Disbanded K-Pop Groups of 2023: 9 Bands Split Up & Contract Renewals Revealed!

EXCLUSIVE: Viaplay is to document the troubled story of pop group Ace of Base, one of Sweden’s most successful pop bands of all time.

BLACKPINK‘s status continues to be unknown.

The year is nearly over, and there’s been so much K-pop excellence in 2023!

Michaela Zee Geffen Records and Hybe, the K-pop entertainment company behind BTS and NewJeans, have announced the final six members of the new girl group Katseye. The Katseye finalists, who were unveiled at a live event in L.A. on Friday night, include Daniela Avanzini, Lara Rajagopalan and Megan Skiendiel from the U.S.; Yoonchae Jeong from South Korea; Sophia Laforteza from the Philippines; and Manon Bannerman from Switzerland.

EXCLUSIVE: Korean American comedian, writer and producer Cathy Shim is the latest to join the cast of the film K-Pops! from first-time director and eight-time Grammy winner Anderson .Paak (who also stars). She will play Diamond, the energetic iconic host of a K-pop competition show in Seoul, and .Paak’s hard-to-please boss.

SM Entertainment has announced plans to begin a talent search for the formation of an upcoming UK-based boyband, in partnership with production company Moon&Back.SM Entertainment – home to top K-pop acts such as aespa, Red Velvet, Girls’ Generation and more – announced its partnership with UK-based television production company Moon&Back yesterday (November 15). In the newly announced partnership, both companies revealed an upcoming television project in the works to create and debut a brand-new British boyband to global television audiences.Slated to be filmed over the course of six months, the upcoming television series will follow a fresh-faced boy group as they depart London some time in early 2024 “on the adventure of a lifetime”, according to a press release.

K-pop label YG Entertainment has provided an update on contract renewal negotiations with BLACKPINK, saying that they are still ongoing.The entertainment company made a brief statement to South Korean media, including Sports Chosun, yesterday (November 14) saying that it is “still negotiating with the artists regarding their exclusive contracts”, as translated by Koreaboo. No other details regarding the current status of the discussions were divulged, but YG Entertainment shared in the same statement that an announcement of the negotiations’ outcome “will be revealed through the document regarding major management issues related to investments.” An exact date for this report’s publication has yet to be announced.Negotiations surrounding the status of BLACKPINK’s expiring contracts with YG Entertainment have been underway since July, and their contracts were said to have expired in August.

The Masked Singer is back for season 10!

The Masked Singer is back for season 10!

The Masked Singer is back for season 10!

The Masked Singer is back for season 10!

NewJeans singer Minji was apparently “not desperate” to debut as a K-pop idol, according to the casting agent who discovered her.South Korean casting director Darren Won recently recalled the story of how he found and casted NewJeans’ Minji in a new interview withThe Korea Times. “I invested a lot of time and effort to cast Minji, who was not so desperate about becoming a K-pop star at first,” he said, recalling first seeing her outside “a music academy in the city of Chuncheon, Gangwon Province, when she was 13”.“Back then, I was urgently looking for some idol trainees and the academy’s director told me she had two students to recommend,” he added. One of the students was Minji, however Won noted that she had not “set her sights” on making a debut at the time, despite having aspirations of becoming a singer.“Yet, I clearly saw the potential in her as soon as I met her, so I kept persuading her and ended up bringing her to Source Music, a K-pop label that I worked for at the time,” Won added.

IVE have announced the stops and dates for their upcoming 2023 to 2024 ‘Show What I Have’ world tour.Today (November 8), IVE announced the dates for the upcoming Asia, US, Europe, Latin America and Australia legs of their 2023 to 2024 ‘Show What I Have’ world tour. This comes just a month after they kicked off the tour in October with two shows in Seoul, South Korea.The K-pop girl group will kick off the Asia leg of their newly announced tour in November 2023, with two shows in Yokohama, Japan.

There is so much K-pop excellence in 2023!

Sure, we all know that Michael Mann is currently prepping the release of “Ferrari.” And then, after that, he’ll be hard at work on bringing “Heat 2” to life. But what else does the filmmaker have up his sleeve? Well, according to Variety, it appears the Mann is working on an adaptation of the Korean hit film, “Veteran.” READ MORE: ‘Heat 2’: Michael Mann Eyeing Adam Driver To Star & Says It’ll Be His Next Film The report claims that Michael Mann is working with Korean studio, CJ ENM, on an English-language adaptation of the crime film, “Veteran.” It’s still in the early stages, but we know that Mann is definitely attached to help write the script.

CUBE Entertainment has responded to reports of BtoB’s contract expirations in an official statement.Earlier today (November 1), South Korean media outletIlgan Sports reported that the contracts of five BtoB members had expired, alledging that the K-pop idols and CUBE Entertainment have yet to come to an agreement on a possible renewal.According to the report, BtoB are interested staying as group even if they leave CUBE Entertainment. Ilgan Sports also claims that several other labels have offered up to ₩6billion (approximately £3.64million) as a down payment to house the group if they decide to depart from their long-time agency.Shortly after reports of BtoB’s contract expiration surfaced, CUBE issued a brief statement to Xport News, saying that “the contract between CUBE Entertainment and some of the BtoB members has not yet concluded”, as translated by Koreaboo.“We plan on doing our best until the end of the contract,” CUBE Entertainment added.“We understand that the BtoB members are working through this situation with an open mindset, looking at various options.”In response to claims of third-party labels approaching BtoB, CUBE Entertainment said: “The amount mentioned in the article has nothing to do with our company’s position related to the matter.”BtoB debuted as a seven-member group in 2012, and have last renewed their contracts with CUBE Entertainment in 2018.

EXCLUSIVE: Megan Stalter (Hacks), Kanoa Goo (The Rookie), and Rainn Wilson (The Office) will topline ILY, BYE, a new short marking the narrative debut of veteran music video helmer Taylor James (Jason Mraz’s “I Feel Like Dancing”), which has wrapped production.

aespa has stirred controversy with her recent comment about other K-pop groups.aespa recently made an appearance in a new Rolling Stone YouTube video, where the girl group and American singer Grimes interviewed one another about music, using AI in the industry and more.At one point in the video, Grimes asked aespa: “How is it like working with all four of you and negotiating and all that? In many ways, it’s great but every time I do have a creative partner, it is so fulfilling, but sometimes you fight.”Karina responded by saying that despite the four members of aespa having “different personalities”, she believes the quartet “come together well”. She added: “And we just get along well as people.

Luminate, a provider of music and entertainment data, the Top 100 K-pop artists globally have racked up a total of 90.4billion streams across audio and video services so far this year.The figure is a 42.2 per cent increase as compared to the same period in 2022, with Japan having the high number of on-demand streams at 9.7billion, up from 8.6billion from the year prior.The US came in second with 9.2billion, a marked increase from 6.6billion in 2022. Rounding out the Top Five in terms of most on-demand streams are Indonesia (7.4billion), South Korea (7.3billion) and India (6.2billion).In its report, Luminate also broke down the regional composition of streams for a number of top K-pop groups.

Persona: Sulli, a documentary film starring late K-pop star Sulli, will premiere on Netflix in November.Today (October 26), Netflix confirmed that Persona: Sulli will be released on the streaming platform next month. According to a report from Korea JoongAng Daily, the film will be split into two parts.The first is a short film called 4: Clean Island, which stars the late Sulli as the titular “4”, who travels to an island that is dubbed the cleanest place in the world.