It's hard to fathom, but for global K-pop super group BTS, the band's biggest goal once was to enter not the top 10 or top 40 but just land on the Hot 100, the main singles chart of Billboard for the top 100 popular songs in the United States, period. "My personal goal this year is making it to the Billboard Hot 100 chart. Making it onto that chart is every artists' dream," member V of the South Korean septet said during a press conference in Seoul on Feb. 18, 2017 before its "W

BTS became the first South Korean artist to land at No. 1 on Billboard's main singles chart in the United States on Monday. "BTS achieves its first No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 songs chart, as 'Dynamite' debuts at the summit," Billboard reported Monday, one day before its chart will be refreshed. Previously, the highest-charting South Korean artist ever on the Hot 100 was soloist PSY with his 2012 viral hit "Gangnam Style," which peaked at the No. 2 spot. The only Asian

Online festival K-Musical on Air, organized by the Korea Tourism Organization, kicked off its four-day run Monday. On Monday, the musical “Fan Letter” was streamed via Naver TV and V Live. Musicals “The Goddess is Watching,” “Red Cliff” and “The Fiction” will follow. The four musicals come with English subtitles. Since 2017, the KTO has supported 14 musicals in offering foreign-language subtitles with the goal of expanding the global audience b

Back in January, how long the COVID-19 pandemic would last was anyone’s guess. The organizers of the annual Busan International Film Festival slated for next month probably had no idea that it would continue to wreak havoc. The official preview press conference scheduled for Sept. 7 was canceled as the novel coronavirus spreads wider and faster than before in what is seen as a second surge. “We were supposed to announce whether the event would be held offline during the press co

Sci-fi blockbuster ‘Space Sweepers’ proceeds with crowdfunding despite potential fallout from pandemic

K-pop band BTS picked up four awards at the 2020 MTV Video Music Awards held in the United States on Sunday (US time), while putting on its first television performance of its hit single "Dynamite" on the American TV network. The South Korean septet won in the categories of best pop, best group, best K-pop and best choreography with "ON," the lead song off the band's studio album "Map of The Soul: 7" released in February, at the awards show held in New York City wi

Beijing-based Yue Hua Entertainment was penalized by the Chinese government after Wang Yiren, a Chinese member of K-pop girl band Everglow, performed at an event for South Korean military troops in June last year, according to the South China Morning Post. The K-pop girl band is produced and managed by Yue Hua Entertainment’s subsidiary in Korea. The Chinese company is reported to have apologized Thursday for the negative influence it caused through its subsidiary firm Yue Hua Korea&

SPO head Kang Eun-kyung envisions an orchestra fit for uncertain times

Lotte Concert Hall’s Classic Revolution 2020 Seoul Beethoven to wrap up Sunday with ‘Tantot Libre, Tantot Recherche’

Popular tvN drama series “It’s Okay to Not Be Okay” has been slapped with a warning by the Korea Communications Standards Commission for sexually suggestive and inappropriate scenes. The broadcast censorship body on Wednesday held a subcommittee and decided to issue a legal sanction to the television series for several breaches against the broadcast deliberation regulations, including Article 27 on duties of integrity and Article 30 on gender equality. “Even consideri

Local box office emptying fast with spiking number of new COVID-19 cases

One of the most high-profile music collaborations of this year, Blackpink has teamed up with US pop star Selena Gomez for the group’s long-awaited new single “Ice Cream.” The sugary song was dropped on Friday at 1 p.m. along with a pastel-tinged music video featuring Gomez herself. “When we first heard the song, we had a feeling of sweetness filling up our mouth. We thought ‘Ice Cream’ would offer some chilling time for those suffering from this late summer

A member of an art troupe under the National Gugak Center will be questioned for conducting a private lesson, after having contact with a high school student who was tested positive for COVID-19. On Aug. 19, the member gave a private lesson to a Gugak National High School student at a private studio in southern Seoul. Few hours later, the student’s mother was confirmed positive of the virus. The student was tested positive of the virus on Aug. 19. The troupe member was tested negative

Fukuoka (Korea) Opened Aug. 27 Drama Directed by Chang Lu So-dam (Park So-dam) takes Je-moon (Yoon Je-moon) to Fukuoka to reconnect him with his long estranged friend Hae-hyo (Kwon Hae-hyo). The two men parted ways 28 years earlier after falling in love with the same woman. In Fukuoka, So-dam is able to communicate without speaking the same language, and understand people’s minds without talking to them. With this mysterious woman, the two men set off on a journey through their memories.

Japanese filmmaker Hirokazu Koreeda will take on his first Korean movie with top-tier actors Song Kang-ho, Bae Doo-na and Gang Dong-won, according to the film’s distributor CJ ENM. Tentatively titled “Broker,” the film is a drama about people involved with “baby boxes” -- temperature-controlled containers in which unwanted newborns are dropped off. The Japanese writer and director, well reputed for his portraits of families that reveal their complexities and re