Seventeen kicks off 2021 US promotion before online concert

K-pop boy band Seventeen made an appearance on “The Late Late Show with James Corden” as the group prepares for their first concert of the new year.

The 13 members of Seventeen became the fourth K-pop group to perform on the popular talk show following BTS, Blackpink and NCT. On Thursday, Seventeen performed their retro-swing title song “Home;Run” from their latest album “Semicolon.”

The singers took the stage dressed up as the studio’s stagehands, pushing around mops and cleaning carts, before breaking out into song and changing into glittering suits at the Universal Arts Center at Gwangjin-gu in Seoul.

After the performance aired, Seventeen and James Corden both tweeted that they wished to see each other in person someday.

In an interview with Rolling Stones magazine released on the same day, Seventeen members said they hoped to promote more actively in the US this year.

Last January, the group kicked off their world tour with concerts in eight cities in North America before the spread of COVID-19. The remaining concerts in Asia and Europe were cancelled as the virus became widespread around the globe.

The group’s first online concert this year, titled “IN-COMPLETE,” will be held on Jan. 23. It will be their second online event since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, following their online fan meeting in August. Over 20 songs will be performed during the concert and four different multi-view livestreams of the concert will be available.

Seventeen’s two albums “Semicolon” and “Heng:garae” sold more than a million units each in 2020, making the band second only to BTS in sales last year.

The band placed third in brand reputation ranking for K-pop boy bands for the month of December, according to the Korea Institute of Corporate Reputation.

By Lim Jang-won (ljw@heraldcorp.com)