SM Entertainment Showbiz and Celebrity Breaking News

aespa’s sophomore mini-album ‘Girls’ has debuted at Number Three on the Billboard 200, marking their highest entry on the chart.On July 17, Billboard announced that the quartet’s latest mini-album ‘Girls’ had debuted at Number Three in the week ending July 14. It’s aespa’s highest-charting album yet, after their debut mini-album ‘Savage’ charted at Number 20 following its release last October.According to Billboard, the girl group had earned 56,000 equivalent album units, of which 53,000 were attributed to album sales, making ‘Girls’ the top-selling album of the week.aespa are now the third K-pop girl group to land in the Top Three of the Billboard 200, joining the ranks of BLACKPINK’s 2020 studio debut ‘THE ALBUM’ and TWICE’s ‘Formula Of Love: T+O=<3’ last November, which debuted at Number Two and Three respectively.‘Girls’ was first released on July 8 alongside the music video for its lead single of the same name.

Big Mouth, starring Girls’ Generation’s YoonA and Lee Jong-suk.The newly released visual starts off on a lighthearted note, with scenes from Park Chang-ho (While You Were Sleeping’s Lee Jong-suk) and Go Mi-ho’s (Girls’ Generation’s YoonA) earlier days as newly weds. Things quickly turn awry after Chang-ho is publicly and wrongly accused for a murder, with Mi-ho declaring to the press, “I sincerely hope you reveal who on earth would do such a thing.”Chang-ho tries to juggle both clearing his own name and ensuring the safety of his wife in snippets shown through the teaser as he gets himself into physical altercations, telling his aggressors: “Don’t touch my wife.

aespa have released a powerful music video for their new single, ‘Girls’.The music video opens with a shot of a digital city, before it delves deeper into the girl group’s SM Universe lore, with an appearance from the AI character Naevis. Elsewhere in the clip, aespa perform the song’s fierce choreography in futuristic rooms, while also making references to their older title tracks.“Scream (Get loud), listen (My sound) / Call it (Upgrade), we coming / Blooming in chaos (We Them Girls), and confronting fear, that courage / Whenever we are together, we them girls, we them girls,” aespa sing on the chorus.‘Girls’ is the title track of aespa’s new mini-album of the same name, which was also released today (July 8).

aespa have revealed that their forthcoming sophomore mini-album ‘Girls’ was initially slated for release a lot earlier.The K-pop quartet recently sat withAudacy for an interview as part of the entertainment platform’s video series Audacy Check In, where they spoke about ‘Girls’ ahead of its release tomorrow (July 8).When asked about the preparation process for the album, member Giselle revealed that ‘Girls” release had actually been pushed back from its original date to make way for more refinements to be made to its songs. “It was released a lot later than what was expected,” she shared.

aespa recently spoke at the United Nations’ High-Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development.The forum, which was hosted at the United Nations headquarters in New York yesterday (July 5), saw the members of the girl group delivering a speech on the importance of sustainable development goals (SDGs) in relation to the group’s metaversal concept.“As the metaverse accelerates, we have to ask the question: ‘Are we working just as hard to create the best possible real-world?’” member Giselle said, per Korea JoongAng Daily. “The metaverse reflects reality.

aespa have released the music video for their first-ever English single, ‘Life’s Too Short’.In the 2000s-themed visual, the girl group brush off drama and negative comments and focus on the good things in their life. The quartet enjoy their lives, eschewing social media to throw a sleepover, go for karaoke and attend photoshoots.“I’m doing me regardless / No, I don’t care what you say about it / And I’mma do it any way that I want / I’m having all this fun so why would I еver stop?” aespa sing on the chorus of ‘Life’s Too Short’.‘Life’s Too Short’ is set to appear on aespa’s sophomore mini-album ‘Girls’, due out July 8.

NCT Dream, LOONA, ATEEZ and more.The K-pop festival, which is set to make its highly anticipated return to in-person events this year, has unveiled the second set of artists for the upcoming Los Angeles festival. These are NCT Dream, LOONA and ATEEZ, as well as rookie groups Kep1er, LIGHTSUM and TO1.In addition to the six new K-pop acts that have been added to the lineup of KCON LA, Japanese boy groups INI and JO1 will also be performing at the three-day convention.

SF9, P1Harmony, EVERGLOW and solo artists Chung Ha and EXO‘s Chen. For the following night’s concert, Kep1er will be joined by boybands ASTRO and ONEUS, the girl group OH MY GIRL and EXO’s Kai.Tickets go on sale at 1pm next Tuesday (June 28), while a pre-sale will run from 10am this Friday (June 24) – find details on both here.

aespa have unveiled the second episode of their ongoing SM Culture Universe (SMCU) series on YouTube.In the new episode, titled Next Level, a strange ‘SYNK OUT’ phenomenon has occurred, causing ‘æ’s, or virtual counterparts to humans, to disappear from the Real World, forced to return to the FLAT — the virtual plane from which they originate.From the FLAT, aespa’s æ-counterparts are able to contact the members with the help of nævis, the AI system that allows virtual beings to appear in the Real World. Projecting their consciousness into their æ’s, the members enter the virtual plane, where nævis tasks them with venturing into KWANGYA, a “ruleless, formless” space that exists beyond the FLAT to find out what is causing the disconnect between the FLAT and Real World.In the rest of the episode, the girl group venture deeper into KWANGYA where they encounter the series’ villain, Black Mamba, for the first time, causing them to experience vivid hallucinations. The series first launched with the release of its first episode, Black Mamba, last year, with the aim to establish and expand the background of SM Entertainment’s company-wide lore, centred in and around KWANGYA.

aespa have shared a new teaser for the second episode of their ongoing SM Culture Universe series on YouTube.In the new trailer for the second SM Culture Universe episode, titled Next Level, the members of aespa have left the fictional universe of Kwangya in order to help nævis solve the ‘SYNK OUT’ phenomenon, in which the connection to the avatar æ had been severed.The full Next Level episode is scheduled for release on the official aespa YouTube channel next week on June 20, at 6pm KST.The series first launched with the release of its first episode, Black Mamba, last year, with the aim to establish and expand the background of SM Entertainment’s company-wide lore, centred in and around Kwangya.Meanwhile, aespa are also gearing up to return with their forthcoming sophomore mini-album ‘Girls’, for which they recently dropped the pre-release track ‘Illusion’. Due out on July 8, the new record is also set to feature the title track ‘Girls’, along with new songs ‘Lingo’ and ‘ICU’.Additionally, ’Girls’ will include the English-language track ‘Life’s Too Short’, which the group originally debuted during their appearance at this year’s Coachella, as well as a Korean version of that song.‘Girls’ will be aespa’s first release of 2022, and is the much-anticipated follow-up to the girl group’s popular debut mini-album ‘Savage’.

aespa have added a new show to their forthcoming ‘Showcase SYNK’ concert in Los Angeles later this month.Today (June 14), SM Entertainment and Live Nation shared that the quartet will be holding a second show for their upcoming ‘Showcase SYNK’ concert in Los Angeles. The second date is set to take place at the YouTube Theatre in Los Angeles, California on June 27, after the original June 26 date sold out.“Thanks to the enthusiasm shown by the local fans, we have decided to do an extra day of performance,” said SM Entertainment, per Korea JoongAng Daily.

SM Entertainment has announced the launch of a new global audition programme in search of new members for boyband NCT.Today (June 10), the South Korean entertainment company announced the forthcoming launch of the ‘Welcome to the NeoCiTy’ audition programme, which will search for new NCT members. It dropped alongside a teaser featuring snippets from various NCT music videos.According to the official application form, SM Entertainment looks set to hold in-person auditions in a total of 14 cities around the world, including Toronto, Vancouver, New York, Los Angeles, Seoul, Ho Chi Minh, Bangkok, Jakarta, Chongqing, Guangzhou, Beijing, Osaka, Fukuoka and Tokyo.SM Entertainment is currently looking for male applicants born between 2001 and 2008, in all three categories of vocals, rap and dance.

aespa have sold more than 1million copies of their upcoming album ‘Girls’ through pre-orders alone.The K-pop quartet’s label, SM Entertainment, told South Korean news outlet Yonhap News Agency earlier today (June 9) that aespa had managed to sell a million copies of their forthcoming second mini-album titled ‘Girls’ so far. Notably, it’s only been a week since pre-orders started on June 2.This achievement makes aespa the second K-pop girl group in history to sell a million copies of an album in pre-sales, following BLACKPINK with their 2020 record ‘The Album’.

Tomorrow X Together vocalist Taehyun has unveiled an alluring rendition of EXO’s Baekyun’s solo single ‘Bambi’.Today (June 7), the TXT singer took to fan community app Weverse to share a video of himself singing a snippet of Baekhyun’s 2021 solo single ‘Bambi’, which was originally released on his third mini-album of the same name. “I still love singing [this song],” wrote Taehyun in the accompanying caption.‘You’re my only Bambi, Bambi / It’s a perfect night for you / Come down, night rain.

aespa have announced that they will be holding a one-day showcase concert in Los Angeles later this month.On June 7, Live Nation announced that aespa would be holding a special showcase, titled ‘Showcase SYNK’, at the YouTube Theatre in Los Angeles, California on June 26 (local time). Tickets are set to go on sale this Friday via Ticketmaster.According to the four-piece’s official Twitter account, the showcase is set to include performances of aespa’s hit songs, along with new tracks from their upcoming mini-album ‘Girls’, as well as game and talk segments.에스파, 美 LA 쇼케이스 6월 26일 개최!신곡 및 히트곡 무대, 토크, 게임까지 다채로운 코너 예고!aespa's LA showcase will be held on June 26th!Stay tuned for various corners from new & hit song stages, talks, and games!https://t.co/TGAgX33Oo9 #aespa #æspa #에스파#Girls pic.twitter.com/1X7JVUD22y— aespa (@aespa_official) June 7, 2022Last week, aespa surprised fans with a brand-new track titled ‘Illusion’, taken from their forthcoming sophomore mini-album ‘Girls’.

SM Entertainment has remastered the music video for Girls’ Generation‘s hit 2009 single ‘Gee’.The iconic song was initially released in January 2009 as the title track of the girl group’s first mini-album of the same name, while the original music video on YouTube was uploaded onto the streaming platform on June 8, 2009.The song’s video treatment notably starred SHINee member Minho as a shopkeeper who arranged nine mannequins for a window display before closing the store was for the day. However, as he left, the mannequins came to life as the members of Girls’ Generation.The music video’s remaster and re-release is part of SM Entertainment’s “SM x YouTube Remastering Project”, which aims to reintroduce the history of K-pop given the genre’s widespread popularity today.The project will include remasters of music videos and tracks by past SM Entertainment acts, as well as remakes and covers of early K-pop hits by the agency’s current roster of artists.Prior to the remastered version of ‘Gee’, SM Entertainment also similarly released a remaster of SHINee’s debut track ‘Replay’ in April this year. aespa also unveiled their rendition of S.E.S.’s 1998 hit ‘Dreams Come True’ for the project previously.In other Girls’ Generation news, it was confirmed last month that the iconic K-pop girl group are set to make a long-awaited comeback this August in celebration of their 15th anniversary.

Girls’ Generation singer YoonA has provided an update on the iconic girl group’s highly anticipated comeback.Earlier this week on May 30, the K-pop idol held an Instagram Live broadcast in celebration of her birthday. During the session, the singer-actress hosted a brief Q&A session where she was asked by fans for an update on the long-awaited Girls’ Generation comeback this August.YoonA responded that she was “preparing for the Girls’ Generation album right now”, and as a result has met up with her bandmates “really often”.

aespa have surprised fans with a brand-new song called ‘Illusion’, from their upcoming mini-album ‘Girls’.The synthpop track dropped today (June 1) on the quartet’s official YouTube channel, alongside a futuristic-looking lyrics video. ‘Illusion’ is also available to listen on all major streaming platforms.

NCT Dream have returned with a repackaged version of their March studio album ‘Glitch Mode’ titled ‘Beatbox’, led by a new title track of the same name.The new visual opens with rapper Mark picking up a microphone and beatboxing, causing the rest of the group and a cheering crowd to materialise around him. The boyband later break into dance, performing to ‘Beatbox’ in a school hallway and outside a gas station.“Yeah, make some mad beats together (yeah, yeah) / Make a beatbox, pop it (yeah, yeah) / More and more makes perfect / Everywhere I go, bring the beatbox,” the boyband sing on the upbeat chorus.In addition to ‘Beatbox’, the re-release features three more new tracks, in addition to the 11 previously released on ‘Glitch Mode’.

NCT Dream have joined forces with ‘Baby Shark’ creator PinkFong on an English-language remix of their single ‘Glitch Mode’.The K-pop boyband dropped the new ‘Glitch Mode’ remake on May 25 as a collaboration with the children’s entertainment company, which was previously behind the global children’s hit ‘Baby Shark’, alongside an animated sing-along music videos for the track.The music video includes animated avatars of all seven members of the NCT sub-unit, who perform the song alongside PinkFong’s cartoon dinosaur mascot Red Rex. The remix features more upbeat, 8-bit-inspired beats beneath child-like vocals, with NCT Dream heard harmonising in the background.The release of the English remix of ‘Glitch Mode’ marks the second time NCT Dream have released an English version of one of their songs with PinkFong so far – the first time being in May last year when the company also released a similar English remix of their song ‘Hot Sauce’.The boyband have also released two original children’s songs with PinkFong over the last two years, the first being ‘Dinosaurs A To Z’ in May last year, later followed up by the song ‘Baby T-Rex’ earlier this month.Meanwhile, NCT Dream are currently gearing up to drop ‘Beatbox’, a repackaged version of their second studio album ‘Glitch Mode’ and to be led by a title track of the same name.

Girls’ Generation are confirmed to make a comeback this year, returning as a full group for the first time in five years.The news of Girls’ Generation’s upcoming return was first reported by South Korean news publication StarNews, with additional reports from Soompi, AllKPop KpopHerald to corroborate the news.Per reports, all eight remaining members of the K-pop act group will make a comeback with a new album in August to celebrate their 15th anniversary. In addition, Girls’ Generation are also scheduled to make appearances on TV shows and reality programmes to promote the upcoming release.Okay, so this is indeed happening for real.

NCT Dream are set to make a comeback at the end of May with their new repackaged album, titled ‘Beatbox’.Today (May 9), the boyband announced through their social media platforms that they would be dropping a repackaged version of their second studio album ‘Glitch Mode’ titled ‘Beatbox’, led by a single of the same name.According to Korea JoongAng Daily, ‘Beatbox’ will feature four new tracks in addition to the 11 previously released in ‘Glitch Mode’. New additions include ‘To My First’, ‘Sorry Heart’ and ‘On The Way’, alongside lead single ‘Beatbox’.

NCT member Johnny Suh has emerged as the most mentioned person at this year’s Met Gala.According to data by American-based market research firm Netbase Quid, Suh was the most mentioned person on social media at the time, with approximately 240,000 mentions. Notably, he beat out this year’s co-hosts Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively, who racked up roughly 48,000 and 220,000 mentions respectively.Other celebrities who also made it to the Top 10 list include Sebastian Stan, Shawn Mendes, the late Chadwick Boseman, Nicki Minaj, Billie Eilish, Katy Perry and Kim Kardashian.

NCT’s Johnny Suh has offered his insight on his “nerve-racking” first Met Gala experience.Earlier this week, the Korean-American K-pop idol made his first-ever appearance at the Met Gala 2022, this year’s edition of one of the biggest fashion events of the year. The singer was dressed in a sleek black ensemble designed by Vietnamese designer Peter Do, who was also making his first appearance at the gala.In an interview with Teen Vogue, Suh spoke about his experience at the Met Gala 2020 and how he felt about the surprise appearance.

aespa have shared new details about their upcoming projects, including their Coachella debut this weekend and an upcoming album.In a recent interview with Billboard, the K-pop quartet dropped several hints about new projects, including their debut performance at the upcoming second weekend of the Coachella festival. aespa will be appearing on the festival’s main stage on April 23.Earlier this week, in an announcement confirming aespa’s Coachella appearance, it was confirmed to NME that the group are set to perform an unreleased track during their set, which will also include other past hits such as ‘Savage’, ‘Next Level’ and ‘Black Mamba’.Winter has since revealed details about the unreleased track, titled ‘Life’s Too Short’, telling Billboard that it will be a cut from a new album from aespa.

SM Entertainment has released a remastered version of the music video for SHINee’s debut single, ‘Replay’.‘Replay’ was initially released on May 22, 2008, as part of the boyband’s debut mini-album of the same name. Notably, the music video featured choreography by Japanese dancer Rino Nakasone and then-future f(x) member Victoria Song as the female love interest.The music video’s remaster and re-release is part of SM Entertainment’s “SM x YouTube Remastering Project”, which aims to reintroduce the history of K-pop given the genre’s widespread popularity today.The project will include remasters of music videos and tracks by past SM Entertainment acts, as well as remakes and covers of early K-pop hits by the agency’s current roster of artists.Prior to the remastered version of ‘Replay’, aespa released their rendition of S.E.S.’s 1998 hit ‘Dreams Come True.’ Their cover of the song was accompanied by a music video that combined the dreamy aesthetics from S.E.S.’s original music video with their own edgy, futuristic signature style.

aespa are set to perform at the upcoming second weekend of Coachella.Today (April 19), it was confirmed that the girl group will make their Coachella debut at week two of the annual music festival, according to a new press release. The news comes after a week of cryptic social media posts by the members of aespa, which implied that the group were California-bound in the near future.The quartet are set appear on the main stage of the festival on April 23, where they will perform hits such as ‘Savage’, ‘Next Level’ and ‘Black Mamba’, according to Kpop Herald.

NCT’s Taeyong has released a new snippet of ‘Love Theory’, his upcoming solo single featuring rapper Wonstein.In the new TikTok clip, Taeyong is seen panning the camera to Wonstein and dancing around the set of what seems to be the music video for ‘Love Theory’.

SHINee leader and vocalist Onew has made his solo comeback with a playful video for ‘Dice’, the title track of his new mini-album of the same name.In the vibrant new visual, Onew exchanges longing looks with a woman in the window of an upscale hotel, before she is taken away by a masked man. He attempts to infiltrate the hotel, first as a prince and later as a bellboy to rescue her.