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| yna@yna.co.kr 2022-12-04 08:00:35
Ra Hwak-jin / Woo Ji-won
◇ BTS sweeps 2022 MAMA Awards with 6 wins
K-pop supergroup BTS has won six trophies at the 2022 MAMA Awards, including MAMA Platinum, the "top of the top" honors created this year for the K-pop industry's biggest annual year-end music awards.
MAMA Platinum is presented to artists who have won in all four main categories for a year. BTS has the record of sweeping all four for three consecutive years from 2019 to 2021.
The septet claimed three of the four main prizes -- artist of the year, album of the year, worldwide icon of the year -- during the annual awards ceremony held Tuesday and Wednesday at the Kyocera Dome Osaka, a baseball stadium in Japan's Osaka.
This made BTS the first K-pop act to win in any main category of the awards ceremony for seven years in a row since 2016.
Other honors for the septet during the 2022 ceremony were best male group and worldwide fans' choice.
The total number of prizes BTS received in the ceremony can rise to eight if two wins claimed by member J-Hope are included.
Busy with individual activities, the group did not attend the ceremony. But J-Hope took the stage for his first live performance of tracks off the album, including "More," "Arson" and "Future," on a South Korean TV channel. The ceremony was broadcast live on the music cable channel Mnet.
"2022 was a year of hardship for BTS and when our seven members once again experienced pain of growth as we struggled to find out a way to overcome it," he said, looking back on the past year.
Right after the group won MAMA Platinum, he surprised fans by making a call on stage to Jin, a bandmate who will begin his mandatory military service in weeks.
◇ BTS' RM drops first formal solo album 'Indigo'
RM, leader of the global K-pop sensation BTS, has released his solo debut album, "Indigo," on Friday.
"Indigo" is his first individual project in about four years since October 2018, when he released a mixtape titled "mono."
"RM contained his honest feelings, worries and various other thoughts in 'Indigo'," Big Hit Music said. "He led the whole production process ranging from writing and composing all the tracks to the album's concept, design, composition and to planning the music video."
The BTS rapper chose indigo, a color that contrasts with the black-and-white tone of his previous project "mono," and put it throughout the upcoming album to express his changed tendencies and thoughts.
"It's an album like a self-curated exhibition," RM said on Weverse, an online K-pop fan community platform, Thursday night. "I was able to blend music and language that are close to the current shape of my heart more courageously and honestly."
Singers HyunA and Dawn, well-known lovers in the music industry, has broken up after six years of dating.
According to the music industry on Thursday, HyunA wrote a post on her Instagram the previous day, saying, "We broke up. We have decided to remain as good friends and colleagues in the future."
HyunA, however, did not specify who the target was, but it is observed that the two broke up as Dawn pressed "like" button on the post.
A day later, Dawn also confirmed his breakup by posting on his Instagram that approves it.
Dawn wrote, "Even though we broke up, she is still precious to me, and she is the most sincere and coolest person I have ever known and the artist I love the most."
He also said he will take legal actions to anyone who spread false information about their relationship.
He said, "I will sue the coward who spread the false information. Don't live like this and use your precious time for a better place."
HyunA and Dawn began dating in May 2016 and revealed it to the pubic in August 2018. Last year, they also released a duet album.
◇ KARA returns with special album after 7-yr hiatus
KARA, a K-pop girl group that was hugely popular in South Korea and Japan, has returned on Tuesday with its first release in 7 1/2 years.
It marked KARA's first whole-group project since May 2015, when its seventh EP "In Love" came out. "Move Again" involves members Gyuri, Seungyeon, Youngji, as well as Nicole and Jiyoung, who both left the group in 2014.
Debuting in 2007, the group had been one of the top second-generation K-pop girl groups, along with Girls' Generation, with hit songs such as "Pretty Girl," "Mister," "Honey" and "Lupin," before practically being disbanded in January 2016.
According to the agency, the band made the album to repay support from its fans, as this year marks the 15th anniversary of its debut. "All members participated in the songwriting and album production to complete a work that has KARA's unique color," it said.
"I thought it will be almost impossible (to reunite as a group)," Seungyeon said through the agency. "I thought we should try to make the event the smallest thing we can do together this year, and have come this far ... I still cannot believe this, and feel proud of my bandmates and fans."
Nicole said the album felt all the more special to the band because its members cared about the whole process of making it.
"I wanted to give a better album as a present to fans because of the hiatus. I can't wait to perform the album's songs, curious how they will be received by fans," she added.
The album has four songs -- the main single "When I Move," "Happy Hour," "Shout It Out" and "Oxygen."
The group took the stage of the 2022 MAMA Awards, a year-end music awards show hosted by local cable channel Mnet, in Osaka, Japan, on Tuesday night, for the first live performance of the song.
◇ Red Velvet returns with another sampled music
Girl group Red Velvet, which has topped music charts at home and abroad in March with a song that sampled Johann Sebastian Bach's "Air on the G String From Suite No. 3," has dropped another song that sampled a famous classical music piece Monday.
"Birthday," the title track of the second volume of the group's "The ReVe Festival 2022" EP series, sampled "Rhapsody in Blue," one of George Gershwin's masterpieces of 20th-century American music.
"Both songs sampled classical music, but the mood is definitely different," Seulgi said during an online press conference to promote the album. "We tried to present a bit classical and elegant charm with 'Feel My Rhythm' and to create a unique and lively vibe with 'Birthday.'"
In addition to the title track, the five-track EP, "The ReVe Festival 2022 - Birthday," has the songs "Bye Bye," "On A Ride," "Zoom" and "Celebrate."
"Birthday" is a pop-dance song based on an impressive trap rhythm, with rhythmical drums and a refreshing synth sound. Its lyrics are about a girl who confesses her feelings for her love interest, saying, "Each day of your life will be as fun as a birthday if you are with me."
The new EP has sold more than 712,000 copies as of last Sunday in preorders, breaking the group's own record.
Meanwhile, their new mini album has topped "Top Album Chart" of iTunes in 44 countries, including Canada, Finland, Sweden, Poland, Norway, Greece, Romania, Bulgaria, Guatemala, Bolivia and more on the first day of its release.
"Birthday" topped the worldwide iTunes album chart, and the title song of the same name topped the music platform Bugs.
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