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Saharial’s Entertainment Weekly: SHINee and B.A.P battle it out

Welcome to anther week in K-pop – a little delayed thanks to a full working weekend (doncha just love them??). So without further ado…

SHINee
SHINee – Dream Girl

SHINee: Dream Girl – The Misconceptions of You has been released and is being promoted on the usual music shows: http://youtu.be/vhxjEXDAy6s dance version: http://youtu.be/EzNaAY2yn6g. Their album rose to the top of the real time charts on its release and did well in charts across the globe also. A teaser trailer for the whole album can be heard here: http://youtu.be/ogZchvEEPk4

Speed released “Pain, the Love of Heart” http://youtu.be/ZyeIrnvRVzk. The track is produced by Brave Brothers who have released a 15+ version of the song “You Got Some Nerve” featuring Junhyung (B2st), FeelDog (BigStar) and LE (EXID). The bleeped out version can be heard here: http://youtu.be/AgyYuPwT-5w and the full 19+ version and MV will be out on 21 Feb. Beeps aside, its actually a track I’m enjoying – I rather like it when voices from different groups are used on a project track like this. In addition, Brave Brothers released a teaser MV for each featured artist. JunHyung: http://youtu.be/W4j3q2b13iA ; FeelDog: http://youtu.be/kxInr7FIaq0; LE: http://youtu.be/ECo7cdCcptQ

Teen Top have released their album ‘No. 1’. A medley of the songs can be heard here on their Youtube channel: http://youtu.be/r61WmX660bg. Their two other teasers are ‘Actual’ http://youtu.be/d_HRHlyj5c8 and ‘Virtual: http://youtu.be/ipjjo1ggOi0.

2AM’s comeback in early March will be with a 10 track album called ‘One Spring Day’ and features pianist Yiruma as well as artists 2face and ‘hitman’ bang.

Gummy
Gummy returns in a soundtrack

Gummy‘s new track ‘Snowflake’ can be heard from February 20th in the drama ‘When the Wind Blows’. Producer Choi Kap Won also worked on Baek Ji Young’s ‘Don’t Forget Me’ for the film Iris.

B.A.P is raking in accolades with “One Shot”, topping the Billboard ‘World Albums’ chart when they entered at No.1.

YB and Leessang‘s ‘Dakgong’ (‘Shut Up Concert’) national Korean tour begins preparations, and kicks off at the end of February with further dates in March and April.

B2st’s JunHyung has written a song for the OST of Iris 2 called ‘Black Paradise’ that he and the rest of the group will perform. Bandmate Doojoon is acting in the drama. A short sample can be heard here: http://youtu.be/C4_ke8fXfpQ. Daivichi’s song “Do You Not Know”, also on the Iris 2 OST, beat SISTAR19 on the weekly music charts. (http://youtu.be/h5lJRqZXCCE)

Google are holding an event called “A-Pop Star Week” which starts on March 8th. 2PM, SHINee, and Super Junior are those listed on the k-pop section. More details here: https://plus.google.com/+KPop/about and here: http://www.youtube.com/user/Apop

MVs and Teasers

Still PM’s ‘Love & Verse’ album will be out on 26 February — Teaser: http://youtu.be/RtvBQlIOCGc; SoulStar’s newest digital single is “Unavailable Number“: http://youtu.be/h2yzjJGN-Gk; Space A has returned with two new members after a ten year hiatus, and a remix: “Sexy Guy“ (2013 remix) http://youtu.be/trxyZ4uERmc (the 1999 original: http://youtu.be/ps-2nZtdAZQ). Other new releases include Miii‘s “An Oppa I know” http://youtu.be/HTji5XDk8RI; Byul’s “Love In Memory” from the drama of the same name: http://youtu.be/Lg5JztCaRlM; Kim Tae Woo’s Cosmic Girl: http://youtu.be/yivgDGXzZLc; LEDApple‘s cover of One Direction’s ‘Kiss You’ http://youtu.be/V61F88XNM5o; and Jang Geun Seuk as part of Team H who releases a full version of ‘Feel the Beat’.

New groups

Box Media are to begin promoting a new 5 member boy band called Lu:kus (pronounced ‘look us’). Two of the members once belonged to X-5 before leaving Open World, and another already released a trot single. No word yet on the style but probably no surprises either.

Icon-ize
Icon-ize: their music sounds more grown-up than their boyish image

Icon-ize, a five piece band of a CNBlue persuasion, reveal a teaser For “Show You What I Got” http://youtu.be/0CwEVPxNuyM

Ladies’ Code is a new five-girl group to debut on 7th March from Polaris Entertainment. Two members were participants in ‘Birth of a great star’ and ‘Voice of Korea’

BPPOP a five girl group released “Today” back in January (http://youtu.be/6LtVvmSYoN0) and a dance version in the last week: http://youtu.be/WRjnpfdjmRw.

If all the aspiring groups and new bands is making your head spin – the lovely folk over at Soompi have an infograph on the last 15 years of groups and it can be seen here.

Japanese Releases/promotions

Seo In Guk announced through his official Japanese site that “Fly Away”, his first Japanese, single will be released on 24 April.

Cross Gene have issued teaser for ‘Shooting Star’, their Japanese debut. http://youtu.be/YjE_mw5-YHk, and SHINee have released one for ‘Fire’ http://youtu.be/6zGHOoRnqSU (I quite like this one)

K.Will
K.Will: Prince of Ballads

K.Will is halfway through a three day tour of Japan performing his latest single ‘Please don’t’ and throwing in some covers of ‘Gangnam style’ and B2st. Kobe, Tokyo and Fukuoka are the lucky cities he’s touring.

A leaked version of IU’s ‘The Age of Cathedrals’ from her Japanese mini album has been floating about some of the blogs. The official teaser can be heard here: http://youtu.be/t_4uHjazSrw. It’s a cover of a track from the musical ‘Notre Dame de Paris’. ‘New World’ is the other released teaser http://youtu.be/qgw5_AHbOvQ.

2pm’s ‘Legend of 2pm’ has topped the three Japanese Charts: Oricon, HMV, and Tower Records; and TVXQ have added 4 more dates to their tour.

Other News

Jackie Chan, who was in Korea on 19th Feb to film an episode of the variety show ‘Running Man’, is still rumoured to be creating a k-pop/c-pop group of his own. Still in the preparation stages, the rumour has been floating about since May last year. Curently promoting his latest movie ‘Chinese Zodiac’ (also starring Kwon Sang Woo), the girl group Rainbow has been picked to help with a promotional song and MV.

Sung In Kyu, former member of A’st1 (DSP Entertainment), died of cancer at the age of 24 on 22 February. He’d been battling the disease since 2011. A’st1 debuted in 2008 (http://youtu.be/DHa5SN4mCt0).

Park Si Hoo, a popular actor with a reputation for clean living, will appear on 24 February at the police station to answer charges of sexual assault against a trainee from his company. The trainee referred to as ‘A’ in reports has filed charges saying she was drugged and assaulted by the actor and two others at his home. Current CCTV evidence shows she was drinking with them and was able to leave the premises, but neighbours say they saw her being carried into the house. Park Si Hoo has said he did have sexual contact with her, but it was consensual. Opinion is divided, as always in cases like this (whether celebrity or not) with speculations and accusations flying around, though all will become clearer in the upcoming weeks. Currently he has requested a change of location for the interrogation to Gangnam police station and changed his defence counsel.

The CEO of Open World Entertainment appealed against his six year sentence for sexual assault against female trainees at his company. The appeal was overturned, though, despite his plea that he helped spread the Hallyu wave in China and was a dedicated entrepreneur. (Yes, really, that was the plea.)

BlockB and Stardom Entertainment had a second meeting about the contract dispute reported back in January. With only lawyers present at the meeting it seems as though the effort to resolve the issue face to face is not going to happen. The judge has requested evidence pertaining to the accusations, and the final hearing will be in three weeks time.

NH Media, who have the boy band U-KISS in their roster, has merged with actor management agency MAJOR Entertainment to form a new company NH&MAJOR1998. This will provide more opportunities for both sides – I guess even companies need to be as multifaceted as their artists.

Purplei Ent came to a settlement with I.aM.mE dance crew over the plagiarism of their dance moves. They settled with them and paid up – just like they should have done in the first place.

SuPearls
SuPearls: the YG girl band that never was

YG Entertainment have disbanded SuPearls before they could even debut. Only one member is being kept on (Lee Hi) and the contracts of the others have been nullified. Perhaps with a 2ne1 comeback in the offing and solo promotions for Lee Hi it was just never going to work out.

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