The Mnet Asian Music Awards, an annual K-pop awards ceremony, conducted a system check to eliminate fake ballots for its upcoming awards, the organization announced Friday. “We have detected fraudulent votes for 2017 MAMA between Oct. 26 and Nov. 1,” the announcement read. The website undertook a four-hour system check early Friday morning during which time voting was temporarily suspended. “If the ballot rigging continues, the rigging votes will be deleted, their user IPs will be blocked and th

Michelin Guide Seoul announced the recipients of the Seoul Bib Gourmand awards on Wednesday, a week ahead of the official launch of the full guidebook set to be released on Nov. 8. Bib Gourmand highlights restaurants offering “exceptionally good food at moderate prices.” The selected restaurants offer items priced below a specific price range determined by the local economic standards. The maximum price for the Bib Gourmand Seoul edition is 35,000 won ($31).The cover of The Michelin Guide Seoul

KBS’ new idol competition program “The Unit” started its 28-episode run Saturday with a moderate viewership rating, but failed to settle controversies it had already aroused.The first episode kicked off with a viewership rating of 5 percent, while ratings for the second episode rose slightly to 6.2 percent, according to Nielsen Korea.Alternatively dubbed “Idol Rebooting Project,” the idol show brings together singers who have already debuted professionally but failed to gain public recognition t

Historic and contemporary Korean fashion will go on display in San Francisco next month.　“Couture Korea,” running form Nov. 3 to Feb. 4, is presented jointly by Seoul-based Arumjigi Culture Keepers Foundation and the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco. It aims to showcase the artistry of Korean traditional dress and its legacy in contemporary Korean fashion. 　The exhibition seeks to connect the courtly costumes from centuries ago to those on the runways of today’s fashion capitals through more th

It’s that time of the year again when people get excited about their costumes and stores put out the usual pumpkins and skeletons to promote their wares specially prepared for Halloween.Though Halloween is not a holiday traditionally celebrated in Korea, it has now become yet another excuse to party.A scene from the 2016 box office hit “Train to Busan” will come alive at LetsRun Park Seoul in Gwacheon, Gyeonggi Province on Saturday.“Zombie Run Halloween Festival” engages its participants, dubbed

Super Junior’s Choi Si-won will not take part in the group’s fan event in Japan, its official Japanese fan club E.L.F. Japan announced Monday. According to the announcement, Choi will not attend “E.L.F-Japan Festival 2017 -- Super Sports Day” event which is scheduled to be held today and tomorrow at Yokohama Arena in Yokohama, Japan.The announcement did not give a reason for his absence. “We are very sorry for the fans who have been looking forward to the event. We ask for your kind understandin

Hip-hop trio Epik High is sweeping music charts at home and overseas with its long-awaited ninth full-length album “We’ve Done Something Wonderful.”Since their release on Monday evening, the album’s two lead tracks “Home is Far Away” and “Love Story,” each featuring singer Oh Hyuk and IU, quickly cruised to the top of seven local music charts including Melon and Naver Music. Other tracks from the album -- which feature star-studded artists such as Crush, Suhyun of AKMU, Kim Jong-wan of Nell, Son

EXO will hold its fourth solo concert “EXO Planet #4 -- The ElyXiOn” from Nov. 24-26 at Gocheok Sky Dome, Seoul, its agency S.M. Entertainment said Thursday. It is the group’s first concert at the venue in two years since it held “2015 EXO-Love Concert in Dome” in October 2015.Gocheok Sky Dome, the first domed baseball stadium here, accommodates more than 22,000 spectators. EXO was the first-ever act to hold a concert at the site and will again be the first to hold a second concert.  A promotion

“It’s me who will steal your heart,” sang the 101 contenders of the second season of Mnet’s idol competition show “Produce 101.” And steal hearts they did, as Wanna One, the project group formed with the 11 finalists, has since become one of the hottest K-pop acts of 2017.The viewers, or so-called “national producers,” voted for their favorite trainees to release “hidden” photos of them, to perform specific songs for the competition and to get a spot in the finalist group. The “producers” even g

“Oh! Dear Goddesses of Basement,” an upcoming digital drama from Studio OnStyle, seeks to enlist sympathy from today’s young women in Korea. Studio OnStyle, the digital contents division of CJ E&M’s cable channel OnStyle, unveiled its first-ever digital drama series in a news conference Wednesday that was attended by actresses Ha Yeon-soo and Cha Jung-won, Sojin of girl group Girls’ Day, Na Hae-ryung formerly of girl group EXID and actor Park Sung-woo. Lee Lang, the producer and screenwriter of

The digital beauty and fashion magazine 0/1 Creative Book released Monday its new photo series “The Power of Korea’s Special Colors” themed on blue and red threads. Blue and red are considered to be the most Korean colors and they are embedded in Korean people’s lives and culture. The photos depicted the charm of Korea with threads that represent the two colors. The photos are part of the magazine’s long-term project themed “A Splash of Old and New,” which aims to reinterpret and recreate the un

BTS will release a new Japanese single by the end of the year, the group announced during its show in Japan on Saturday. The group greeted some 80,000 fans at Kyocera Dome in Osaka on its “2017 BTS Live Trilogy Episode III The Wings Tour in Japan -- Special Edition” concerts over the weekend. During the show on Saturday, the K-pop sensation thrilled its fans by revealing that it will release its eighth Japanese single album on Dec. 6. The new album will include the Japanese version of its hit tr

Michelin Guide Seoul will organize a gourmet fair in Seoul from Oct. 28-29, gathering together the restaurants introduced on last year’s Seoul edition of the gastronomical guide. The three-starred La Yeon of The Shilla Seoul Hotel will participate in the fair alongside 18 other restaurants, including French restaurant L’amitie, modern Italian restaurant Ristorante Eo, modern Korean restaurant Mingles, and Chef Tony Yoo -- formerly of one-starred modern Korean restaurant Twenty Four Seasons.The f

Park Jin-young, better known as JYP, will embark on a new “Naughty Party” concert tour titled “Blue & Red” in December and release two songs for the concerts, the singer announced on his Instagram Thursday. The artist also said that he will release two new songs -- a ballad and a dance song -- for the tour. The ballad song, which represents the “Blue,” will be released on Monday while the dance song, which represents the “Red,” will be released in the first week of December.  A promotional poste

Artists under H1GHR Music Records, a global hip-hop label led by Jay Park and Cha Cha Malone, will have its solo showcase at the next South by Southwest festival.Jay Park was among the first round of Showcasing Artists announced on the website of the Austin, Texas-based festival. Alongside Park on the list were other artists from the label -- Sik-K, pH-1, Woodie Go Child, Phe Reds, Avatar Darko, Yultron, Raz Simone, Jarv Dee and JP the Wavy .  A promotional image for H1GHR Music Records’ showcas

BTS keeps on with its chart-slaying streak as it has stayed on Billboard magazine’s Hot 100 chart and Billboard 200 chart for three consecutive weeks.On the week of Oct. 21, the band’s latest album “Love Yourself Seung Her” secured the No. 35 spot on the “Billboard 200” chart while its lead track “DNA” remained on the No. 87 spot on “The Hot 100” chart. It is the first time a Korean artist has stayed on the American music publication’s two main charts for three weeks. (Big Hit Entertainment)“It

BTS will wrap up the promotion of its latest album “Love Yourself Seung Her” with a special music show, “BTS Countdown.”Following the format of Mnet’s weekly live music show “M Countdown,” the boy band will introduce the rankings of the 40 tracks it has released so far, which were decided by fan voting. The septet will be divided into two groups to decide on fans’ favorite track, with the competition coming down to “Dope” from the band’s 2015 album “The Most Beautiful Moment in Life, Part 1” and

Five-piece boy band Highlight will release a mini album to celebrate its eighth anniversary.The group’s agency Around Us Entertainment announced Wednesday the release of the new EP “Celebrate” on the band’s official website. A teaser image features the hand-written title “Celebrate” alongside the members wearing black suits. According to the agency, the title reflected Highlight’s hopes to ease the regret that the group could not be with fans on its anniversary last year. A teaser image for High

Park Ye-eun, known by her stage name Ha:tfelt, will release a new single in mid-October, her agency Amoeba Culture said Tuesday. The upcoming track will mark the singer’s first release since she signed with Amoeba culture in April after the disbandment of Wonder Girls in January. For the new release she will use the stage name Ha:tfelt, which she had used when she released solo tracks with her previous agency JYP Entertainment.  Ha:tfelt (Amoeba Culture)Park debuted with Wonder Girls in 2007 wit

BTS’ music video for “DNA” has surpassed 50 million views on YouTube in less than a week. Released on Sept. 18 at 6 p.m., the video soon became the fastest K-pop music video to reach 20 million views on the video streaming platform. As of 12:40 p.m. Sunday, the video had reached 50 million views. A screen grab from BTS’ music video for “DNA” (YouTube)“DNA,” the lead track of the band’s latest EP “Love Yourself Seung Her,” took the 90th spot on the British Official Singles Chart on Saturday, maki