Stray Kids will embark on their first dome tour in August, label JYP Entertainment announced Tuesday.

The band will hop around four cities in Japan for eight concerts: Fukuoka on Aug. 16-17, Nagoya on Sept. 2-3, Osaka on Sept. 9-10 and Tokyo on Oct. 28-29. On Sept. 30 and Oct. 1, it will hold concerts in Seoul.

The eight bandmates will be the first among the "fourth generation" of K-pop boy bands to play four major domes in Japan.

Meanwhile, Stray Kids have been sweeping across major charts at home and abroad with their third full-length album “Five-Star.” The group made a hot-shot debut on the Billboard 200, its third time atop the chart. It was also No. 1 on Oricon’s weekly digital album ranking.

The LP sold over 4.61 million units in the first week, after selling 5.13 million in preorders, both K-pop records.

EXO tops iTunes charts in 33 regions with prerelease

EXO landed atop iTunes top songs charts in 33 regions with “Let Me In,” a prerelease from its upcoming seventh studio album.

The single was also No. 1 on a series of overseas charts, including the digital album sales chart of China’s QQ Music.

The band dropped the ballad on Monday in advance of the full release of LP “Exist,” due out on July 10. It comes over two years since its special album, “Don’t Fight the Feeling.” The band’s last full album was “Obsession” from 2019.

SM Entertainment uploaded a timeline poster Tuesday announcing that it will put out “Hear Me Out,” another song from the nine-track LP, on June 30.

There have been conflicts with three members of the eight-piece act – Baekhyun, Chen and Xiumin -- with the label over their contracts, but the band plans to carry on with activities as scheduled.

The Boyz add date to Japan tour

The Boyz will hold concerts at Saitama Super Arena on July 1-2, agency IST Entertainment said Tuesday.

The concerts will be a grand finale to their ongoing Japan tour, the band’s second, that brought the 11 bandmates to Niigata, Kobe and Fukuoka. The tour resumes in Gifu on June 26 and in Hiroshima on June 28, and will continue to six more cities across Asia under the title “Zeneration.”

During the Japan concerts, the band put on “Delicious” for the first time on stage. It is the titular track from its second studio album that was released on Tuesday and the band dropped it in advance on May 31. The album consists of eight tracks and comes about two years since its first Japan LP “Breaking Dawn.”

aespa lauded for performance at Governors Ball

Girl group aespa drew attention for its first performance at the Governors Ball Music Festival 2023.

The group made “history with first-ever Governors Ball performance,” wrote Billboard magazine, going through its set list one by one. Although Giselle was absent from the stage due to health reasons, the group “commanded the stage with their inimitable presence,” it added.

Rolling Stone magazine also pointed to the girl group as one of the best moments from the three-day festival. The first K-pop act in the festival’s history “breezed through a set that began with pyro for the first song and only got bigger and noisier from there” with “Ningning’s vocals particularly shining,” it said, adding “it was hard not to get swept up.”

Meanwhile, the quartet is set to play a concert in Jakarta, Indonesia on June 24.

By Hwang You-mee
(glamazon@heraldcorp.com)