A new teaser image for AOA's Jimin's upcoming solo project has been released.
The teaser this time gets fans even more excited as it features EXO's Xiumin. The two are seen standing side by side while dressing in pastel fashion, showing their chemistry together by holding hands.
'Call You Bae' will drop on March 3rd at midnight.
The second teaser image for Lee Hi's upcoming half album 'Seoulite' has been released.
The teaser deemed in monotone showing Lee Hi with her eyes closed, giving off a classic and elegant vibe. The title track has also been announced to be 'Breathe'.
'Seoulite' will drop on March 9th at midnight, so stay tuned!
Lee Seung Gi surprises fans with a teaser video for his new song.
The song is titled 'Meet Someone Like Me' and is said to have completed before his military enlistment. Judging from the teaser, it seems to be another sweet ballad from Lee Seung Gi again.
Shinhwa's Eric and Seo Hyun Jin have been confirmed to star as leads in upcoming tvN drama 'Again Oh Hae Young'(working title).
Eric will play as Park Do Kyung, the best audio director in the country. He's a perfectionist with handsome look but he doesn't care one bit about women. One day he suddenly develops an ability to see the future and gets his life tangled with a girl named Oh Hae Young.
Seo Hyun Jin will take the role of Oh Hae Young who keeps suffering from trauma because of another woman who shares the same name but gets a more lucky life. She has a bright and cheerful personality, but she hides her sadness inside.
'Again Oh Hae Young' is scheduled to broadcast in May.
On January 28th, YG Entertainment unveiled a pink poster featuring Lee Hi through their official blog, announcing her comeback with half album release 'Seoulite' on March 9th.
This will be her first comeback in 3 years since her first album 'First Love' in March 2013, so many people are very looking forward for her return. The expectation has been risen even more since Tablo's label HIGHGRND produced the album.
This Week in Kpop has so many new releases that we can't even contain ourselves! But we can try, can't we? Let's stop stalling and start with one of our favorites groups in the world: Mamamoo!
Mamamoo's Back!
Mamamoo came back this week with "You're the Best" and is just killing it on the charts, or, as they say, All-Killing it. They're well on the way to becoming an elite girl group here, and we're super excited for them to take center stage.
But what about the release itself?
Sometimes it's difficult to separate your biases from their releases. Mamamoo is certainly a bias at Critical Kpop, so it's difficult to give a fair analysis, although we try. We've been following them since their debut, loving "Piano Man" and pitting them against our favorite girl groups even! It's a different feeling when following a group since their inception and becoming a fan later on, as we're sure all of you know.
So, objectively, it's difficult to address this release, friends (but not impossible). Just looking at "You're the Best" gives the impression that Mamamoo is taking another step into their more lighthearted, silly iteration that they first embraced with their super popular "Um Ah Oh Yeh," which makes sense because that release really pushed them to the top of the charts. They're also able to let loose their bright personalities, which, if you've seen their behind-the-scenes videos seems very genuine and charming.
And, as a whole, "You're the Best" is a fun, vocally strong song. We do miss their more slick, cool retro look that made us fall for them in the first place. Groups are certainly destined to change and shift from concept to concept, but, music video aside, "You're the Best" still has a sound not too dissimilar from "Piano Man," and if you check out their album, Melting, which we recommend that you do, you'll hear that they haven't lost their retro-jazzy-big band sound that made them so unique.
So, objectively, as objective as we can be, this is a strong release, and we think that they have a real chance to win some music shows and make a statement in the Kpop world. 2016 seems to be the year where these newer groups finally rise to the top. How cool is that?
Cosmic Girls Make their Debut!
Cosmic Girls, the 12-member Chinese-Korean girl group has finally made their debut this week, with the super-adorablez G-Friend in space, "MoMoMo." As you may gather, this release isn't really our cup of soju, but it is still telling of the shape of future girl group releases. For one, they went with the more cutesy, innocent "MoMoMo" as their lead single, instead of the more dynamic, and, dare we say, sexy "Catch Me," which, perhaps, wouldn't have been the case maybe even a year ago, where sexy concepts were at their zenith.
"Catch Me" feels more 4Minute than Lovelyz, which is probably why they went with the latter, considering the shift in the Kpop girl group spectrum.
We're not seeing a lot of buzz for Cosmic Girls right now, but they're an intriguing group, one that is massive in numbers but also has subgroups/units within the group (Wonder, Joy, Sweet, and Natural units). We're curious to see how these units will be deployed and how much of a stake in China this group will attempt to capture. Considering Starship Entertainment has teamed with the Chinese agency, Yuehua Entertainment, to form this group, we imagine that they'll have a huge push in both countries.
So, don't write off Cosmic Girls, yet. They're a lot more interesting than their first release gives them credit for.
So, we know what you're thinking right now. "What's this? Where's the Taemin music video? Or the new B.A.P. release? Where's Ladies' Code?" Well, first of all, calm down. We're all friends here. Second of all, we've talked about all of those releases this week, in our latest episode of the Critical Kpop Podcast. And yes, we go pretty in-depth with all of them, so why not give a listen and let us know what you think?
If you're looking at this site, you probably love Kpop at least as much as we do, right? But Helen Edworthy wonders: What happens when Kpop fatigue sets in? She explores this question right here.
February 21-27, 2016
And that was This Week in Kpop! This was a great way to end February and we're excited for what is to come! 2016 promises to be a game-changing year, and we'll be here to chart the shifts in the Kpop landscape, or at least try. In the meantime, have fun and be safe!
Less is more? Pshhh, Taemin is more! Listen as Sarah, Tim, and Zander geek out over new music and MV's from Taemin. The crew even advances a few crazy theories about the meaning behind "Press Your Number." But it's not just Taemin this week -- B.A.P's back too, and our feelings are mixed. How do we reconcile their past with their present? Speaking of which, this week also witnessed the first official comeback of Ladies' Code since the tragic loss of EunB and RiSe. All this and more on today's episode of the Critical Kpop Podcast!
You can subscribe to the Critical Kpop Podcast or check out this and future episodes on iTunes, Stitcher, or Mixcloud. You can expect a healthy serving of news, reviews, and critical analysis in every episode. The Critical Kpop Podcast is the only podcast that invites you to LISTEN HARDER.
ASTRO (아스트로) adalah boyband baru beranggotakan 6 orang bentukan dari Fantagio Entertainment (satu label dengan HELLOVENUS, 5URPRISE, Kim So Eun). Grup ini terdiri dari MJ, Jinjin, Eunwoo, Moonbin, Rocky dan yang terakhir Sanha.Pada tanggal 14 Agustus 2015, pihak label mengumumkan bahwa akan mendebutkan boy group baru bernama ASTRO. Kemudian, pihak label mengupload foto terbaru masing-masing anggota. Sedikit nih info tentang membernya, MJ adalah member tertua dalam grup juga senbagai moodmaker. Selanjutnya Jinjin adalah seorang rapper, drummer dan didapuk sebagai leader di ASTRO. Eunwoo ada di posisi visual (face of the group). Kemudian Moonbin merupakan seorang dancer. Rocky dikenal karena bakat menarinya yang bagus, namun juga memiliki kemampuan vocal dan rap yang baik. Terakhir yaitu Sanha, dia memegan sebagai Maknae dan vocal digrup.
Sebelum debut resmi, para anggota ASTRO menunjukan kemampuan aktingnya di drama web bertajuk “To Be Continued”. Mereka akan beradu akting dengan aktris muda berbakat Kim Sae Ron. Drama web tersebut memiliki 12 episode yang sudah tayang mulai tanggal 18 Agustus 2015 lalu di Naver TVCast dan MBC Every1. Tak hanya disitu saja, meskipun belum resmi debut, ASTRO sudah menggelar mini konser pertamya. Konser tersebut digelar di Seoul pada tanggal 19 Desember lalu.
Nama Grup : ASTRO
Label : Fantagio Entertainment
Debut : Februari 2016
ASTRO
Member ASTRO :
MJ
Nama Asli : Kim Myung Joon
Nama Panggung : MJ
Tanggal Lahir : 5 Maret 1994
Posisi : Main Vocal, Dance
Tinggi : 175 cm
Berat : 58 kg
Tipe Darah : O
Fakta :
MJ berasal dari Suwon, Gyeonggi, Korea Selatan
Ia berpartisipasi dalam audisi JYP Ent. ‘HUM’ pada tahun 2012
Ia memenamngkan beasiswa satu tahun dari Seoul Nationa University di audis JYP
Karakter favoritnya adalah Iron Man
Panutanya adalah Lee Seung Gi
Ia pernah mengikuti audisi di YG Ent besama Donghyuk (iKON), Yang Hongseok dan Kim Jisoo
Warna Favoritnya adalah Mint
Jinjin
Nama Asli : Park Jin Woo
Nama Panggung : Jinjin
Tanggal Lahir : 15 Maret 1996
Posisi : Leader, Rapper, Dancer
Tinggi : 174 cm
Berat : 63 kg
Tipe Darah : A
Fakta :
Keahilanya adalah beatboxing dan bermain drum
Nicknamenya ‘Angelic Smile’
Panutanya G-Dragon Big Bang
Rapper favoritnya adalah SanE
Sebelum begabung dengan Fantagio Ent. Ia berlatih/bergabung NY Dance Academy
Menurut Eunwoo, Jinjin merupakan member yang sering telat bangun di pagi hari
Eunwoo
Nama Asli : Lee Dong Min
Nama Panggung : Eunwoo
Tanggal Lahir : 30 Maret 1997
Posisi : Vocal, Dancer
Tinggi : 183 cm
Berat : 64 kg
Tipe Darah : B
Fakta :
Kampong halaman Eunwoo di Gunpo, Gyeonggi, Korea Selatan
Ia sekolah di Hanlim Multi Arts High School (belum lulus). Tapi ia sudah diterima di Sungkyunkwan University
Nicknamenya ‘Morning Alarm’
Ia paling rajin bangun pagi dan membangunkan anggota lainya
Keahlian bermain piano, gitar, bioala, berenang dan DJ
Real Madrid adalah tim sepak bola favortinya
Panutanya Seo Kangjun 5URPRISE
Moonbin
Nama Asli : Moon Bin
Nama Panggung : Moonbin
Tanggal Lahir : 26 Januari 1998
Posisi : Dance, Vocal, Rap
Tinggi : 180 cm
Berat : 64 kg
Tipe Darah : B
Fakta :
Ia lahir di Cheongju, Chungbuk, Korea Selatan
Sejak tahun 2004 ia sudah mejadi aktor dan model cilik
