American singer-songwriter Gracie Abrams has joined Weverse, the fan community and online store for a spate of K-pop musicians like BTS, CL and Seventeen, Big Hit Entertainment said Wednesday.   It marks the first case for a musician from outside of South Korea to join the mobile platform, according to Big Hit.   The company said that more musicians from abroad will be joining the platform, such as US singer-songwriter Alexander 23 and British musician Yungblud.  

WASHINGTON/SEOUL -- South Korea's K-pop megastar BTS was nominated for the Grammy Award in best pop duo/group performance, becoming the first South Korean pop artist to be nominated for the US music award. The South Korean boy group was nominated for its latest hit single "Dynamite" in a virtual ceremony streamed live on Tuesday morning (US time). BTS was one of five nominated in the category, which included "Intentions" by Justin Bieber, featuring Quavo, "Rain On Me&q

After a monthlong break, reality show “Fake Men” returned to local streaming platform Kakao TV on Tuesday at noon with its fifth episode, titled “3000 PT gymnastics ... start of a new training process.” The second season of “Fake Men” went on hiatus after some of the instructors came under scrutiny over their past. The program was also criticized for excessive violence and near torture of the participants. The return of the show on local platforms Kakao T

Though more often associated with the names of Romantic composers -- Chopin, Schumann and Schubert, for example -- pianist Sunwoo Yekwon hopes to share the Mozart side of himself through a new album. Concert pianist Sunwoo Yekwon, 31, who rose to global stardom three years ago winning the gold medal at the 15th Van Cliburn International Piano Competition, has released his first studio album under the Decca label. The 19-track album was recorded this summer in Neumarkt, Germany. Simply titl

Director Lee Isaac Chung’s “Minari” won the Audience Award at Denver Film Festival 2020. With films such as “Green Book,” directed by Peter Farrelly, and “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri,” directed by Martin McDonagh, having gone on to Oscar nominations after winning awards at the Denver Film Festival, hopes for “Minari” within the local film industry got a boost with the latest win. The 2021 Academy Awards are scheduled for April

One concertgoer tests positive, 10 people in close proximity test negative

The first Korean sci-fi blockbuster set in space, “Space Sweeper,” will be released exclusively on Netflix. The film was scheduled to open in theaters on Sept. 23, but the release was postponed due to COVID-19, and there are now no immediate plans to show the film in theaters. Set in 2092, “Space Sweepers” by director Jo Sung-hee is about a space cleanup crew trying to sell a weapon of mass destruction: the humanoid Dorothy. With a star-studded cast including Song Joon-

Lotte Concert Hall names Korean Chamber Orchestra, Esme Quartet inaugural in-house artists

K-pop megastar BTS has bagged two prizes at the 2020 American Music Awards (AMA) and put on its first televised performance of "Life Goes On" in a purple-lit stadium. The septet won the favorite duo or group in pop/rock for the second straight year and the favorite social artist for the third year in a row at the 2020 AMA show held at Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles on Sunday night (US time). Other nominees who competed for the favorite duo or group in pop/rock were the Jonas Brothe

K-pop boy band Stray Kids held their first virtual concert “Unlock: Go Live In Life” on Sunday, connecting with global fans online amid the virus outbreak. Streamed through Beyond Live -- a livestreaming platform on Naver invested by the group’s agency JYP Entertainment -- the online concert picked up from the group’s first world tour “District 9: Unlock” which kicked off last November and had to be halted due to the global COVID-19 pandemic. “Althoug

Finding distributors is a challenge for directors; some are taking matters into their own hands

South Korean all-female group BLACKPINK became the first K-pop act to  top 1.4 billion views on YouTube on Monday with its music video for "Ddu-du Ddu-du." The video hit the milestone at around 3:32 a.m., YG Entertainment said, just about a year after it became the first K-pop music video to surpass the 1 billion mark last November. "Ddu-du Ddu-du," the main track of the four-member band's first EP "Square Up," released in 2018, is one of the group's most po

Concert pianist Cho Seung-jin’s recital in Seoul on Saturday will be streamed live to audiences at home for 10,000 won ($8.95). According to Credia, the organizers of the Cho’s month-long nationwide tour across Korea, Saturday’s recital at the Seoul Arts Center will be streamed live via its Naver TV channel. For the access to the streaming, users can donate 10,000 won through the “sponsorship feature” on Naver TV, a streaming platform operated by the local port

K-pop sensation BTS has topped 90 regional iTunes charts with its latest album titled "Be," the band's agency said Saturday. Released the previous day, the band's fifth Korean-language studio album debuted at No. 1 on the iTunes Top Albums charts in 90 countries, including the United States and Britain, according to Bit Hit Entertainment. At the same time, the title track, "Life Goes On," ranked first on the iTunes Top Songs chart in 90 countries. Sales of the eight-track

A wave of hope continues with BTS, as the group returned with a highly-anticipated “BE” album that reaches out to those disheartened amid the pandemic. After dominating the top of the Billboard Hot 100 with its previous single “Dynamite,” the global pop sensation held a live-streamed press conference in Seoul on Friday ahead of the release of the new album. Strict disinfection measures took place at the entrance, while reporters were seated with extra distance. Excitem