K-pop idol group CNBLUE’s lead singer Jung Yong-hwa, who recently kicked off his solo career, showed off his abdominal muscles on Thursday. The singer uploaded a shirtless photo of himself on Twitter, saying “One Fine Day,” a reference to his newly released single. Fans were pleasantly surprised at his defined abs, posting, “When did Jung Yong-hwa build up this much muscle?,” “This is a piece o...

K-pop girl group EXID, which shot to sudden stardom with the viral hit single “Up & Down,” won its first music award at Wednesday’s fourth Gaon Chart K-Pop Award. “We are so thankful for such a great award. We will continue to work hard toward becoming a better team. Thank you so much,” the group wrote on its official Twitter handle, after receiving the local music chart’s “Hot Trend Award.” It...

K-pop female pop-ballad duo Davichi has by all accounts upgraded its musical style, and revamped its image in the act’s latest EP, “Davichi Hug,” which was released on Wednesday. The two artists, Lee Hae-ri and Kang Min-kyung, previously enjoyed a string of successes with hit songs like “The Letter,” “8282” and “Turtle” under their previous management label Core Contents Media. However this tim...

Former Superstar K4 contestant Eddy Kim melts young female hearts when he performs his enchantingly romantic, self-written ballads with his signature ladies’ man, charming demeanor. The 24-year-old singer-songwriter on Wednesday dropped his six-track, second EP, “Sing Sing Sing,” more than a year after releasing his debut EP “How To Use You.” “With this new album, I really wanted to be able to ...

K-pop boy band EXO claimed the top prize on the second day of the 29th Golden Disk Awards in Beijing on Thursday. The 10-member group snatched the Album of the Year award, deemed the greatest honor of the day, for the second consecutive year with its album “Overdose.” This year’s Golden Disk Awards recognized both digital and physical album releases on the two-day event. Big Bang member Taeyan...

Local female rap sensation Yoon Mi-rae was recognized as the Korean hip-hop scene’s “diamond in the rough” by U.S. music publication MTV Iggy. MTV Iggy recently published an interview feature on Yoon, who is best known as a member of hip-hop trio MFBTY and for being the wife of Korean hip-hop legend Tiger JK ― widely referred to as the godfather Korean hip-hop. “She continues to be one of Korea...

YG Entertainment, which recently became the nation’s top K-pop entertainment agency, is expanding its empire with its latest music endeavor ― a “YG Global K-pop Cluster” project. On Thursday, YG officials revealed that the company would sign a YG Global K-pop Cluster establishment agreement with the city government of Uijeongbu, Gyeonggi Province. The agency is slated to build a large-scale con...

R&B singer Bobby Kim was investigated by the FBI for allegedly causing a disturbance and sexually harassing a flight attendant on an international flight, local media outlets reported Friday. The 41-year-old, who seemed intoxicated, started shouting at the crew five hours after the Korean Air flight left Incheon for San Francisco at 4:40 p.m. on Wednesday, reports said. Creating a ruckus, the U...

The music video of K-pop star HyunA’s hit single “Red” is the Rolling Stone’s No. 5 pick for the best music videos of 2014. Although the acclaimed magazine described the song itself as “a schizophrenic mess,” it gave an approving nod to the only K-pop video on its top 10 list, applauding the clip’s rapid scene shifts of monkey butts and giant red lips. “Some major Korean broadcasters thought th...

“I realized that I just chased after a win. Next year, I will not bet on one song. I will just focus on music now,” Psy said at a year-end concert. Riding high on the back of the retro sounds that swept Korea in 2014, veteran boy band Shinhwa will release its 12th studio album in February, nearly two years after it put out “The Classic.” Formed in 1998, the six-member band has remained together...

Old-school K-pop icon Seo Taiji announced that he would be expanding the section of the Guapi Assu Brazilian forest named after him as part of his new “Be the Green” environmental preservation efforts. In 2012, a group of Seo Taiji fans raised 38.67 million won ($35,000) to earmark nearly five hectares of Brail’s vast tropical rainforest as the Seo Taiji Forest in honor of the star’s 20th annive...

In its first-ever solo tour of Asia, K-pop boy band EXO drew 320,000 concert goers, proving their overseas fame, its label SM Entertainment said Friday. The hottest K-pop act, which debuted in 2012 as a 12-member group, held 30 concerts in major Asian countries including China and Indonesia from May until this week as part of its tour “EXO from Exoplanet: The Lost Tour.” The tour had been a tur...

K-pop starlet Joo-yeon may be parting ways from the eight-member girl group Afterschool as well as her label Pledis Entertainment, according to news reports that began circulating Monday. Her contract with Pledis is scheduled to expire on Dec. 31 and it was reported that Joo-yeon had no plans to renew her contract with the agency or remain as a member of Afterschool. The reports also said that h...

Beating out the cream of the crop in pop music such as Pharrell Williams and newcomer Sam Smith, the K-pop idols of 2NE1 have made their mark this year with the album “Crush” named in Rolling Stone’s “20 Best Pop Albums of 2014.” Taking the No. 6 spot on the magazine’s list of the year’s 20 best albums, “Crush” is only the K-pop group’s second full-length album. After its release on Feb. 27, the...