A summary of the news, current and upcoming comebacks, charts and music show wins, and more!
NOTE: Except in special cases, the news recapped in these posts will refer to K-pop only. K-dramas, variety shows, and other forms of entertainment will only be mentioned if there is an idol or idol group involved.
News to Note
- The Ministry of Education announced that they were canceling the bachelor degrees of seven celebrities who attended Dongshin University, including members of Highlight (formerly BEAST) and BTOB. Dongshin University counted music show performances and promotions as class attendance, but didn’t set any official regulations about it until after these celebrities had graduated. Therefore, the Ministry of Education saw these cases as special treatment.
- EXID is the next seven year group up for contract renewals. Banana Culture Entertainment has confirmed that the members will start discussions soon, but the group is committed to their activities through May (which includes a Japan tour and an album).
- SHINee members Key and Minho are confirmed to start their military service this year, joining leader Onew who enlisted last December.
- Big Bang fans trended “YG Treat Seungri Right” on social media after Seungri performed with two backup dancers and no band at his Hong Kong concert, because he reportedly said that Yang Hyun Suk had found out about the event late and hadn’t known he needed backup dancers. When fans started saying that Yang Hyun Suk was deleting their comments about it on his Instagram, he posted a text exchange with Seungri to show that they were on good terms.
- In other YG Entertainment news, YG Treasure Box aired its finale this week. The survival show to determine the company’s next boy group ended by announcing the first four members to get in. The final three will be revealed on V-Live over the next week.
Note: All linked articles in the above section are from Soompi.
This Week’s Debuts and Comebacks
- GFriend, “Sunrise” / Time for Us
- Ateez, “Say My Name” / Treasure EP.2: Zero to One
- Favorite, “Loca” / Loca
- *SOLO DEBUT* Lee Minhyuk (BTOB), “Ya” / Hutazone
- ASTRO, “All Night” / All Light
- *UNIT DEBUT* WayV (NCT’s China unit), “Regular” (Chinese version) / The Vision
Coming Up Next Week
| Monday (1/21) | Tuesday (1/22) | Wednesday (1/23) | Thursday (1/24) | Friday (1/25) |
| *SEVENTEEN *Cherry Bullet (DEBUT) | *IMFACT *Roh Taehyun (JBJ/HOTSHOT) (SOLO DEBUT) | *Junho (2PM) |
This Week’s Music Show Wins
| The Show (SBS MTV) | No broadcast |
| Show Champion (MBC) | Apink, “%% (Eung Eung)” (1st win) |
| M! Countdown (MNET) | Apink, “%% (Eung Eung)” (2nd win) |
| Music Bank (KBS) | Chungha, “Gotta Go” (5th win) |
| Music Core (MBC) | Chungha, “Gotta Go” (6th win) |
| Inkigayo (SBS) | Apink, “%% (Eung Eung)” (3rd win) |
Award Shows
The 28th Seoul Music Awards took place on January 15. The main winners were:
| DAESANG: BTS |
| BEST ALBUM: BTS, Love Yourself: Tear |
| BEST SONG: iKON, “Love Scenario” |
| BONSANG: BTS, EXO, iKON, MAMAMOO, Momoland, Monsta X, NCT 127, NU’EST W, Red Velvet, SEVENTEEN, TWICE, Wanna One |
For a full list of winners, click here.
Album Sales, Streaming, and Charting
- iKON topped Gaon‘s weekly physical sales chart with The New Kids, followed by Cosmic Girls, Apink, VERIVERY, and TVXQ.
- BTS topped Gaon‘s social chart with “DNA,” with Apink’s “%% (Eung Eung)” placing 2nd.
NOTE: Gaon‘s weekly charts reflect the previous week.
The International Side of K-pop
- Billboard World Albums chart:
- Once again, BTS stayed in the Top 3 spots with Love Yourself: Answer at #1, Love Yourself: Her at #2, and Love Yourself: Tear at #3. Their Japanese album Face Yourself was #7.
- EXO stayed at #4 with Don’t Mess Up My Tempo.
- EXO’s Lay came in at #5 with NAMANANA.
- NCT 127 had Regular-Irregular at #6.
- Red Velvet took #10 with RBB.
Notable Variety Shows Featuring K-pop Idols
| Idol Room Guest | Weekly Idol Guest | Knowing Brothers /Ask us Anything Guest | |
| This Past Week | GFriend | Cosmic Girls | (non-idol guest) |
| Next Week | SEVENTEEN | Luna (f(x)) Minhyuk (BTOB) | (non-idol guest) |
Other Notable Variety Shows This Past Week
- TUE 1/15 / “To NEVERLAND” / MNET / (G)I-DLE’s travel variety show that will follow members on a trip to San Francisco, California. (“Neverland” is their fandom name.) Episodes can be found subbed in English on YouTube.
- WED 1/16 / GOT7’s Real Thai / XtvN / GOT7’s travel variety show featuring Mark, Jinyoung, Youngjae, and BamBam
Coming Up Next Week
- MON 1/21 / EXO Travel the Ladder Season 2 / Oksusu / EXO’s travel reality show featuring the members traveling to Taiwan and making all their decisions by using the ladder game. (EXO-CBX did this last year.)
*SOURCES NOTE: I get my news from a mix of sources, and all of them report the same information and sometimes cite each other as well. So rather than linking the exact article for each and every news item (unless the article provides a lot more detail), I will cite my general news sources below. Each of them will most likely have an article and/or tweet providing more details on the item in question.
MY REGULAR NEWS SOURCES: Soompi, Omona They Didn’t (Livejournal), mes #TeamPinky (Twitter @OH_mes), The Seoul Story (Twitter @theseoulstory), Girl Group Zone! (Twitter @girlgroupzone)
FEATURED IMAGE SOURCE: YG Entertainment (YG Treasure Box logo)
VIDEO SOURCES: Astory Entertainment (Favorite), Cube Entertainment (Lee Minhyuk), Fantagio Entertainment (ASTRO), KQ Entertainment (Ateez), and Source Music (GFriend) / 1theK distributes music videos for GFriend and Favorite.
OTHER SOURCES: YouTube, Wikipedia, Billboard, Gaon Chart, KBS, MBC, MNET, SBS, YG Entertainment
Katherine Does K-POP 