Taemin, a member of K-pop boy band SHINee, will join the military next month to fulfill his mandatory service, his agency said Tuesday. The 27-year-old singer is set to enlist on May 31, according to SM Entertainment. The agency did not elaborate further on the venue and schedule of the enlistment, citing Taemin's wish to enlist in a quiet manner. The SHINee member applied for a position in the Army's military band and has recently been accepted, the agency added. Taemin separately made the

NU’EST discussed the group’s second studio album “Romanticize” at a showcase held in Seoul on Monday.   　 It has been a year since the eighth EP “The Nocturne” and almost seven years since first LP “Re:Birth,” and the bandmates admitted that they are stirred up.   　 “My heart has been all pit-a-pat and wouldn’t stop trembling throughout the preparation,” confided JR. Since they put so much time and effort into making

Lisa of girl group Blackpink is likely to make her solo debut in June. Rumors have been circulating for months that Lisa will be dropping her first solo album this year, and according to industry sources on Monday, the date has been set for June. An official from the group’s label YG Entertainment told the Korea Herald by phone that “Lisa is still working hard (on the album)” but declined to confirm the release date, stating schedules will be announced through an official no

In the pandemic era, the mandatory two-week quarantine remains a great obstacle for the performing arts scene. Acclaimed conductor and pianist Daniel Barenboim was slated to hold a recital at the Seoul Arts Center on May 19 to mark the release of his Deutsche Grammophon Beethoven piano sonata album. It was to have been his first piano recital in South Korea. But production agency Inarts Production announced Friday that the recital was canceled as Barenboim was not granted exemption from the

Rising pop star Jeremy Zucker became the fourth foreign label artist to join Weverse, the fan community platform run by Hybe, on Monday. Zucker gained worldwide fame in 2018 with his song “comethru.” Thereafter, acoustic melodies and honest lyrics in his collaborations with American singer-songwriter Chelsea Cutler that included “You were Good to Me,” “All the Kids are Depressed,” “Always, I’ll Care,“ among others, helped him build up a sol

Baekhyun, a member of K-pop boy band EXO, now has two million-selling solo titles under his belt, his agency said Monday. The singer's third EP, titled "Bambi," sold a total of 1 million copies as of Sunday, 20 days after its release on March 30, according to SM Entertainment. It is his second million-seller album following the previous solo track "Delight" in 2020. Baekhyun has already become the first Korean singer to earn the "million seller" title through bot

The homegrown blockbuster "Seobok" topped the South Korean box office over the weekend upon its release, data showed Monday. Released Thursday, "Seobok" garnered 163,000 viewers from Friday to Sunday to rank No. 1, according to the data compiled by the Korean Film Council (KOFIC). As of Sunday, over 210,000 people in total visited theaters to watch the sci-fi film, directed by Lee Yong-joo and starring two of the country's heartthrobs -- Gong Yoo and Park Bo-gum. The movie

The number of peak simultaneous viewers of the latest online concert streaming event by K-pop group BTS surpassed 2.7 million, the boy band's agency said Sunday. The milestone figure was announced by Big Hit Music one day after "Bang Bang Con 21" -- comprised of some eight hours of back-to-back streaming of past BTS concerts and fan events -- was made available for free on the band's official YouTube channel on Saturday. According to Big Hit, the event also generated enormous buzz on

Singer-songwriter Cheeze dropped her latest single “LOSER” on Friday, through which she sings of facing her true self. Since releasing her EP “I can‘t tell you everything” nearly a year ago, Cheeze has found herself walking a path that’s different than any she had before, and with “LOSER” she shares that story. “I have a very whimsical personality, so I often have big mood swings. I sometimes feel like I’m a loser, and at other time

Enhypen will release its second EP, “Border: Carnival,” April 26, said agency Belief Lab on Friday. 　 It has been five months since the boy band came out with debut album “Border: Day One,” and the new EP has already sold over 400,000 units in the five days since preorders started. 　 The EP consists of six tracks that deal with the bandmates’ feelings about the unfamiliar and dazzling world they faced after their debut. “Drunk-Dazed” is a pop rock numb

Pianist Cho Seong-jin released a new album “Im Abendrot” -- meaning “at sunset” -- on Friday with German baritone Matthias Goerne, according to Universal Music‘s classical music label Deutsche Grammophon. The new album contains songs composed by three German composers of the Romantic era --Wilhelm Richard Wagner (1813-1883), Hans Erich Pfitzner (1869-1949), and Richard Strauss (1864-1949). “It’s almost impossible to describe the experience of explor

The South Korean box office jumped nearly 78 percent in March from a year earlier on the back of the strong performance of Oscar-nominated "Minari," data showed Friday. The number of moviegoers reached 3.26 million last month, up 77.5 percent from 1.83 million tallied in the same month last year, when the COVID-19 pandemic hit the film industry at its early stage, according to the data compiled by the Korean Film Council (KOFIC). From a month earlier, the March figure gained 4.7 perc

Seobok (Korea) Opened April 15 Science fiction Directed by Lee Yong-joo Ki-hun (Gong Yoo) is a former intelligence agent. One day, he receives his last mission from the director of the intelligence agency (Cho Woo-jin), to move Seo-bok (Park Bo-gum) -- the first-ever human clone, who possesses the secret to eternal life -- to a safe location. Seo-bok has never known life outside of the laboratory and was raised by Lim Se-eun (Jang Young-nam). Nobody (US) Opened April 7 Comedy Directed by Ilya

Yoon Jisung talked about how happy he was to be back with his fans at an online media showcase for his second EP, “Temperature of Love,” Thursday. 　 “My heart was aflutter working on the music,” he confided. “I wanted to come out with good songs for my fans, especially since it has been 2 1/2 years.” Throughout it all, he was eager to share his music. 　 “Recording was harder than I thought. It had been a while since I’d sung and it felt awkward ge

Many local movies since last year have decided to skip theaters to release on Netflix due to the spread of COVID-19, which has kept moviegoers away from theaters. “Night in Paradise”also took this path, being released in 190 countries through Netflix on April 9. Five days after its release, lead actor Eom Tae-goo said he is curious about the response from global viewers, during a joint media interview held via Zoom on Wednesday. “To me, it is amazing that the movie is bein