[Today’s K-pop] TXT to return in January with 5th EP

Tomorrow X Together will return in January next year with a fifth EP, Hybe said Thursday during a corporate briefing.

The album comes about nine months after its previous EP, “Minisode 2: Thursday’s Child,” debuted on the Billboard 200 at No. 4. The album stayed on the chart for 14 weeks, a record streak for the boy band.

It will be the first group or artist under the Hybe label to release an album next year.

Separately, TXT earned the group's first nominations at the MTV Europe Music Awards and American Music Awards last month.

The band wrapped up “Act: Love Sick,” its first international tour, last month, traveling to 13 cities around the world for 19 concerts. On Thursday, it left for Chile to participate in a group concert for a Korean TV music chart show.

Seventeen lands atop Oricon chart with 1st Japan EP

“Dream” came out Wednesday, about 11 months since its special Japanese single “Ainochikara,” and is the perfect song to mark the launch of its dome tour in the country, said agency Pledis Entertainment.

The EP headed straight to the top of Oricon’s daily album rankings, scoring close to four times the sales of the special single. The album also was No. 1 on a series of real-time charts.

The 13-member act will perform at the Kyocera Dome in Osaka on Nov. 19-20 and at the Tokyo Dome on Nov. 26-27, followed by concerts at the Nagoya Dome on Dec. 3-4.

“Touring domes in Japan has been a dream for Seventeen as well as our fans,” said Woozi. The singer and producer has been thinking of writing a song about dreams fit for a dream stage, he added.

New Jeans to roll out new single in January

“OMG” will show the winter of the group as the debut EP did its summer, hinted the company. A prerelease from the single will be dropped in advance as a year-end gift to fans.

The five-member act debuted in August with an eponymous album that sold over 310,000 copies in the first week, a record for a K-pop girl group’s debut album. Main track “Hype Boy” amassed 100 million streams on Spotify in about three months, closely followed by “Attention,” one of the double lead tracks from the EP. The two songs have been on Billboard’s Global Excl. the US chart for 14 consecutive weeks.

Kara to perform new song at MAMA Awards

The five bandmates will return as a full group for the first time in seven years with “Move Again,” an album that also marks their 15th anniversary.

On Dec. 21, the group will release a Japanese-language edition of the album for the fans who made them the first K-pop girl group to hold a standalone concert at Tokyo Dome in 2013.

Kara officially debuted in Japan in 2010 and was touted as a pioneer group of the Korean Wave in Japan, dropping a series of big hits starting from its Japan debut single “Mister.”

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