EXO’s Lay Zhang leaves long-time agency SM Entertainment

Kelly Lee Owens has shared a further preview of her imminent new album ‘LP.8’ – hear ‘One’ below.The producer and musician will release the follow-up to August 2020’s ‘Inner Song’ digitally this Friday (April 29) before a physical release follows on June 10 via Smalltown Supersound.Last month, the album was announced alongside the release of two new tracks, ‘Sonic 8’ and ‘Olga’.New four-minute song ‘One’ is an eerie cut in which Owens repeats the line: “You are the one.” Watch the visualiser for the new track below.‘LP.8’, as a press release explains, was “born out of a series of studio sessions” in Oslo and “created with no preconceptions or expectations: an unbridled exploration into the creative subconscious”.The record was made along with the avant-noise artist Lasse Marhaug, who has previously worked with the likes of Merzbow, Sunn O))) and Jenny Hval, and inspired by such artists as Throbbing Gristle and Enya.“For me, ‘8’ meant completion – an album that will ripple infinitely with me personally,” Owens has said of ‘LP.8’.Kelly Lee Owens is set to tour in the UK, Europe and Australia this summer – you can see her upcoming live dates below, and find UK tickets here.

MLD Entertainment, the company behind K-pop girl group MOMOLAND, is gearing up to launch a brand-new group soon.Today (April 26), CEO Lee Hyung-jin spoke to South Korean news outlet Star News in new interview, where he revealed that the agency is preparing to debut a new girl group sometime in June. The upcoming act, named LAPILLUS, will include members who speak Spanish, English, Tagalog, Chinese and Japanese.Two members of the forthcoming group have since been revealed, and they are Japanese trainee Nonaka Shana, who recently appeared on Mnet’s reality TV competition show Girls Planet 999, along with Chantal Videla (known as Chanty), a Filipino-Argentinian model and actress.The duo have been active on MLD Entertainment’s YouTube ‘NADOL’ series, where they had introduced themselves as foreign trainees hoping to becoming K-pop idols in Korea.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefYouTube, the Google-owned video streaming platform, has removed the account of John Lee Ka-chiu, the policeman-turned-politician who is poised to take over as Hong Kong’s next leader.All content on Lee’s YouTube page has been removed. In its place is a message that reads: “This account has been terminated for violating Google’s Terms of Service.”Lee’s campaign office said on Wednesday that it had been informed by Google that the removal of the account was in accordance with the company’s compliance with U.S. sanctions.“We find this very regrettable and completely unreasonable, but we think they can’t stop us from spreading our candidate’s message – our campaign’s message – to the public,” said Tam Yiu-chung, head of Lee’s campaign office.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefChina’s theatrical box office fell to a new low over the weekend as anti-COVID restrictions forces thousands of cinemas to close. Data from consultancy Artisan Gateway showed that nationwide box office across the world’s most populous country amounted to just $10.5 million.

When the UK’s Prime Minister Boris Johnson used a speech at a business conference to wax lyrical about a weekend trip to Peppa Pig World back in November 2021, he was slammed as “rambling” and “embarrassing”.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefLee Jung-jae, the lead star of Netflix hit series “Squid Game” will be at the Cannes Film Festival this year with the world premiere of his feature directing debut “Hunt.”The film (aka “Namsun”) will be presented next month in the Cannes festival’s Midnight Screening section. Two other films will receive midnight screenings: “Fumer Fait Tousser,” by Quentin Dupieux and Moonage Daydream,” by Scott Morgen. The bulk of the festival’s Offical Selection was announced Thursday at a press event in Paris.“Hunt” is a 1980s-set Korean-language spy thriller that Lee got caught up in after buying the rights and rewriting the screenplay.

Joe Otterson TV ReporterAmazon has commissioned a new Canadian original comedy series titled “The Sticky,” Variety has learned.The series is inspired by the true story of “The Great Canadian Maple Syrup Heist.” The English language half-hour series will be set in Quebec.It revolves around Ruth Clarke, a tough, supremely competent middle-aged Canadian maple syrup farmer who’s had it with being hemmed in by the polite, bureaucratic conventions native to her country’s identity. Especially now that that very bureaucracy is threatening to take away everything she loves: Her farm, her comatose husband, and her right to manifest destiny.

Actor Jude Law, 49, gave love a chance in his marriage to British actress Sadie Frost. Sadly, after welcoming three children together, the couple got divorced, and the Fantastic Beasts star returned to the single life. He then dated actress Sienna Miller before he had an affair with his children’s nanny. Jude went on to have two more children with two different women: model Samantha Burke and actress Catherine Harding. Now, Jude is happily married to Phillipa Coan, with whom he welcomed his six child in September 2020. Here’s what you need to know about Jude’s marriages to Sadie and Phillipa.

Warner Bros has removed dialogue referencing a gay relationship between Jude Law’s Albus Dumbledore and Mads Mikkelsen’s Gellert Grindelwald in the version of “Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets Of Dumbledore” released in China.

Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak will both face fines referred by the Metropolitan Police for breaking COVID lockdown rules by attending parties at Downing Street and Whitehall.The Prime Minister and the Chancellor of the Exchequer, along with Johnson’s wife Carrie, have been notified about the fixed penalty notices, which are the latest conclusions from the Met Police’s investigation.Labour has called for both Johnson and Sunak to resign, while Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey demanded parliament be recalled for a vote of confidence in Johnson.Keir Starmer, leader of the Labour Party, said: “Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak have broken the law and repeatedly lied to the British public. They must both resign.

The UK’s leading fraud prevention service, Cifas, has issued a scam warning to gas and electricity customers following numerous reports from energy suppliers that many pre-payment account holders have been offered discounted prices by criminals, which could in fact lead to even higher bills.

An evil teacher who has been jailed for raping and abusing his pupils was close friends with Christopher Ling, a former violin teacher accused of molesting girls at Chetham’s School of Music.

Paramount+ has acquired Finestkind, the crime thriller from Oscar winner Brian Helgeland which stars Academy Award winner Tommy Lee Jones, Ben Foster, Toby Wallace and Jenna Ortega. A drop date later this year on the streamer is scheduled.

Mark Tuan has revealed that he considered stepping away from music following the boyband’s departure from JYP Entertainment.In his recent appearance on Cosmopolitan’s ‘Nobody Asked’ YouTube series, the Taiwanese-American star opened up about rethinking his music career after leaving South Korea. The singer had returned to his hometown of Los Angeles, California in early 2021 following GOT7’s departure from longtime agency JYP Entertainment.“After moving back last year, I really thought about just giving up and not working on music anymore,” Tuan admitted.

Kelly Lee Owens has announced her new album ‘LP.8’ and shared two new tracks – you can listen to ‘Sonic 8’ and ‘Olga’ below.The producer and musician will release the follow-up to August 2020’s ‘Inner Song’ digitally on April 29 before a physical release follows on June 10 via Smalltown Supersound.‘LP.8’, as a press release explains, was “born out of a series of studio sessions” in Oslo and “created with no preconceptions or expectations: an unbridled exploration into the creative subconscious”.The record was made along with the avant-noise artist Lasse Marhaug, who has previously worked with the likes of Merzbow, Sunn O))) and Jenny Hval, and inspired by such artists as Throbbing Gristle and Enya.“For me, ‘8’ meant completion – an album that will ripple infinitely with me personally,” Owens has said of ‘LP.8’.You can hear two previews of the forthcoming record, ‘Sonic 8’ and ‘Olga’, in the above and below visualisers.You can see the tracklist and album artwork for Kelly Lee Owens’ ‘LP.8’ below. Pre-order is available here.1. ‘RELEASE’ 2. ‘VOICE’3. ‘ANADLU’4. ‘S.O (2)’5. ‘OLGA’6. ‘NANA PIANO’7. ‘QUICKENING’ 8. ‘ONE’9. ‘SONIC 8’ Kelly Lee Owens is set to tour in the UK, Europe and Australia this summer – you can see her upcoming live dates below, and find UK tickets here.June3 – Rising Festival Hub, Melbourne, Australia4 – Motorik [DJ Set], Sydney, Australia15 – Magnolia Fest, Milan, Italy19 – Body & Soul Festival, Dublin, Ireland25 – Bristol Sounds, BristolJuly2 – Roskilde Festival, Roskilde, Denmark8 – Bilbao BBK Live Fest, Bilbao, Spain10 – Artivive Festival, Modena, Italy22 – Bluedot, Macclesfield23 – Standon Calling Festival, Hertfordshire30 – South Facing, London31 – Ortigia Sound System Festival [DJ Set], Sicily,