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TWICE‘s With YOU-th tops this week’s new music poll. Music fans voted in a poll published Friday (Feb. 23) on Billboard, choosing the K-pop group’s latest mini-album as their favorite new music release of the past week. Fans showed their support for the girl group in a big way: With YOU-th won this poll by a landslide, […]
Being a member of a nine-person K-pop group is hard work. In addition to the endless hours of vocal and dancing prep, touring, 12-hour press days and the rigors of staying healthy on the road, there is also the mental toll of being in the global spotlight 24/7.
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“It was our recognition that at the end of the day, this is our job,” TWICE‘s Jihyo told the Today Show during an interview on Friday (Feb. 23) that also included two in-studio performances. “It’s what we do for a living. But I know that I cannot live the rest of my life only as Jihyo from TWICE, so I had to learn how to take care of myself mentally and physically … and when to stop when I need to. I think my health and my good energy is shown very frankly to our fans. Our fans see that. So taking care of myself is part of my job, too.”
That is why member Mina took a mental health break in 2019, with Jeongyeon doing the same in 2020 and 2021, unafraid that the pause might create the kind of negative reaction from fans that an earlier generation of idols worried about. “We talked a lot amongst ourselves and we also talked with our management. All of that helped us individually and as a group to cope with whatever is going on,” Chaeyoung said.
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“It meant the world to me when the girls addressed why they were taking a break,” Tara, a devoted Korean American fan who was in high school at the time told the morning show. “My parents didn’t take my depression seriously and told me to eat something delicious and get more sleep. I felt very isolated and alone. But seeing idols like Mina telling us that they need rest, too, made me feel like I was seen.”
The band also featuring members Nayeon, Momo, Sana, Dahyun and Tzuyu, released their 13th mini-album, YOU-th, on Friday, fronted by their third English-language single, “I Got You.”
TWICE will play a one-off show at Las Vegas’ Allegiant Stadium on March 16, which housed Super Bowl LVIII earlier this month. “It might seem like we started off really big, but we did a lot of small stage performances when we started out,” Momo said. “It was only last year that we did our first stadium concert. So all of this has been nerve-wracking for us.” Last year they became the first female K-pop group to headline NFL and MLB stadiums in the U.S. when they performed at SoFi Stadium in L.A. and MetLife Stadium in New York to sold-out crowds of 50,000 fans.
And because they know that not all their devoted fans, who are called Once, can get tickets to every show, the group tries to keep visiting new places. “With every tour, we really try to visit as many places as possible,” said Sana. “That’s why we went to Europe for the first time last year, and that’s why we are doing another concert in Las Vegas this year.” Mina noted that they will also be the first K-pop girl group to play Nissan Stadium in Yokohama, Japan on July 27-28.
“We always try to visit more countries with each tour,” Sana added. “If there are places that we haven’t visited yet but you want us to come there, please let us know. We will talk to the management and we’ll (try to) make it happen!”
In their ninth year in the group, the members who range in age from 24-28 also talked with pride about representing diverse backgrounds, with three South Korean members (Chaeyoung, Dahyun, Jeongyeon, Jihyo, Nayeon), three Japanese performers (Mina, Momo, Sana) and one Taiwanese representative (Tzuyu).
“I’m so grateful for the diversity in our group,” Nayeon told Today. “If it wasn’t for TWICE, I don’t think I would’ve had the opportunity to observe other cultures so closely or have developed as much of an interest in them. Because of the exposure that we got to other cultures so early on, I think that enabled us to communicate with ONCE better when we meet global fans. The communication is deeper because of our understanding of other cultures.”
TWICE
Michelle Watt
BTS member J-Hope is releasing a new album, Hope on the Street Vol. 1, BigHit Music announced to press and to ARMY on Sunday (Feb. 18). Hope on the Street Vol. 1 is described in the announcement as “a special album” containing six tracks. The new music collection is set to arrive alongside a six-part […]
K-pop boy band ENHYPEN announced the dates for the encore leg of their Fate Plus world tour on Tuesday (Feb. 6). The run of shows are slated to kick off at the KSPO Dome in Seoul, South Korea on Feb. 23 with the first of three shows at that venue.
The outing will jump to the U.S. for five dates in the spring, beginning with an April 24 gig at the Honda Center in Anaheim, CA, before moving on to shows in Oakland (April 26), Tacoma, WA (April 28) and Chicago (May 1) before winding down with a May 3 show at the UBS Arena in Belmont Park, NY.
Tickets for the mini-tour will go on sale here and here at 4 p.m. local time on Feb. 15. Tickets will be available in an ENGENE membership presale for fans who’ve registered in advance beginning today (Feb. 7) at 8 p.m ET through Friday (Feb. 9) at 9 p.m. ET.
According to a release announcing the second leg, the first run of shows played to more than 327,000 ENGENEs (the name of ENHYPEN’s fan group), during 21 shows in 13 cities, with the seven-man band making their U.S. stadium debut at L.A.’s Dignity Health Sports Park.
The band’s fifth mini-album, Orange Blood, dropped in November, debuting at No. 4 on the Billboard 200 albums chart, kicking off a seven-week run on the tally.
Check out the tour dates for ENHYPEN’s 2024 tour below.
Feb. 23, 24, 25 – Seoul, Korea @ KSPO Dome
April 24 – Anaheim, CA @ Honda Center
April 26 – Oakland, CA @ Oakland Arena
April 28 – Tacoma, WA @ Tacoma Dome
May 1 – Chicago, IL @ Allstate Arena
May 3 – Belmont Park, NY @ UBS Arena
K-pop stars TWICE dropped their first song of 2024 on Friday (Feb. 2), the high-energy tribute to friendship “I Got You.” The group’s third English-language single is the first taste of their upcoming 13th mini album, With YOU-th (Feb. 23).
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The video for the song finds Nayeon, Jeongyeon, Momo, Sana, Jihyo, Mina, Dahyun, Chaeyoung and Tzuyu snuggling up together inside a ship’s cabin as it is tossed by stormy seas. “A little reckless around the edges/ Call it young, dumb love and it’s just enough,” they sing over a bubbly new wave-style beat reminiscent of a double-time homage to A-Ha’s 1985 classic “Take On Me.”
Comfortable in their cuddle puddle as the waves turn placid, the women get led to shore by a bandmate in a lighthouse, where they bust out some elegant choreo by the beach. “No we’ll never fall apart/ Even million miles apart/ We were lightning from the start,” they sing before diving into the joyous chorus: “Ooh/ No matter what you got me, I got you/ And I wouldn’t want it any other way.”
The soaring tribute to friendship is packed with shots of the band members dancing and holding hands in fields of gold and making pinkie swear promises to each other. It even includes a dreamy animated sequence in which they dive under the waves to frolic with marine life before winding down with the singers striking Titanic-like poses on the bow of the ship as they soak up the sun.
“I Got You” is the follow-up to the nine-member group’s previous English-language singles, “The Feels,” which landed their debut entry on the Billboard Hot 100 (No. 83) and “Moonlight Sunrise” (No. 84).
The JYP Entertainment group is in the midst of their Ready To Be world tour, which will play Mexico City’s Foro Sol Stadium on Friday and Saturday (Feb. 3), before moving on to a pair of dates at Allianz Parque in Sao Paulo (Feb. 6-7) and a gig at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas on March 16.
Watch the “I Got You” video below.
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K-pop boy band Seventeen surprised fans during the second night of a two-night stand at Macao’s Olympic Sports Center Stadium on Sunday (Jan. 21) when they busted out a brand-new song, “The Meaning of Meeting.” The sentimental, swooning ballad was released a short time later on Chinese music streaming platforms as a standalone digital single, […]
BTS‘ Suga is at his high-fashion finest in a series of new images from Italian fashion house Valentino’s “Narratives” campaign. The K-pop superstar who was announced as a Valentino brand ambassador in 2023 looks sharp strutting his stuff to the sound of camera shutter clips in a video announcing the campaign on Friday morning (Jan. […]
Jimin has a gift for fans in the final days of 2023. The singer’s management company BigHit Music announced Wednesday (Dec. 20) that the BTS member will be releasing a new solo single titled “Closer Than This,” arriving under ARMY’s trees with time to spare before Christmas. Sharing the news on Weverse, BigHit wrote that […]
Jung Kook and Usher set the dance floor on fire in the new video for their remix of the BTS star’s “Standing Next to You.” In this case, a moodily lit abandoned warehouse flooded with daylight stands in for a club, but either way, the dynamic duo fill the space with slick move after slick […]
BTS‘ Jin just had his first birthday as a soldier. And in a sweet message to fans, the newly 31-year-old star — who celebrated his birthday on Dec. 4 — expressed his gratitude while briefly reflecting on his time so far in the South Korean army, just over a week shy of his one-year enlistment anniversary.
“Hello, this is Jin,” he began in a post on Weverse, as translated from Korean to English by Google. “Thank you very much to everyone who wished me a happy birthday. I always enjoyed [livestreams] with ARMY on my birthday, but unfortunately I couldn’t enjoy it this year, which breaks my heart.”
“Even though I can’t be with you physically, please know that I am having a good time with you in my heart,” he added.
South Korean law requires all able-bodied men between ages 18-28 serve 18 to 21 months in the military. Jin became the first member of the famous K-pop group to begin his mandatory enlistment on Dec. 13, 2022, just days after he turned 30.
In January, he shared photos of himself in uniform, with CNN reporting at the time that he’d completed his five weeks of basic training and had been selected to serve as an assistant instructor at the Yeoncheon army base in northern Gyeonggi Province. A note at the bottom of his Monday (Dec. 4) Weverse message says that Jin is currently a sergeant as a result of his “outstanding military career.”
Jin’s bandmates J-Hope and Suga began their stints earlier this year. And, as announced Tuesday (Dec. 5), the remaining four members of BTS — Jimin, V, Jung Kook and RM — will be enlisting any day now.
“There’s still a lot of time left, but I’m already excited to be with you,” Jin continued in his note to fans. “Oh, and our members are going to join the army… I hope that time passes quickly and I can have a good time with the members and the ARMYs.”
“Thank you again for wishing me a happy birthday,” he concluded. “I’ll be back soon.”