[Today’s K-pop] BTS’ “Black Swan” music video tops 400m views

The music video of BTS’ “Black Swan” reached 400 million views on YouTube, said label Big Hit Music on Monday.

It became the band’s 18th music video to achieve the feat. “Black Swan” is an emo hip-hop number that was dropped in January 2020, in advance of the release of fourth full album “Map of The Soul: 7.” It topped the iTunes songs chart in 93 regions.

On the same day, its “Yet To Come” music video surpassed 100 million views on the platform, about 10 days since it was uploaded. The video drew over 2.85 million concurrent viewers at the time of release and amassed 48 million views within 24 hours. The septet now has 38 music videos with more than 100 million views.

The single is a new track from its anthology album “Proof” which landed atop Billboard 200 on Sunday in the US.

Winner to make comeback next month

Winner announced Monday that it will return as a full group on July 5 with a poster.

It has been more than two years since all four members put out an album together. The upcoming album will be the first new music Kim Jinwoo and Lee Seunghoon are putting out since they completed their military duties.

There had been reports that said the band is gearing up for return, possibly in July. Leader Kang Seungyoon hinted at pending return recently writing comments -- such as “Summer is the season of Winner” -- on social media.

“I just like seeing four of us standing together. Visual, ambience, whatever it is. I find it harmonious like it has been a single picture from the beginning,” said Jinwoo in an interview with Harper’s Bazaar Korea. The band was featured on the cover of the magazine’s July issue.

Blackpink sets record on Spotify

Blackpink has reached 500 million streams on Spotify with “Ddu-du Ddu-du,” according to label YG Entertainment on Monday.

The 2018 mega hit is the group’s third song to achieve the feat, after “Kill This Love” and “How You Like That.” The quartet is the only K-pop female band to record 500 million streams on the platform. It has as many as 23 songs with over 100 million streams.

“Ddu-du Ddu-du” fronted the band’s first EP “Square Up” that came out in June 2018. The accompanying music video reached 1 billion views -- a first for a K-pop girl group -- and logged 1.8 billion viewings as of February. The single not only swept all charts at home but also ranked No. 55 on Billboard’s Hot 100, a record for a K-pop girl group at the time.

Mamamoo to mark 8th debut anniversary with album, concert

Mamamoo shared its plans for the latter half of this year through agency RBW Entertainment on Monday.

The quartet celebrated its eighth anniversary of debut on Sunday and uploaded a video that showed the bandmates get together at a jjimjilbang, a Korean-style sauna. They marked the occasion with a cake shaped like a white radish (moo in Korean), a nod to their endearing term for fans, “moomoo.”

To officially mark the occasion, the group will put out a full-group album and host a standalone concert soon, said the company.

Mamamoo debuted in 2015 with “Mr. Ambiguous” and has been releasing a series of hits. Its previous album was “WAW” from a year ago. The group held an online concert in August last year and performed at a K-pop concert in Frankfurt, Germany last month. 

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