[Today’s K-pop] Big Bang gearing up for return: reports

Big Bang wrapped up shooting for a music video last week and is readying itself to make a much-awaited comeback, local media reported Wednesday.

Label YG Entertainment confirmed the news and said it will announce more details including the release date soon.

Last month, the company officially announced that the band is releasing new music this spring. Its last work was the single “Flower Road” from March 2018.
Over the past four years, Seungri left the team in 2019 after becoming mired in a scandal.

T.O.P will “join the band’s activities whenever the situations allow” but did not renew his exclusive contract with the label. The label did not make clear when the contract had expired. He will be in the new music video, however.

WEi rolls out 4th EP

Boy band WEi hosted an online showcase on Wednesday to discuss its fourth EP “Love Pt. 1: First Love.”

The six-track EP is the first installment of its three-part “Love” series.

“I thought a lot about love since it is the main theme of the album,” Kang Seokhwa said. “Love can be any feeling, a basic feeling that can be found in good teamwork and the strong bond with fans.”

With the focus track “Too Bad,” the six members shyly confess their love. Visually, they all went for a “fresh and neat” look and Kim Jun-seo picked Kim Yo-han as the best representative, with his winning smile.

Kim Yo-han said, “There is this chemistry within the song from being with bandmates, something that cannot be found when I’m on my own.” He dropped his solo debut EP “Illusion” in January.

“Since this is the beginning of the ‘love’ series, it would be great if we could be the first idol group when you think of first loves,” he added.

NCT Dream’s Chenle suffers ankle injury

Chenle of NCT Dream hurt his left ankle recently but will join the activities as much as he can, according to label SM Entertainment on Wednesday.

He suffered the injury while preparing for the launch of the band’s second full album, due March 28, and is getting treated. The musician was keen to join the promotional activities and meet fans, the firm said, but asked fans to understand that he will not be able to perform some dances that require challenging movements.

Meanwhile, the band’s second LP titled “Glitch Mode” consists of 11 tracks including main track “Buffering.” Mark participated in making the rap part for the hip-hop dance number.

The seven-member subunit of NCT will hold an online concert, dubbed “Dream Stage: Glitch Mode,” on April 5.

Blackpink’s Lisa sets another record with “Money” dance video

Lisa of Blackpink topped the record set by her own band with the performance video of her solo song “Money.”

The video reached 500 million views on YouTube on Tuesday, 173 days since it was uploaded. It is the shortest time for a dance video from a K-pop artist to have achieved the feat, according to label YG Entertainment Wednesday, and replaced the record Blackpink held with that of “How You Like That.”

“Money” is a track from Lisa’s first solo album “Lalisa.” The song gained popularity about a month after the release and stayed on Billboard’s Hot 100 and UK’s Official Chart top 100 for two and eight consecutive weeks, respectively.

The song generated 400 million streams on Spotify as of Monday, also in the shortest time for a K-pop solo musician on the platform.

By Hwang You-mee (glamazon@heraldcorp.com)