PM members will be safer from now on!
#5- Wednesday luckily brought us a few comeback announcements we will look forward to! GFriend is scheduled to release a new album “回: Labyrinth” on February 3rd, being their first under Big Hit. Some have already filmed their MVs, like KARD for their February comeback and The Boyz for their first full album! VIXX’s Ravi will also release his first full album as a solo artist, “El Dorado”, scheduled for this February! To prepare for all this busy February schedule, let’s anticipate Hyukoh’s new comeback on January 30th with “Through Love”! Keep an eye on all those artists because we surely will!
THURSDAY:
#1- To silence the rumors about the plastic surgery, Kriesha Chu’s label denied them but also said that the singer’s health wasn’t good lately. We hope she will recover soon!
#2- It seems like JYPE is aiming for Japan now, as on Thursday we found out that Stray Kids will have their Japanese debut on March 18th. Also, the long-rumored JYPE’ Japanese survival program, Nizi Project, was announced to be broadcasted on Netflix! We wish them both success!
#3- Sadly, Red Velvet’s anticipated attendance of the “2020 Korea Singers Festival” was canceled due to members’ flu symptoms. While we are waiting for their recovery, let’s enjoy “Zimzalabim” that was announced to be part of the OST for the movie “Trolls World Tour”. Hopefully, we will soon see the members performing again.
#4- Thursday marked an end of the era for some and the beginning of a new one for others in SM Entertainment. We learned that EXO won’t be Nature Republic’s faces anymore. Truly an end of a long era. Luckily, fans of f(x)’s Krystal will be starting a new era as she was announced to be a lead in the upcoming OCN drama, “Search”. Let’s watch Krystal as we wait for the new EXO CFs!
#5- Kang Daniel and BTS fans ended their Thursdays with a piece good news, as Kang Daniel was announced to be launching his shoe collaboration campaign with Puma, while BTS fans will enjoy their favorite group’s special food and drinks collection from Starbucks! Suddenly, we became huge fans of Puma and Starbucks!
FRIDAY:
#1- European fans of Japanese group SCANDAL will finally be able to see their group, as they included three European performances on their 2020 World Tour! Hopefully, many fans will be attending these concerts, as they will surely enjoy it!
#2- Blackpink was announced to be performing as the main artist on the 30th anniversary of Spring Summer Show for Tokyo Girls collection! While Blackpink will be performing on this show, James Corden confirmed that BTS will be performing their “Black Swan” on “Late Late Show with James Corden”! We are excited about these opportunities the groups got!
#3- Rising star AleXa has announced her fandom name to be A.I TROOPER! Are you happy with this choice?
#4- Friday brought K-drama OSTs fans some good news, as Hong Jinyoung joined the OST lineup for the new KBS drama, “Beautiful Love, Wonderful Life”. While we wait on that OST, let’s enjoy Kim Jaehwan’s OST for “Crash Landing On You”!
#5- Got7 celebrated the group’s 6th anniversary this Friday and announced their special anniversary fan meeting scheduled for March 14th! We wish them a happy anniversary and a bright future!
SATURDAY:
#1- Saturday started off with some bad news, as GWSN released a statement saying their member Soso will be excluded from the group’s activities for some time due to health concerns. We wish her a speedy recovery.
#2- The 29th Seoul Music Awards confirmed that the show’s hosts will be Super Junior’s Heechul, Shin Dongyeop, and Jo Boah! Will you watch this show with us?
#3- An end of the era for STU48’s fans as the group’s captain, Nana Okada, stepped down from her position. Let’s see together what the future brings to both STU48 and Nana Okada.
SUNDAY:
#1- AKB48 groups’ fans will have an amazing chance to see their groups performing in VR format! Starting from February 2nd, fans can watch live theater performances in VR for a totally new experience of their favorite group! Are you excited too?
#1- BTS – BLACK SWAN
Even though we have something over a month left until BTS’ “Map Of The Soul: 7”, these boys aren’t losing any time to tease us with the album. After last week’s Interlude, now we got a performance clip of one of the songs from the album, “Black Swan“. It is actually an art film performed by MN Dance Company. Heart wrenching song, about losing an ability, motivation, or passion for something you used to love is greatly represented in black swan metaphor as we see various swan shapes the dancers form in a video. It is a theme maybe most of us can relate to, so check out how BTS fights it and let’s get ready for a comeback!
#2- TAEYEON – DEAR ME
The queen of soulful ballads is back with a repackage of her “Purpose” album. It contains three new songs, out if which the lead single is called “Dear Me“. This beautiful, melodic ballad is filled with strings instruments and guitar that give a nostalgic feeling. Even though the instrumentals couldn’t tell, the song contains a hopeful, optimistic message of self-love. Taeyeon has realized the power of self-love and wanted to share it with her fans, so make sure to hear this song!
#3- ZICO – ANY SONG
After his “THINKING” album, in which he shared his thoughts about life through deep lyrics, Zico wanted something chill and relaxed that people would enjoy without bothering much about the meaning of the song. “Any song” served perfectly for it, being a party track you will surely dance to and throw out any thoughts while enjoying it. The fans and the public quickly became obsessed with this single, so see for yourself what is the buzz all about!
#4- HINATAZAKA46 – YOUTH HORSE
Ahead of their 4th single album release, Hinatazaka46 released one of the album’s title tracks, “Youth Horse“. The song holds a beautiful, powerful message about never giving up, keeping your head up, and never being afraid to dream big. The accompanying MV highlighted the song’s message, as we see the girls performing in cold, icy blue tones. As the video progresses, the choreography and colors become more vivid and bright. The main purpose was achieved as we are sure you will be as optimistic and cheerful as we were when checking this song!
#5- YOOK SUNGJAE – W.A.U & CHICKEN
As part of his “3×2=6” project of sharing two songs every month, Yook Sungjae came to the second month of it with “W.A.U = 6” single album release. Consisting of two songs, the album’s title track was “W.A.U“, while another promotional single was “Chicken“. “W.A.U” is an upbeat pop track with an addictive chorus and honey-like vocals. “Chicken” went on a more humoristic route, as the singer sang about an almighty chicken and how he wants to be a chicken! Both songs are perfect to chill with so give them a listen!
#6- SOLAR X KASSY – A SONG FROM THE PAST
The long-anticipated collaboration between Mamamoo’s main vocalist, Solar, and widely known queen of high notes, Kassy, resulted in “A Song From The Past“. Of course, nothing could go wrong when these two harmonize, but the song took an unexpected turn, as we all expected a heartfelt ballad and welcomed bright, beautiful song perfect to chill with while waiting for spring and warmer weather. The song is like a lullaby, don’t miss out on it!
#7- HA YOONBIN (BEN) – WOUNDS
Ex-Treasure13, Ha Yoonbin, didn’t waste his time after leaving YGE. A week after leaving, he has already released his first solo song under the name Ben. It’s inevitable to notice just how different his music style is to the supposed Treasure style, which ultimately led to his departure. “Wounds” is filled with old school hip-hop style. It is rare for idols to go this route in rapping style, so we enjoyed a beautiful change. Make sure to check “Wounds” out and anticipate Yoonbin’s future works!
#8- TVXQ – MANAZASHI
It seems like the time for perfect, heart-wrenching ballads weren’t left in December so TVXQ chose exactly that for their 48th Japanese single! Being no stranger to emotional ballads, especially in their Japanese releases, these boys always find a way to make each slow song different from one another, so in “Manazashi” they did an extra melodic approach filled with heavenly instrumentals. Let’s enjoy this release together!
#9- OFFICIAL HIGE DANDISM – I LOVE…
Just a few months after the success of “Pretender”, we got another Official HIGE DANdism release. This melodic and upbeat track focuses on love and its various forms. Be it parents’ love, friends’ love, or a special other’s love, they are all shown in “I Love…” music video and song. The rock beat of the song from the piano and guitar emphasized the beauty of the members’ voices and of the lyrics’ message. So let’s all jump on a train of love carried by this song!
#1- The music video of the legendary song, “Up & Down”, which catapulted EXID’s popularity has now reached 100 million views on YouTube!
In other YouTube news, the music video of K/DA’s “Pop/Star” has surpassed 300 million views 437 days after its release!
#2- BTS’s monstrous selling power continues to grow as their upcoming album, “Map of the Soul: 7” reached almost 200,000 pre-orders from Chinese fans in only 4 days! A few days later, their total pre-orders surpassed 3.4 million, breaking their first-week sales record previously held by “Map of the Soul: Persona”!
Their pre-release single “Black Swan” debuted at #2 on MelOn and had more than 114,000 unique listeners on the chart for the first hour, making it the highest first-hour UL debut in MelOn’s history by an idol group and second overall!
#3- A few hours after its release, Zico’s “Any song” charted #1 in all realtime charts, achieving a Realtime All-Kill! A few days later, it also charted #1 in all daily charts including iChart’s Weekly and Realtime charts, earning him the first Perfect All-Kill of 2020!
#4 – TXT’s Japanese debut single “Magic Hour” debuted at #3 on the Oricon Daily Singles Chart with more than 55,000 copies sold on its first day!
#5- TWICE’s Jeongyeon’s first-ever OST, “Like A Star”, has already reached more than 100,000 streams on Spotify, making her the first and only member of the group with this achievement on the platform!
#6- ITZY is now the sole artist with most “Rookie of the Year” awards under their belt with a total of 13!
Song Jihyo’s award was added to the system this week! You can request it here (don’t forget to follow the instructions in the OP)!
For the last few weeks, we held Junior Moderator recruitments and this week our new staff were announced! sm maid and Drew became our Junior Moderators, while Bumbers, our longest Junior Moderator, was promoted to a Moderator! Congratulations once again to all of them and we wish them luck in future work!
This week, our Events team held the very first game of 2020! Users had a lot of fun in BlessMeAchoo’s The Whisper Game, and at the end of this funny game, Team B (OutroTearTheFirst, Nara, Chiharu, Kimbo, Baymax and sm maid) won! Congratulations to the team!
We also had a chance to reward the users you voted for in Golden Pal Awards. On Friday, the ceremony was held and all the winners were announced! Did you already congratulate our winners?
Here are all of the items that were added to our Shop+, go and purchase some of these items or gift them to your friends!
This week, our writer Nara posted a review of Ong Seongwu’s “We Belong”.
Our translations team worked on a few lyrics translations this week:
– 2NE1 투애니원 – Pretty Boy by yooamygirls
– KEY – 群青の夜~One of those nights by Lurkette
– Justin 黄明昊 – Pick Up The Phone by sunflower
Hallyu+ is actively recruiting for staff. If you want to contribute to the forum’s growth and join our amazing team, don’t hesitate and apply now!
We are searching for new members for the following teams: Events and SM Team (video makers for our Press Division).
And that was it for this week! We hope you enjoyed it as always and that this article helped you to recap this eventful week! Feedbacks are always welcome so give us a comment on how you liked this week’s article. See you all again next week!
PROOFREAD BY MELTROSZ
