BTS again proved its popularity in Japan, with its eighth Japanese single “Mic Drop/ DNA/ Crystal Snow” notching the No. 1 spot on Oricon’s daily singles chart. The album, released on Wednesday, landed the top spot with a total of 269,861 Oricon points on the first day of release, making this the fifth time the group has shot to the top of the Japanese charts.  “Drop/ DNA/ Crystal Snow” (Big Hit Entertainment)BTS first topped the Oricon charts in June 2015 with its fourth Japanese single “For Yo

Korean-American singer John Park will make a guest appearance on JTBC’s political news show “Politics Desk Meeting" on Wednesday. It will mark the second celebrity appearance on the show following singer Kim Jang-hoon’s appearance in January. “We invited John Park as his ‘Smile’ conveys the message of healing that no matter how hard it gets, there will be days when you can smile,” the show’s production team said referring to the singer’s latest single “Smile” released on Tuesday.  John Park (Mus

HONG KONG -- K-pop group EXO expressed its gratitude to fans after winning the album of the year award at the 2017 Mnet Asian Music Awards at Asia-World Expo in Hong Kong on Friday. It was the fifth consecutive year that the group had received the grand prize, or Daesang, at the annual awards. EXO also won the Mwave global fans’ choice award at this year’s event. Its member Chen’s collaboration track with Dynamic Duo, “Nosedive,” won the best collaboration award, while the group’s subunit EXO-CB

한류그룹 EXO가 감사의 마음을 공개석상에서 전했다. 　지난 1일 홍콩 아시아-월드 엑스포에서 열린 2017 Mnet Asian Music Awards in Hong Kong (이하 MAMA)이 올해의 앨범상으로 EXO 정규 4집 ‘더 워(The war)’를 선정했다. 이는 대상에 해당한다. 　5년 연속 MAMA 대상 수상 기록을 세운 것이다. 　이날 시상식 직후 열린 기자회견에서 수호는 “많은 분에게 감사하다. 특히 우리 EXO 팬 여러분이 이 상을 준 게 아닌가 싶다”며 수상소감을 밝혔다.수호는 또 “이 영광을 꼭 팬들과 함께하고 싶다”며 “보답하기 위해 항상 좋은 무대와 좋은 음악 준비하겠다”고 말했다. 　(Mnet)카이는 “오늘 대상도 받고 여러가지 상을 받았는데 여러분이 준 상이라 생각한다. 앞으로도 겸손하고 멋진 무대 선보일 수 있도록 노력하는 EXO가 되겠다”고 말했다.카이는 이어 “EXO-L 여러분 정말 멋지다고 말하고 싶다”며 영예를 팬들 덕으로 돌렸다.이날 무대공연

K-pop girl group GFriend will hold its first individual concert ever in January, its management agency said Tuesday. The “Season of GFriend” concert will take place at the Olympic Hall inside the Olympic Park in southeastern Seoul on Jan. 6-7, 2018. The concert, named after the group’s debut album “Season of Glass,” consists of five seasons: the four seasons which represented the group’s various music and a special season which features the GFriend members’ individual performances.  A teaser pos

K-pop boy bands Wanna One and Seventeen took home trophies at the 2017 Mnet Asian Music Awards at Hoa Binh Theater in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, on Saturday. At the event, Wanna One won the Best of Next award, while Seventeen won the Worldwide Favorite Artist award. Wanna One receives the Best of Next award at the 2017 Mnet Asian Music Awards at Hoa Binh Theater in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, Saturday. (CJ E&M)“It is an honor to be invited to MAMA alongside these great Asian artists. Thank you Mn

Lee Jae-jin of boy band FT Island will return to the small screen with MBC every1’s upcoming drama “Four Types of Houses” (literal translation). The four-episode drama will tell the story of people accustomed to being alone. They end up sharing their feelings with one another and finding true love while living in a share house.Lee will play the male lead role of Sun-min, the owner of the share house who is an ex-idol group member.  Lee Jae-jin of FT Island (FNC Entertainment)Lee debuted as an ac

It has become uncertain whether the highly anticipated annual year-end awards ceremonies from two of Korea’s biggest TV networks, KBS and MBC, will take place, due to their respective long strikes. MBC, which recently ended a two-month strike, told The Korea Herald on Monday, “As the company is still under the normalization process, we are discussing whether to hold the year-end awards ceremonies.” The broadcaster, however, will still hold its traditional year-end music show “MBC Gayo Daejejeon”

Actor Song Joong-ki will host this year’s Mnet Asian Music Awards in Hong Kong, while Park Bo-gum will host the show in Japan. “MAMA Week,” the largest-scale MAMA event, will kick off at Hoa Binh Theater in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, on Nov. 25, then head to Yokohama Arena, Japan, on Nov. 29, and finally to Hong Kong for two events -- at W Hotel Hong Kong on Nov. 30 and at AsiaWorld-Expo on Dec. 1. Song Joong-ki (left) and Park Bo-gum (Blossom Entertainment/ Yonhap)By expanding the awards ceremo

K-pop boy band BTS attended the American Music Awards held at Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles on Sunday night, or 8 a.m. Monday in Korean time. Ahead of the group’s performance, the boy band appeared on the red carpet and greeted fans who gathered for a glance of their favorite stars. (Yonhap)This marks the first time a K-pop group has been invited to the music event. BTS is the only Asian musical act invited this year to the AMAs. The awards show is to be broadcast live by Mnet at 10 a.m. Mond

Suho of EXO will play the lead role in a remake of the 2012 Japanese drama “Rich Man, Poor Woman,” his agency S.M. Entertainment said Friday. It will mark the singer-actor’s return to the small screen in 10 months since he appeared on the MBC drama “The Universe’s Star” in January. Starring Shun Oguri and Satomi Ishihara, the original Japanese drama tells the love story of a young IT entrepreneur and a college girl who has trouble finding a job though she went to the prestigious Tokyo University

K-pop boy band EXO and actress Kim Hee-sun scooped up the grand prizes for best singer and best actor, respectively, at the 2017 Asia Artist Awards on Wednesday at Jamsil Gymnasium in Seoul. EXO took home four trophies at this year’s AAA. In addition to winning the grand prize for the second consecutive year, the group also received the Fabulous Award and Popular Award. Its member D.O., also known as Do Kyung-soo, won the Popular Award as an actor.  K-pop boy band EXO poses during a red carpet e

Top star couple Lee Min-ho and Suzy have broken up after being together for about three years.JYP Entertainment, which represents Suzy, confirmed a media report of their recent breakup. The agency, however, declined to reveal the details of the breakup citing privacy issues. Lee’s agency MYM Entertainment also confirmed the breakup.  (Herald DB)Suzy and Lee went public with their relationship in March 2015 after photos of the two spending time in London together surfaced. Rumors about a breakup

K-pop group Twice will appear on Japanese broadcaster NHK’s annual “Year-end Song Festival,” also known as “Kohaku Uta Gassen.”Japanese media outlets including Nikkan Sports reported Wednesday that the K-pop group had decided to appear on “Kohaku” and NHK would make an official announcement Thursday. It will mark the first appearance of a K-pop group on the Japanese year-end show in six years. In 2011, Kara, Girls’ Generation and TVXQ were featured in the special.  K-pop group Twice (JYP Enterta

Korean fans will get to see BTS’ US debut performance live at the 45th edition of the American Music Awards. Cable channel Mnet will broadcast the AMA show scheduled to take place at Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles at 10 a.m. Monday (Korea Standard Time). It marks the first time a Korean broadcaster is carrying the show live.  Logo for American Music AwardsMnet has been broadcasting the Grammy Awards live for 17 years.Pop music critic Lim Jin-mo, who has hosted the broadcaster’s live broadcast

Korean artist Kim Hun-kyu won this year’s Chadwell Award in early October.The Chadwell Award, established by Andrew Post and Mary Aylmer in 2010, names an artist every year among the recent fine art master‘s degree graduates from Royal College of Art, Royal Academy Schools or Slade School of Fine Art.  “Don‘t Be Afraid My Love,” by Kim Hun-kyuKim, known for his use of traditional Korean painting techniques, is currently an instructor at Kyung Hee University in Seoul. He has previously lectured a

The 2017 Asia Artist Awards will be held Wednesday at 6 p.m. Jamsil Gymnasium in Seoul. The awards ceremony honors the outstanding achievements and international contributions of Asian artists in film, television and music. The event will showcase some of the biggest names in K-pop, including EXO, Wanna One, Super Junior, Yoona of Girls’ Generation, VIXX, Mamamoo, Seventeen and Monsta X. Other singers performing at the award show include Zico of Block B, Hwang Chi-yeul, Ailee, Apink, Crush, NU’E

K-pop boy band Super Junior will hold its signature concert series “Super Show 7” on Dec. 16 and 17 at Jamsil Gymnasium in Seoul.It will be the group’s first concert in two years and five months since it wrapped up the encore concerts for “Super Junior World Tour Super Show 6” in July 2015. The members of the K-pop group also participated in the concert planning, the group’s agency S.M. Entertainment said. Ticket sales for the December concerts will open at 8 p.m. on Nov. 21 at ticket.yes24.com.

Tablo promised to unveil an English song by Epik High if the group hits 1 million monthly listeners on Spotify. On Monday, the singer posted on Instagram Stories a screenshot of the group’s page on the music streaming website, highlighting its number of monthly listeners: 490,093. “When we hit 1M monthly listeners on Spotify, we’ll leak an unreleased English song on our soundcloud,” read his comment on the image.  A screengrab of Tablo’s post on Instagram StoriesThe hip-hop trio released their n

　래퍼 타블로가 스포티파이 청취자수와 관련해 팬들 앞에 공약을 내걸었다. 　　타블로는 6일 SNS에 에픽하이의 월단위 청취자수 추이를 보여주는 스포티파이 화면 갈무리를 공유했다. 그는 이어 “스포티파이에서 월별(월간) 청취자수 1백만이 넘을 경우 영문 미공개곡을 사운드 클라우드에 공개하겠다”고 밝혔다. 　(타블로 SNS 화면 갈무리)　화면 갈무리에 따르면 현재 에픽하이의 최근 한 달치 청취자수는 49만여 명에 달한 상태다. 　　이 그룹은 최근 3년만의 신보 ‘We‘ve Done Something Wonderful’을 내고 지난 4-5일 컴백 콘서트를 가졌다.　　코리아헤럴드 김소연 인턴기자 (syk19372@heraldcorp.com)