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 related events 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
- After YG Treasure Box revealed all 7 members of YG’s new boy group Treasure last week, Yang Hyun Suk surprised everyone by announcing that there will be a second group created from trainees who appeared on the show.
- Kang Daniel and Yoon Jisung have moved from MMO Entertainment to LM Entertainment in the wake of Wanna One‘s disbandment, with Jisung announcing his solo debut for later this month.
- In other Produce 101/Wanna One-related news, all five members of NU’EST – including Hwang Minhyun – have renewed their contracts with Pledis Entertainment.
- Over the past week, nightclub Burning Sun has had many controversies come to light. There’s a lot of information to sift through, but to paraphrase, there have been allegations of violence, sexual assault, corruption, and drug use. There’s further controversy because Big Bang member Seungri was affiliated with the club; translations list him as an executive director or in-house director related to promotions. He also happened to be at the nightclub hours before one of the incidents occurred, and he recently left his position. The CEOs of the club, Yang Hyun Suk, and Seungri himself have released statements with further information about all of the recent events.
NOTE: All linked articles are from Soompi.
This Week’s Debuts and Comebacks
- CLC, “No” / No. 1
Coming Up Next Week
| Monday (2/4) | Tuesday (2/5) | Wednesday (2/6) | Thursday (2/7) | Friday (2/8) |
| ( | *ONF |
This Week’s Music Show Wins
| The Show (SBS MTV) | ASTRO, “All Night” (1st win EVER) |
| Show Champion (MBC) | SEVENTEEN, “Home” (1st win) |
| M! Countdown (MNET) | SEVENTEEN, “Home” (2nd win) |
| Music Bank (KBS) | SEVENTEEN, “Home” (3rd win) |
| Music Core (MBC) | SEVENTEEN, “Home” (4th win) |
| Inkigayo (SBS) | SEVENTEEN, “Home” (5th win) |
Album Sales, Streaming, and Charting
Gaon Chart
| Physical Sales | Digital Sales | Download | Streaming | Social | |
| 1 | SEVENTEEN You Made My Dawn | MC the Max “After You’ve Gone” | Lee Sora + Suga (BTS) “Song Request” | MC the Max “After You’ve Gone” | SEVENTEEN “Home” |
| 2 | Hwang Chi Yeol The Four Seasons | Chungha “Gotta Go” | SEVENTEEN “Home” | Chungha “Gotta Go” | BTS “DNA” |
| 3 | GFriend Time For Us | Lee Sora + Suga (BTS) “Song Request” | Paul Kim “Green Light” | Paul Kim “Green Light” | BTS “IDOL” |
| 4 | SEVENTEEN You Made My Dawn (Kihno version) | Paul Kim “Green Light” | Hwang Chi Yeol “A Walk to Goodbye” | Ben “180 Degrees” | BTS “Fake Love” |
| 5 | ASTRO All Light | Ben “180 Degrees” | Chungha “Gotta Go” | Haeun “Shin Yong Jae” | GFriend “Sunrise” |
NOTE: Gaon‘s weekly charts reflect the previous week.
The International Side of K-pop
- K-pop in the TOP 10 of Billboard‘s World Album Chart:
- BTS still holds the Top 3 spots with the Love Yourself trilogy: Answer (#1), Her (#2), and Tear (#3)
- #4: SEVENTEEN (You Made My Dawn)
- #5: EXO (Don’t Mess Up My Tempo)
- #7: Ateez (Treasure EP.2: Zero to One)
- #8: BTS (Face Yourself – Japanese album)
- #9: EXO’s Lay (NAMANANA)
- BLACKPINK is headed to Europe on their world tour this May, hitting up Amsterdam, London, Berlin, Paris, and Barcelona.
- Stray Kids is going on their first U.S. World Tour in May, stopping in Newark, Houston, and Los Angeles.
- iKON and Chungha are among the Korean musicians announced to perform at the SXSW Festival.
- Some of the biggest Korean entertainment agencies are branching out into the rest of Asia: JYP Entertainment announced they are collaborating with Sony Music to create an all-Japanese girl group, while SM Entertainment has entered into a partnership with China’s Tencent Music Entertainment Group.
- Wanna One‘s “Energetic” has become the first K-pop boy group debut music video to pass 100 million views on YouTube.
Notable Variety Shows Featuring K-pop Idols
| Idol Room Guest | Weekly Idol Guest | Knowing Brothers /Ask us Anything Guest | |
| This Week | None (unaired footage special) | CLC | Non-idol guests |
| Next Week | No broadcast (Lunar New Year) | GFriend (Sowon, Yerin, Eunha, SinB) and Kim Donghan (Luna New Year Special) | Non-idol guests |
This Past Week
- TUE 1/29 | WINNER Vacation – Hoony Tour | Olleh TV (mobile app) | WINNER’s new travel reality show featuring member Seunghoon guiding the others around Jeju Island.
- THU 1/31 | Super Intern | MNET | A show featuring JYP Entertainment interns working to become full-time employees. TWICE and GOT7 members made appearances on this episode.
Currently Airing
- (G)I-DLE To Neverland (MNET)- travel reality show in San Francisco. Episodes available subbed in English on YouTube.
- GOT7 Real Thai (xTVN) – travel reality show in Thailand. Episodes linked on Omona They Didn’t weekly.
- EXO Travel the Ladder (Season 2/Oksusu) – travel reality show in Taiwan. Episodes linked on Omona They Didn’t weekly.
*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: SEVENTEEN’s Twitter account (@pledis_17) / POST
VIDEO SOURCES: 1theK/Cube Entertainment (CLC)
OTHER SOURCES: YouTube, Wikipedia, Billboard, Gaon Chart, Twitter (YG Entertainment @ygent_official / Stray Kids @Stray_Kids), KBS, MBC, MNET/M2, Oksusu, SBS, SXSW, xTVN
Katherine Does K-POP 