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
- Apink’s Naeun will not be participating in promotions for the group’s upcoming comeback due to scheduling conflicts, though she will appear in the album jacket photos and the music video. You can read a translation of IST Entertainment’s statement about it here.
- Oh My Girl’s Binnie has decided to change her stage name to Yoobin to match her real name.
- EXO’s Chen and his wife have welcomed their second child.
- ATEEZ’s Yeosang will be continuing as an MC for The Show along with CRAVITY’s Minhee and Kep1er’s Chaehyun, who were announced as the new hosts last week. (It was previously announced that Yeosang would be stepping down as an MC.)
- Super Junior’s Eunhyuk has tested positive for COVID-19. You can read a translation of Label SJ’s statement about it here.
- Three members of iKON – Jinhwan, Yunhyeong, and Donghyuk – have also tested positive for COVID-19. You can read a translation of YG Entertainment’s statement about it here.
Seoul Music Awards
The Seoul Music Awards took place on January 23rd at Gocheok Sky Dome, with NCT 127 winning their first ever Daesang awards. I’ve listed the K-pop related awards below, but you can look at the full list here.
- Daesang (Grand Prize): NCT 127
- Best Album: NCT Dream (for Hot Sauce)
- Best Song: IU (for “Lilac”)
- Bonsang: IU, BTS, Heize, Oh My Girl, SEVENTEEN, Brave Girls, NCT 127, Im Young Woong, The Boyz, ATEEZ, Kang Daniel, aespa, ENHYPEN
- World Best Artist Award: BTS
- Rookie of the Year: Lee Mujin, EPEX, Omega X
- Best Performance Award: STAYC and ENHYPEN
- Ballad Award: Wendy (Red Velvet)
- R&B/Hip Hop Award: HyunA
- K-Wave Popularity Award (outside Korea): EXO
- U+ Idol Live Best Artist Award: BTS
This Week’s Debuts and Comebacks
(Please note that I won’t necessarily link every release that came out this week – just the ones that I’m aware of or popped up on my radar. The same is true of the “Coming Up Next Week” category.)
JinJin & Rocky (ASTRO), “Just Breathe” (1/17)
AB6IX, “1, 2, 3” (1/17)
Choi Yena feat. Bibi, “Smiley” (*solo debut*, 1/17)
Yuju, “Play” (*solo debut* 1/18)
Moonbyul (MAMAMOO), “Lunatic” (1/19)
Mark Tuan (GOT7), “My Life” (special single, 1/21)
fromis_9, “DM” (1/17)
Drippin, “Villain” (1/17)
BamBam (GOT7), “Slow Mo” (1/18)
Victon, “Chronograph” (1/18)
Taeyeon, “Can’t Control Myself” (pre-release, 1/17)
Coming Up Next Week
| Monday (1/24) | Tuesday (1/25) | Wednesday (1/26) | Thursday (1/27) | Friday (1/28) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pentagon | Kyuhyun (Super Junior) | Jay B (GOT7) | ||
| NATURE |
This Week’s Music Show Wins
| The Show (SBS MTV) | No broadcast/winner announced |
| Show Champion (MBC) | ENHYPEN, “Blessed-Cursed” (1st win) |
| M! Countdown (MNET) | Kep1er, “Wa Da Da” (3rd win) |
| Music Bank (KBS) | ENHYPEN, “Blessed-Cursed” (2nd win) |
| Music Core (MBC) | IVE, “Eleven” (10th win) |
| Inkigayo (SBS) | IVE, “Eleven” (11th win) |
Album Sales, Streaming, and Charting
Gaon Chart
NOTE: Gaon‘s weekly charts reflect the previous week. To see a full breakdown of the chart, you can go here.
| #1 | #2 | #3 | #4 | #5 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Album Sales | ENHYPEN, DIMENSION: ANSWER | SMTOWN, 2021 Winter SMTOWN : SMCU EXPRESS | Kim Yohan (WEi), Ilusion | MIRAE, Marvelous | OnlyOneOf, Instinct Pt. 2 |
| Overall Digital | Kim Min Seok (Melomance), “Drunken Confession” | “Merry-Go-Round,” Show Me The Money 10* | BE’O feat. Beenzino, “Counting Stars” | IVE, “ELEVEN” | “Limousine,” Show Me the Money 10** |
| Streaming | “Merry-Go-Round,” Show Me The Money 10 | Kim Min Seok (Melomance), “Drunken Confession” | BE’O feat. Beenzino, “Counting Stars” | “Limousine,” Show Me the Money 10** | IVE, “ELEVEN” |
| Downloads | ENHYPEN, “Blessed-Cursed” | Lee Seung Yoon, “The Giving Tree” (OST) | Kim Min Seok (Melomance), “Drunken Confession” | IU, “Winter Sleep” | V (BTS), “Christmas Tree” (OST) |
| Social | BTS | BLACKPINK | Lisa | Im Young Woong | Kim Ho Joong |
*“Merry-Go-Round” is by sokodomo feat. Zion.T and Wonstein, and is produced by Slom.
**”Limousine” is by BE’O feat. Song Mino, and is produced by Gray.
The International Side of K-pop
- K-pop on various Billboard charts this week:
- NCT’s Universe ranked #133 on the Billboard 200 in its fourth week, and also placed #1 on the World Album Sales chart for the fourth week in a row.
- NCT 127’s Sticker ranked #196 on the Billboard 200 in its seventeenth week, continuing its record as the longest-charting 2021 K-pop album.
- Coldplay and BTS’s “My Universe” ranked #94 on the “Hot 100” in its sixteenth week.
- Monsta X has rescheduled their United States tour to this May and June due to concerns over the COVID-19 pandemic. You can read more information about the changes here.
- The following K-pop music videos reached new viewer milestones on YouTube this week:
- BTS’s “DNA” is their second music video to reach 1.4 billion views after “Boy With Luv.”
- BOL4’s “Some” is their first ever music video to reach 100 million views.
Notable Variety Shows Featuring K-pop Idols
| Weekly Idol | Knowing Brothers | Amazing Saturday | |
|---|---|---|---|
| This Week | P1Harmony | Non-idol guests | DinDin and Mijoo |
| Next Week | fromis_9 | Lunar New Year Special: Jun K and Wooyoung (2PM), Minhyuk and Jooheon (Monsta X), Moonbin and Sanha (ASTRO), Q and Juyeon (The Boyz) | Non-idol guests |
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), The Seoul Story (Twitter @theseoulstory), and Girl Group Zone! (Twitter @girlgroupzone)
FEATURED IMAGE SOURCE: Brand New Entertainment (AB6IX)
VIDEO SOURCES: YouTube, ABYSS Company (BamBam), Brand New Entertainment (AB6IX), Fantagio Entertainment (ASTRO JinJin & Rocky), IST Entertainment (Victon), Konnect Entertainment (Yuju), Mark Tuan’s YouTube channel, Pledis Entertainment (fromis_9)*, RBW Entertainment (Moonbyul) SM Entertainment (Taeyeon) Woollim Entertainment (Drippin), Yuehua Entertainment (Choi Yena)**
*”DM” music video distributed by HYBE Labels.
**”Smiley” music video distributed by Stone Music Entertainment.
OTHER SOURCES: Wikipedia, Billboard, Gaon Chart, KBS, MBC, MNET, SBS
Katherine Does K-POP 