Round 2020, a music festival held by Korea and 10 ASEAN countries, on Tuesday announced additional artists who will be performing at the Dec. 6 show. Four additional Korean solo artists -- Sunwoojunga, Bol4, George and Elaine-- were announced Tuesday. Nine-member folk-pop band Ben &Ben of the Philippines, which was recently nominated for the 2020 MTV Europe Music Awards, will also join the virtual festival, as well as Cambodian band SmallWorld SmallBand and Brunei singer Dinshe. This yea

The eight-piece girl group taks trip down memory lane of their four-year career

K-pop superstar BTS has hit the top 10 on a Billboard radio airplay chart for the first time with its mega-hit single "Dynamite." The septet's first English song rose two notches to place ninth for this week on the Pop Songs radio chart to be updated on Tuesday, according to Billboard on Monday (US local time). The chart is one of the radio airplay charts of Billboard, measuring total weekly plays of the top 40 songs on some 160 mainstream radio stations. It is the highest ranking o

Local OTT platform Watcha is holding an online film festival Nov. 1-25 that will showcase the works of the Korean Academy of Film Arts’ graduating class. “Eye Contact,” co-hosted by the platform and the school, will consist of 24 short films created by the KAFA’s 36th batch of graduates. The movies will include “Doong-ji,” Jo Kyoung-won’s film about a teenage girl who wants to avoid bringing friends home to work on a school project; “Help Me!&rd

The English version of the “Baby Shark Dance” video became the most viewed video on YouTube, with more than 7.03 billion views as of 1:20 p.m. on Monday. The video overtook Puerto Rican singer Luis Fonsi’s “Despacito” on YouTube and is now the first children’s content ever to become the most viewed video on YouTube. Released in 2015, the song featured in the video is a remake of an American folk song. The video was recorded by Pinkfong, a content creator un

Under the new five-tier social distancing system announced by the authorities on Sunday, performing arts theaters and cinemas will not be required to leave an empty seat between every audience member when Level 1 social distancing is in effect. 　 When South Korea eased the social distancing scheme to the lowest level of the three-tier system on Oct 12, major performing arts theaters and cinemas, both public and private, continued to leave an empty seat between every audience member in concern

Famous TV screenwriters have been returning to small screens with sensational melodramas that have stirred up controversy over their provocative storylines but guarantee high viewership ratings. As viewers increasingly prefer binge-watching streaming services like Netflix, only a few of the new TV series have been successful this year. Local television channels, terrestrial and cable alike, are now pinning their hopes on masters of typical Korean hit melodramas -- Kim Soon-ok, Im Sung-han and M

The worldwide hit drama “Jewel in the Palace” will be now be available in high definition, using artificial intelligence-based technology, according to broadcaster MBC on Monday. MBC announced that it has succeeded in turning standard-definition videos with a resolution of around 340,000 pixels into HD format, with a resolution of 2 million pixels, in collaboration with SK Telecom. Low resolution was one of the problems in exporting old South Korean content abroad. MBC announced t

SM Entertainment said Monday that aespa, the agency's first K-pop act in four years, is set to officially debut on Nov. 17. The all-female quartet will release its first single "Black Mamba" at 6 p.m. on Nov. 17, the agency said. SM Entertainment recently released the profiles of the members -- Karina, Giselle, Winter and Ningning -- ahead of the group's debut this month. The band's name, aespa, comes from the English words "avatar, experience and aspect," with the name me

Pandemic, global reach spur more Korean films to go straight to OTT

Lee Je-hoon is returning to the big screen as a witty tomb raider in the upcoming comedy-crime “Collectors.” “Looking back at how I have been selecting my characters, I tried to choose movies with social messages or ones with a unique genre. But we all have experiences of having a truly good time after watching a movie that is not thought-provoking, don’t’ we? I do too and I’ve been wishing to do that kind of movie,” Lee said during the press conference

K-pop megastar BTS will debut its highly anticipated new single, called "Life Goes On," at a US music award show next month, the band's agency said Saturday. The seven-member boy band will hold a live performance at this year's American Music Awards scheduled for Nov. 22 (local time), according to Big Hit Entertainment. The upcoming new album, "BE (Deluxe Edition)," will be released next month, following February's "Map Of The Soul: 7." Other details of the lea

South Korea's telecommunications regulator on Friday ordered a six-month suspension of services for cable TV channel MBN for accounting fraud in an unprecedented heavy punishment of a broadcaster in the country. The Korea Communications Commission (KCC) said MBN manipulated its balance sheet in 2011 to conceal a portion of the capital raised under borrowed names of its employees. MBN's move was part of its plans to raise 300 billion won, the minimum requirement to acquire a license to operate

Verivery thanked fans for celebrating the band’s milestone Billboard debut during an interview with The Korea Herald on Tuesday. With “G.B.T.B,” the lead track on its new album “Face Us,” the seven-piece act landed atop Billboard’s World Digital Song Sales chart earlier that day, making inroads on the American music chart for the first time since its debut last year. “We really did not expect this. We feel numbed,” band leader Dongheon said. &

The 25th Busan International Film Festival wrapped up its 10-day run Friday with an online press conference. The acclaimed film fest kicked off Oct. 21 with “Septet: The Story of Hong Kong,” an omnibus work by seven renowned Hong Kong directors, at the Busan Cinema Center in the southern coastal city of Busan. It was a hybrid event, going both online and offline due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.  “During the festival, 192 films from 68 countries were screened, gathe