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From a profane, punk-rock single to a modernized opera aria inspired by Marilyn Monroe — not to mention, a world tour in between — (G)I-DLE has made 2022 their year to show the ways they are shaking up norms in the K-pop scene with the perspective to refresh everything they previously knew.
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While more than a year without new music in the fast-moving K-pop scene is risky for a younger group like (G)I-DLE, the outfit spent most of 2021 focusing on their individual careers with solo albums, acting, TV work, overseas trips and more. When they returned in March this year, the group could have opted for something safe—this comeback made all the more complicated following member Soojin’s departure in August 2021—and rehashed an easy return to the top of the charts. Their electro-pop collab with Madison Beer “Pop/Stars” was (G)I-DLE’s first No. 1 on World Digital Song Sales, plus all five of their past EPs have charted on World Albums since their first appearance in 2018—they knew what worked.
Instead, (G)I-DLE looked in a new direction with bolder messages and sounds and, as they say, begin “starting from scratch” again.
Full-length album I Never Die from March was centered around songs meant to inspire confidence to break prejudices. (G)I-DLE leader Soyeon spoke to the heart of the LP’s message like the the hard-hitting rock-pop single “Tomboy” (with its “Yeah I’m f—ing tomboy” hook) alongside tracks like “Never Stop Me.” At the same time, members Yuqi and Minnie contributed in production and songwriting across other tracks. “Tomboy” resulted in the group’s biggest hit in Korea to date, helped them reconnect with fans across the world during their Just Me ( )I-dle World Tour that ran from June to October, and attempt to break records again with their next step.
For the newly released I Love EP, Soyeon, Minnie and Yuqi are once again all over the album credits that explore the concept of love by being, literally, stripped down to one’s most genuine self, and incorporating inspiration from Kurt Cobain’s famous quote, “I’d rather be hated for who I am than loved for who I am not.”
Ahead of the release of I Love, (G)I-DLE opened up more the honesty that comes from such punk inspirations. “‘Nxde’ uses the word ‘nude’ metaphorically to explain the genuine and confident side,” Soyeon explained. “The word ‘nude’ can be perceived as a provocative word, and people may think, ‘Why is it ‘nude’? Isn’t it too explicit?’ But when I thought of the word ‘nude,’ I thought of my true self, not an undressed version of me…your true self isn’t you with makeup on but your bare face is. You don’t call it ‘makeup-less face.’ It’s just a face. I think that’s how I saw ‘nude,’ wearing the real version of yourself.”
Miyeon added, “Just like the name itself, this album is an album that only talks about love. And the one who receives love can be our family, friends, or one of the many kinds of love out there. So we left the object blank [in I Love] on purpose because we respect all those kinds of love.”
(G)I-DLE also pointed to starlets like Marilyn Monroe as another point of inspiration. “When Marilyn Monroe was active as a star, she was the blonde beauty, being consumed as a sex symbol,” Soyeon says of the Hollywood icon. “I heard that she was actually very intelligent and into books, especially philosophical ones. The standards change with time. Nowadays, if you carry designer-brand bags, then people would judge you by your looks. Each era has a different stereotype.” While Miyeon added, “Regardless of positive or negative stereotypes, you can’t judge a book by the cover.”
The group’s messages are connecting more than ever: I Love became (G)I-DLE’s first album to enter the Billboard 200, debuting at No. 71, after nearly four-and-a-half years into their careers. The six-song also starts at No. 9 on Top Album Sales (dated Nov. 5) with 10,000 copies sold, according to Luminate.
Read on for more reflections from Soyeon, Minnie, Yuqi, Miyeon and Shuhua on their rebuilding process, reuniting with worldwide fans, and continuously pushing each other to the next big step.
First, I want to congratulate you on how successful things have been since the I Never Die album. Have you had a moment to think about why you’re connecting so well with the audiences?
Soyeon: I think what we presented with this album was very bold and audacious for a K-pop group, which is why a lot of people loved it. It was very honest too.
Minnie: I Never Die was the first full album—many fans were waiting for this album for so long because we hadn’t made a comeback in a year and a few months.
Do you feel a sense of relief about the fact that it did well? You’ve shared that it was a tumultuous journey to get here. What’s your mindset these days?
Soyeon: I’d have to say “no” right away. Because now that we’ve brought ourselves back to this position, we want to make sure what we present next is also just as amazing, just as fresh and surprising to the audience.
Yuqi: No one knew how pressured we were at the time because (G)I-DLE always looks like we are strong and really stable in our team, but we were apart for about a year. We separated to our countries to do personal activities. So when we came back to Korea, we got together and just said, “Wow.” We didn’t realize how strained we were at the time. We came back thinking this was our last time together—that’s how strained we were at that time.
Minnie: We put everything into it.
Yuqi: No one knew it because we always look so strong and like nothing happened, but it actually wasn’t like that. And life is like that! [Laughs] Life is about challenges, life has ups and downs, but if you give up, everything will just end. Actually, our fans were our kind of energy at that time too because everyone was waiting for us and we couldn’t just give up. So, we just put everything into it and just didn’t want to let down the people loving and supporting us.
What does that look like when you say you put everything into it? Lots of rehearsing? Late nights in the studio?
Yuqi: It’s not only about the physical practicing, but a collective feeling. We were apart for a long time, but when we just gathered up again, I could feel the vibe and strength everyone gave. That’s teamwork. That’s just called teamwork because everyone has the same goal, they have the same dream they are trying to achieve, so I just feel “That’s (G)I-DLE.” It’s our teamwork, right? It’s mental, not physical. I think the mental had to be super different.
Minnie: But even the choreography, we’re always brainstorming, like, “Oh, should we do this or that?” We want to pick best version of everything.
Soyeon: And “Tomboy” has the censored beep, right? But there were many different versions of the beep. And also, aside from “Tomboy,” there were a lot of other candidates, many other candidates for the lead single. I had a lot of thoughts on how should we approach this single and what kind of song do we do for this type of track? I worked on the songs with the mindset, “Oh, maybe I should try this genre for the type of music. Maybe I should talk about this or try this kind of concept.” We also did additional recordings a thousand times; we were very careful when making a decision.
The sound of “Tomboy” was striking. This harder, punk sound wasn’t expected and I’m curious how you decided to go that way to make such a long-awaited comeback?
Soyeon: I grew up listening to a lot of punk rock, I liked Avril Lavigne a lot too. I had always thought that I want to try pop-punk, or like teen rock, kind of music at some point. With this group comeback, I wanted to do something that no one else has done so I thought this was the time to give that genre and that kind of sound a try.
Yuqi: I’m a super fan of rockers and in my solo album, I did a rock too so I was super excited about the track the first time.
Minnie: I think we all love “Tomboy” and its style. It’s very challenging for us to try a new style too, but we enjoyed preparing for it.
How was the U.S. leg of your Just Me ( )I-dle tour?
Soyeon: Since this is our first U.S. tour, we’re really happy and grateful to meet our Neverland, our fans, in the U.S. for the first time. Although this is our first time touring the U.S., we’re amazed by how the fans will sing along to everything and enjoy everything. It’s been just great for us to feel all our fans’ excitement and passion.
Minnie: We went to cities like Dallas, Houston, Chicago and, except for New York and San Francisco, it was the first time we visited these cities so it was all very new.
Miyeon: I like to capture my own moments in each of the cities because all the cities are so different and I want to enjoy all the different vibes. That’s why fans saw so many of my updates through social media every day.
You describe the “Tomboy” single as taking on a new persona. Do you embrace different personas on tour?
Yuqi: Before, we just attended KCON or joined another concert with the other artists, but this is the first time for us to have a full concert. So, we can show the title track [singles], b-side tracks, and other genres. We’re doing rock, ballads or hip-hop for the first time and I think our fans will feel, “Oh, it’s so fresh for seeing idols in this kind of music genre.” We all do the raps in “My Bag,” you know? It’s the first time we’re doing something like that and it’s very fresh. But we can also have an emotional mood like when we sing a lot of ballads whenever we hold a concert in Seoul. I think it’s a good to show a lot of different sides to our fans.
Soyeon: I think rather than seeing it as a new persona of us, I think that the lyric “just me I-DLE” [from “Tomboy”] is real. We had never shown people this side of (G)I-DLE before, but it’s our true selves, and we’re just being honest with what we’re doing.
I also liked how you spoke about how you want to be “I-DLE,” with not as much focus on the “G.” There’s your lyric, too: “It’s neither man nor woman, just me I-DLE.” I’d like to hear more about the inspiration behind that.
Soyeon: As you know, the “G” represents yeoja, or “girl” [in Korean], right? We came from a mindset that we do not want to conform to any kind of social boundary or prejudice. It doesn’t just have to do with gender but that was one of the easiest ways of showing that mindset, especially since we have the “G” in our names. That’s just one of our ways of showing that we don’t want to be stuck in any boundaries, regardless of gender—and not just gender but prejudices in general.
Artists are opening up when they’re more comfortable using gender-neutral pronouns for themselves and in their lyrics. When there can be certain expectations of girl groups, is this a related idea?
Soyeon: We’re very aware of gender-neutral terminology, but what we’re doing now isn’t primarily because we want to find a gender-neutral term but it’s more of trying to make a genre of our own. We want (G)I-DLE to be a genre of our own, regardless of gender, age, anything.
Minnie: And we respect everything.
Does being on tour help you find more of the (G)I-DLE genre?
Soyeon: We are fascinated by how we can still interact and communicate with their audience when we’re singing in Korean so we’ve felt that music does not have any language boundaries.
Yuqi: When I do the concerts, I receive a lot of different responses from our fans. Different countries have different cultures, as we know, so maybe when I do it in Korea, the Korean fans have certain kinds of responses for us. But when we do this in America, I can get to a part like, “Oh, they are more excited about this part.” So I can get inspiration actually to make my music more fun and have more of those “killing” parts.
Miyeon: The hotel that we were staying in New York is right in front of where we did our flash mob a few years ago. So, we looked back at that moment and thought a lot. That was a big motivation for us to come back to New York, see that spot, and think back to our rookie days.
Minnie: Because at that time, we were a very new group with only one single and one mini album. But now we are having a world tour, which is like, “This is crazy.” It’s a big dream come true.
We met for Billboard then. Can you think back to that time and remember your mindset?
Minnie: We were such rookies and so young.
Yuqi: Yeah, we were such rookies but super excited to be here for the first time in New York City. We had our very first flash mob, I think we did a cover “Fake Love”? We had the BTS cover and we didn’t perform “Hann,” right? Because we were preparing for our “Hann” comeback.
Minnie: But we’re happy to be back.
This tour is about old material, new material, everything, including “Hann.” How was it been preparing specifically all these songs as five now?
Soyeon: We had to practice our blocking—all the movements, transitions, and everything—from scratch. So our mindset was, “Okay, we’re starting from scratch…again.” That’s how hard we worked for it and we wanted to show a new side of (G)I-DLE by preparing this way.
Shuhua, I’ve seen you taking up many more lines now too, specifically. How has your experience been?
Shuhua: Aside from all the group practices, I also dedicated a lot of my time doing individual practice. I would have private lessons with our teachers and share ideas to think, like, “How can I put my style into this? What kind of gesture should I do to make this my style?” I practiced a lot with that mindset for this tour.
You’ve all worked on your own in 2021. How does that contribute to your group work as (G)I-DLE this year?
Minnie: I went to Thailand where I had some time promoting solo and I started to realize again how important and how precious that I have my members by my side. When I have to do everything on my own, it’s hard and tiring. I think it was a good experience to try things on my own, but when I came back to Korea and I met them, I was like, “Oh yeah. I feel like I’m home.”
Soyeon: There is no time where we are not working on new music so we’re always thinking about the next album and the new music. We want to present a new kind of fun and new message with I Love and “Nxde.”
Anything else to add right now?
Yuqi: (G)I-DLE never die.
Minnie: We’re back! We’re all back. We were so happy to have a world tour finally and very touched and happy to meet our fans in the States in person. Thank you for always waiting and supporting us. We will never let you down, and we’re back again with a new album, so please continue to stay tuned.
Rosé opens up in a new cover story with Mastermind magazine about BLACKPINK‘s world tour, her decision to audition for the K-pop girl group and more.
“For such a crazy time like right now, it has been working during the day, rehearsing in the evening, recording during the night, going home, sleeping and then repeating,” the singer told Mastermind ahead of launching the BORN PINK World Tour, in interview excerpts exclusive to Billboard.
“It has definitely been a handful,” she continued, “but we’re grateful and excited that we’re able to work on our album while preparing to meet and perform these new songs for our BLINKS. Since the pandemic, it has been an awfully long and brutal time for everyone, so we cannot wait to be back performing for so many of our BLINKS, who have been waiting so patiently. I’m excited to finally see the familiar faces.”
During the interview, Rosé also shared how her dad was actually the one to first suggest she attend the YG audition that would ultimately alter the course of her entire life. “My dad always watched me print out lyrics and chords off of his laptop and reach at the top of my lungs over the piano in an attempt to sing Beyoncé’s most heartbreaking, sad songs till midnight,” she reminisced. “So, I guess it wasn’t too bizarre for him to ask me if I wanted to try auditioning at the YG audition that was being held in Australia.
“When I was growing up, there weren’t many opportunities for me to officially dive into music,” the idol added. “So when YG – a company that was home to some of my favorite musicians – was coming to audition near my city, there couldn’t have been a better opportunity for me to reach out and grab on to my dreams. I would like to say that I was lucky – lucky to have a supportive dad who encouraged me to challenge myself and take my chance.”
Rosé and her band mates are currently on the North American leg of their world tour in support of 2022’s Born Pink, which will run through Nov. 19 before heading to Europe and Asia.
See photos from Rosé’s chic, flower-strewn spread in Mastermind below.
Rosé on cover of Mastermind Magazine
Tess Ayano for Mastermind Magazine
Rosé in Mastermind Magazine
Tess Ayano for Mastermind Magazine
Jin might be known to the world as “Mr. Worldwide Handsome,” but BTS‘ ARMY know him also as a focused, equally tender and powerful vocalist whose knack for ballad and rock songs have been displayed throughout the K-pop star’s career.
Starting by sharing his covers of popular Korean rock songs from the past through BTS’ SoundCloud account early in the group’s career, Jin grew his vocal prowess through the years and showed the music styles that spoke most to him. Later, the star got opportunities to share his ability to tell stories through songs in soundtrack singles for popular Korean dramas like Hwarang and Jirisan. In 2019, Jin released his first entirely original solo song, and he’s only continued to show further displays of his musical perspective. Even the super-silly, super-viral “Super Tuna” single that he dropped in 2021 speaks to Jin’s larger personality as someone who doesn’t take himself too seriously and how music can allow one to truly let loose.
Jin’s latest solo accomplishment comes via his new single “The Astronaut,” which features Jin and Coldplay as writers and composers on the track. The heartfelt rock track debuts at No. 51 on the Hot 100 dated Nov. 12, 2022, marking his first-ever credited solo entry while also acting as the top-selling song of the week (taking No. 1 on the Digital Song Sales and World Digital Song Sales charts). The remarkable chart feat is the latest step in Jin’s ongoing solo efforts that have been purposeful and pointed in their execution, slowly revealing the multifaceted artist that Jin is in his own right.
From covers to OSTs to special collaborations with his BTS band mates, read on for Jin’s best solo moments.
A new music video blends one of Korea’s biggest musical acts and one of its biggest television stars.
For the release of Chen‘s new EP Last Scene, the EXO boy band member enlisted one of the breakout stars from Squid Games to help tell the story of the final moments and “last scene” of a dying relationship. The EP’s piano-led title track is a moving ballad centered around the 30-year-old’s powerful vocals featuring actor Park Hae-soo telling the story through the accompanying music video.
Park, who gained international fame through his role as Cho Sang-woo (a.k.a. “Player 218”) on Squid Game, channels the same emotive and delicate sentiment he showed on the Netflix hit in “Last Scene,” recalling memories and moments from a relationship through an evening drive. The visual racked up more than half a million views in its first 12 hours.
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Last Scene is Chen’s third solo EP following 2019’s April, And a Flower and Dear My Dear, which both landed in the Top 10 of Billboard’s World Albums chart. Since his solo debut, Chen has released a slew of collaborations, completed his mandatory military service in South Korea, and welcomed two children with his wife following their marriage in 2020. The rich life experiences undoubtedly helped colored Chen’s latest work, revealing fresh musical sides like a wispy delivery through the sparse and snappy guitar track “I Don’t Even Mind” or the light rock-pop standout “Travelers” among the new ballads.
Watch “Last Scene” below:
SM Entertainment, home of such K-pop groups as NCT 127, SuperM and Girls’ Generation, had revenue of 238.1 billion KRW ($165 million at the Sept. 30 exchange rate) from July 1 to Sept. 30 — up 65.4% year-over-year and a 29.1% improvement from the previous quarter, the company announced Monday (Nov. 14).
Operating margin — operating profit as a percentage of revenue — improved to 12.5% in the third quarter of 2022, up from 6.9% in the prior-year period. Net income was 29.2 billion KRW ($20.2 million), up 129.5% year-over-year and 15% higher than the second quarter.
The company’s multi-pronged business, which generates revenue across all facets of its artists’ careers, improved across the board: Recorded music revenues grew 46.6% to 135.1 billion won ($93.6 million). SM Entertainment’s album sales improved from 3.25 million units in the prior-year period to 4.7 million units. It had two standout releases in the quarter: NCT 127’s 2 Baddies peaked at No. 3 on the Billboard 200 albums chart and Aespa’s Girls: The 2nd Mini Album topped Billboard’s Top Album Sales chart.
Concert revenues climbed to 10.9 billion won from virtually nothing a year ago. In the quarter, Revenue from appearances — including television, advertising and events — grew 96.4% to 24.3 billion KRW ($16.8 million). Licensing revenue improved 76.1% to 26.4 billion KRW ($18.3 million).
Revenue at SM Entertainment’s subsidiaries grew 119.5% to 136.9 billion KRW ($94.9 million). These companies include Dream Maker, a Hong Kong-based concert booking agency; SM Culture & Contents, a content production and advertising business; and Keyeast, a Korea-based merchandising and licensing business. According to the release, these subsidiaries benefitted from the reopening of domestic and international touring and increased demand for advertising promotion and business-to-business travel.
Several SM Entertainment artists are on tour in the fourth quarter: NCT 127 has nine dates in Korea, U.S., Thailand and Indonesia; Super Junior has six concerts in Indonesia, Hong Kong and Taiwan; and Ryeowook and NCT Dream have six and five concerts in Japan, respectively.
The company’s fourth-quarter release schedule includes new mini albums by Chen, BoA and Red Velvet and Red Velvet member Seulgi. Red Velvet’s Feel My Rhythm album peaked at No. 20 on the Billboard Global Excl. US chart in April; it also landed on the Indonesia Songs (No. 3), Malaysia Songs (No. 5), Phillippines Songs (No. 15) and Taiwan Songs (No. 16) charts. The group’s The ReVe Festival: Finale EP reached No. 40 on Billboard’s Top Album Sales chart in January 2020.
SM Entertainment’s shares rose 0.5% on Monday to 65,800 KRW. Down just 11.3% in 2022, SM Entertainment’s share price has fared better than Korean music companies HYBE (down 61.2%) and YG Entertainment ( down 26.4%) but lags behind JYP Entertainment (up 12.0%), home of Twice, Stray Kids and iTZY.
SM Entertainment’s shares rose 19% on Sept. 16 after the company announced would prematurely end a contract with a production company owned by the company’s founder and largest shareholder, Lee Soo-man. Its share price, however, has fallen 14% since then.
Missed BTS in concert? Fear not, ARMY, the Bangtan Boys have got you covered. On Sunday (Nov. 13), BTS shared a video of them practicing their choreography for the high-energy track “Run BTS” with full support from a large group of backup dancers.
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After taking turns showing off their moves solo and in pairs, members Jin, Suga, J-Hope, RM, Jimin, V and Jung Kook convene and hit complicated footwork and arm movements as the audio from the chorus blares, “Run (don’t tell me bye, bye)/ Run (you made me cry, cry)/ Run (love is a lie, lie)/ (Don’t tell me, don’t tell me, don’t tell me bye, bye).”
“Run BTS” charted at No. 73 on the Billboard Hot 100 and spent a week on the chart in June. The track is on the K-pop group’s anthology album, Proof. The LP — a collection of the group’s hits, demos and fan-favorite tracks — was released in June and spent a total of 21 weeks on the Billboard 200, where it peaked at No. 1.
Proof was dropped as a celebration of BTS’ ninth anniversary. BigHit Music, the group’s management company, said in a statement, “The BTS anthology album that embodies the history of BTS will be released as they begin a new chapter as an artist that has been active for nine years to look back on their endeavors … The anthology album Proof that consists of three CDs includes many different tracks — including three all-new tracks — that reflect the thoughts and ideas of the members on the past present and future of BTS.”
Watch the “Run BTS” dance practice below.
After Big Hit Entertainment rebranded into HYBE in 2021, the entertainment-lifestyle giant has shared annual updates with the public to share the company’s upcoming path and more into the philosophies guiding them for the next 12 months.
At the 2022 HYBE Briefing With the Community, several top music executives across the company and label partners including founder Bang Si-Hyuk, HYBE CEO Jiwon Park, SB Projects founder Scooter Braun, Big Machine Label Group President & CEO Scott Borchetta, HYBE Labels America VP Daniel Kwon, Interscope Geffen A&M VP of A&R Marketing Charlie Christie and more spoke to where the company was heading. Various HYBE employees, creatives and artists like also shared their experiences in the past year with an emphasis on “coevolution” and learning from one another’s businesses.
“HYBE has to continue creating the best content for fans who are waiting for new releases from their artists,” Bang shared of HYBE’s “ground rule” in quality content before sending a special message to BTS and their fans that “BTS was our starting and driving force and ARMY made all of this possible.”
From BTS to a slew of new artists on their way, HYBE artists are all housed across different labels at the corporation currently consisting of BIGHIT Music, BELIFT LAB, Source Music, PLEDIS Entertainment, KOZ Entertainment, ADOR, HYBE Labels Japan, and HYBE America. With new albums, world tours and debuts on the way, we’ve broken down the big moments on the calendar and what you can expect for the forthcoming months from HYBE.
More music from TOMORROW X TOGETHER is on the way! On Thursday (Nov. 10), HYBE CEO Jiwon Park announced during a company briefing that the K-pop group — which consists of members Yeonjun, Soobin, Beomgyu, Taehyun and Hueningkai — will be returning in January 2023 with brand new music.
Though fans will have to sit tight for a little while before learning more about the project’s concept, title and release date, it will be the first music release the quintet has released since the arrival of its fourth mini EP, minisode 2: Thursday’s Child. That project was a hit for the K-pop stars. It spent a total of 14 weeks on the all-genre Billboard 200 chart, where it peaked at No. 4. The mini album achieved even more success on the Top Current Album Sales chart, where it spent 20 weeks on the chart and hit No. 1.
Speaking about Thursday’s Child in a May interview with Billboard, Soobin looked ahead to the future. “As we have more years and even more albums under our belts, we’re getting better outcomes and better numbers,” he said. “We have [also] tried many genres in music. As we work on more and more albums, [I feel like] we don’t have any limits. We’ve taken this musical journey step by step.”
Up next for the group is a stop at the 2022 MAMA Awards. In addition to taking the stage for a performance, TOMORROW X TOGETHER is nominated for five awards in the best male group, best dance performance male group and song of the year (“Good Boy Gone Bad”), artist of the year and worldwide fans’ choice top 10 categories.
BTS ARMY, this is not a drill: RM promised that a solo album would be arriving in the imminent future, and now a date has been set, along with the project’s official title. On Thursday (Nov. 10), the rapper dropped the news via Instagram, sharing a photo of a bright blue patch of denim, along with the LP’s details.
“‘Indigo,’” RM captioned the post. “RM 1st Solo Album, 12/2.”
BTS’ music label, BigHit Music, also shared the news to its respective feeds, along with a photo of a blue fabric swatch with the album title bleached in white. The label also added that Indigo will be released on Dec. 2 at 12 a.m. ET and 2 p.m. KT.
“Indigo recounts the stories and experiences RM has gone through, like a diary,” a press release said of the project. “The album will present a different charm of RM with various featured artists.” (None of the featured artists have yet been announced.)
Though Indigo will be RM’s first full-length solo album, the rapper previously released two mixtapes. He was the first of the BTS members to share solo material, dropping his self-titled mixtape in 2015, which contained singles “Do You,” “Awakening” and “Joke.” RM then released a second mixtape in 2018 titled Mono. “Forever Rain” was released as the only single from this latter body of work, and the set debuted at No. 26 on the Billboard 200.
The announcement of RM’s solo album arrives shortly after fellow BTS member Jin released his own solo track titled “The Astronaut.” The track currently sit at No. 51 on the Billboard Hot 100.
See RM’s album announcement below.
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“Smooth like butter!” Earlier this year, Funko Pop debuted the BTS “Butter” collection, featuring figurines of Jimin, V, Suga, RM, Jung Kook, J-Hope and Jin, decked out in their wardrobe from the “Butter” music video complete with name tags.
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The Pop! vinyls — sold separately and as a seven-pack collectible set — went up for pre-order on June 23 and began shipping out this month.
And it seems that more vinyl figures have been released, per the Funko website. As of Wednesday (Nov. 11), the site has the collectible figurines listed under “new releases.” For K-pop fans who missed the first wave of pre-orders over the summer, all seven of the vinyl Pop! figures are now in stock at Funko.com.
BTS ARMY members can shop the collection at Amazon, Entertainment Earth and GameStop, although prices and release dates may vary depending on the retailer. Amazon pre-orders, for example, will be released on Dec. 31, while Entertainment Earth is listed for March 2023.
The 4-inch Pop! vinyls retail for $11.99-$12.99, while the set of mini-figurines is $88.33 and sold exclusively at Walmart.
“Butter” recently reached a musical milestone, becoming the K-pop group’s second single to earn one billion Spotify streams. The music video has racked up over 825 million views on YouTube.
This latest Funko Pop! collaboration follows the BTS Dynamite Collection released last year.
The BTS Funko Pop! “Butter” collectibles are in stock at Funko.com and GameStop, and you can pre-order them at Amazon and Entertainment Earth.
Shop the collection below and for more BTS gear, see our list of affordable merch.
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