The Mnet Asian Music Awards, or MAMA, the biggest annual music awards ceremony in the K-pop industry, will be held in Japan this year. The show‘s organizer CJ ENM has rebranded it as the “MAMA AWARDS.” The newly named event will take place at Kyocera Dome Osaka in Japan over two days, starting Nov. 29. The event will also be streamed live through global platforms, including YouTube, according to CJ ENM, on Wednesday. Japan has been the world’s second-largest music marke

“Cookies I made. It’s so soft (what?) I keep thinking of you (ayy)”; “If you want it, you can get it”; “(Keep) looking at my cookie. The scent is different (taste it), one bite is not enough (uh)”; “Take it, don’t break it, I wanna see you taste it.” These are few lines from girl group NewJeans’ debut lead single “Cookie,” which, according to the group’s agency Ador, is a song for fans “made with a sincer

Actor shares mixed bag of emotions on possible season 2

After seeing phenomenal success with last year’s “Street Woman Fighter,” South Korean cable channel Mnet has returned with another dance competition program featuring one of the most talented male dancers in the country. Dubbed “Street Man Fighter,” the program will feature eight top-tier dance crews spanning a wide-range of dance genres such as hip-hop, krump and choreography. The teams will pit against one another through missions and battles to win the title of

After two pandemic-ridden years of online and scaled-back performances, the country‘s biggest jazz festival is set to return in October. The three-day Jarasum Jazz Festival will kick off on Oct. 1 on Jara Island, Gyeonggi Province, with 19 international performers and 13 Korean acts participating in the jazz-filled program. The 19th edition of the festival will open with singer Kim Hyun-chul, four-member keyboard band Hardpiano, jazz trio Winter To Spring and newcomers jazz vocalist Cho

Blackpink broke its own record with the music video for “Pink Venom” on YouTube, according to the platform’s official tally. 　 The video logged 90.4 million views in 24 hours when it was unveiled on Friday, surpassing the record it set with the music video for “How You Like That” that amassed 86.3 million views. This is a record for a music video from a female artist, and the third-highest in the world. 　 The video for the pre-release from its upcoming second stu

Movie star Yoo Ah-in is returning with Netflix’s “Seoul Vibe,” a film full of old hip-hop music and retro-inspired fashion. Directed by Moon Hyun-sung, “Seoul Vibe” revolves around talented driver Dong-wook (Yoo) who forms a team with his hipster friends to investigate the slush fund of a former president during the 1988 Seoul Olympics. The film includes car chase scenes in Seoul as well as old-school hip-hop and Korean pop music. “It is a fun and brainless

Boy band CIX has rounded out the summer by finally deciphering the code to its “OK” series. The quintet dropped its 5th EP “OK’ Episode 1: OK Not” on Monday evening. This marks the boy band’s first return to the local music world since the release of its first LP “‘Ok’ Prologue: Be OK” in August 2021. “We’ve poured all we got into this project because it’s been a year since we last released an album. From settling

   　 Blackpink’s single “Pink Venom” topped Spotify’s global top 50 chart upon release and maintained the spot on the following day, a first for a K-pop artist, according to YG Entertainment. 　 It was streamed over 7.93 million times on the first day on the platform. 　 “How You Like That,” the main track from the band’s first studio album, “The Album,” charted at No. 2 in 2020. 　 “Pink Venom” is a prerelease from

Pianist Paik Kun-woo, who is known for focusing on one composer at a time, is set to bring the music of Spanish composer Enrique Granados to the stage. In an Oct. 8 recital at Seoul Arts Center, Paik will perform works by Granados, a composer who is not well-known in Korea. They include “Goyescas, Op. 11,” “Los Requiebros,” “Coloquio en la Reja,” “El Fandango de Candil,” “Quejas, o la Maja y el Ruisenor,” “El Amor y la Muerte:

Korean films, dramas often employ overly emotional scenes, plots, which do not always work

In a tumultuous industry where careers are short-lived, K-pop idols are finding new paths in musical theatre

Local OTT platform operator Coupang Play on Monday denied apologizing to “Anna” director Lee Joo-young for editing her eight-episode drama series into a six-part series without her consent. 　“On Aug. 21, Song Young-hoon, a lawyer at Siwoo, the legal representative of Lee, released press material saying ‘Coupang Play apologized for the controversy in the editing process.’ This is not true. When we approached the lawyers about this, Jo Gwang-hee, another legal repr

K-pop girl group Blackpink is continuing a winning streak with its latest single “Pink Venom,” setting multiple records upon returning to the music scene after a 22-month hiatus. The quartet made a comeback on Friday with the first release from its upcoming second full-length album “Born Pink,” set to be released on Sept. 16. It marked the band‘s first full-group release since its first studio album titled “The Album” in October 2020. Upon release, th

Rookie girl group, NMixx of JYP Entertainment, is making is set to return next month. JYP Entertainment on Monday said through a statement that NMixx will return for the first time in seven months with its second single, “Entwurf,” on Sept. 19. Official promotion for the return kicked off earlier that day when the group tweeted the name of the track. A few minutes after the release of the poster, the band retweeted a post from a suspicious-seeming account, warning fans not to follo