BIGBANG’s T.O.P has parted ways with YG Entertainment amidst news of the group’s long-awaited comeback.

On February 7, YG Entertainment officially announced, “BIGBANG will be releasing a new song this spring.” The agency added, “[BIGBANG] has already completed recording their new song, and they are currently preparing to shoot the music video.”

However, that wasn’t the only big news YG Entertainment had to share about BIGBANG: they also announced that T.O.P would be leaving the agency after 16 years.

“T.O.P’s exclusive contract with YG has ended, and he will be taking on a wide variety of new challenges as both an artist and an entrepreneur,” stated YG Entertainment. “We respected T.O.P’s desire to broaden the scope of his individual activities aside from just his promotions with BIGBANG, and he successfully came to an agreement about this with the other members.”

The agency continued, “As long as the conditions are right, [T.O.P] will always participate in BIGBANG’s activities whenever he is able.”

BIGBANG’s upcoming comeback will mark their first new music in four years since the release of “Flower Road” in March 2018.

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The Korean Business Research Institute has revealed this month’s brand reputation rankings for individual idols!

The rankings were determined through an analysis of the consumer participation, media coverage, interaction, and community awareness indexes of 1,453 idols, using big data collected from January 2 to February 2.

BTS’s Jimin topped this month’s list with a brand reputation index of 5,682,902. High-ranking phrases in his keyword analysis included “Jeju,” “Instagram,” and “COVID-19,” while his highest-ranking related terms included “travel,” “certify,” and “surgery.” Jimin’s positivity-negativity analysis revealed a score of 78.50 percent positive reactions.

2PM’s Lee Junho took second place in the rankings with a brand reputation index of 4,367,152, while Kang Daniel came in third with an index of 3,967,058.

Finally, BTS’s Jungkook and V rounded out the top five for February at fourth and fifth places respectively.

Check out the top 30 for this month below!

1. BTS’s Jimin
2. 2PM’s Lee Junho
3. Kang Daniel
4. BTS’s Jungkook
5. BTS’s V
6. BLACKPINK’s Jennie
7. BLACKPINK’s Lisa
8. ASTRO’s Cha Eun Woo
9. BTS’s Jin
10. Girls’ Generation’s Taeyeon
11. WINNER’s Song Mino
12. Apink’s Son Naeun
13. BLACKPINK’s Jisoo
14. Red Velvet’s Irene
15. aespa’s Winter
16. Red Velvet’s Joy
17. Girls’ Generation’s YoonA
18. aespa’s Karina
19. SF9’s Rowoon
20. BTS’ Suga
21. MAMAMOO’s Wheein
22. Super Junior’s Kim Heechul
23. BIGBANG’s G-Dragon
24. Super Junior’s Kyuhyun
25. BTS’s RM
26. BLACKPINK’s Rosé
27. BTS’s J-Hope
28. Wanna One’s Kim Jae Hwan
29. 2PM’s Chansung
30. MAMAMOO’s Moonbyul

Watch 2PM’s Lee Junho in his hit drama “The Red Sleeve” with subtitles below!

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On January 27, the High Court for Armed Forces carried out Seungri’s appeal trial.

Seungri currently has nine charges including the violation of the Act on the Aggravated Punishment, etc. of Specific Economic Crimes, violation of the Food Sanitation Act, embezzlement, violation of the Act on Special Cases Concerning the Punishment, etc. of Sexual Crimes, habitual gambling, violation of the Foreign Exchange Transactions Act, prostitution mediation, purchase of prostitution services, and special violence instigation.

In today’s appeal trial, the justice department sentenced Seungri to one year and six months in prison, which is a reduced sentence from his first sentence of three years in prison, along with a fine of 1,156,900,000 won (about $994,544). Previously, Seungri and the military prosecution had both filed appeals on his original sentence.

The reduced sentence seems to follow Seungri’s change in stance. In the original trial, Seungri had denied eight of his nine charges excluding the violation of the Foreign Exchange Transactions Act, but he acknowledged all his charges in the appeal trial and conveyed his remorse.

Following the first trial last year, Seungri is currently imprisoned after being placed under arrest by the court. Both Seungri and the military prosecution did not appeal to the Supreme Court, so in the case that the appeal sentence is finalized, Seungri will be released after serving one year and one month more of his sentence. The third trial will be carried out by the Supreme Court of Korea.

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Top Photo Credit: Xportsnews

On January 27, the High Court for Armed Forces carried out Seungri’s appeal trial.

Seungri currently has nine charges including the violation of the Act on the Aggravated Punishment, etc. of Specific Economic Crimes, violation of the Food Sanitation Act, embezzlement, violation of the Act on Special Cases Concerning the Punishment, etc. of Sexual Crimes, habitual gambling, violation of the Foreign Exchange Transactions Act, prostitution mediation, purchase of prostitution services, and special violence instigation.

In today’s appeal trial, the justice department sentenced Seungri to one year and six months in prison, which is a reduced sentence from his first sentence of three years in prison, along with a fine of 1,156,900,000 won (about $994,544). Previously, Seungri and the military prosecution had both filed appeals on his original sentence.

The reduced sentence seems to follow Seungri’s change in stance. In the original trial, Seungri had denied eight of his nine charges excluding the violation of the Foreign Exchange Transactions Act, but he acknowledged all his charges in the appeal trial and conveyed his remorse.

Following the first trial last year, Seungri is currently imprisoned after being placed under arrest by the court. Both Seungri and the military prosecution did not appeal to the Supreme Court, so in the case that the appeal sentence is finalized, Seungri will be released after serving one year and one month more of his sentence. The third trial will be carried out by the Supreme Court of Korea.

Source (1)

Top Photo Credit: Xportsnews

BIGBANG has hit the 500 million mark for the second time on YouTube!

On January 25 at approximately 10:17 p.m. KST, BIGBANG’s music video for “FANTASTIC BABY” surpassed 500 million views on YouTube, making it their second music video to achieve the feat following “BANG BANG BANG.”

BIGBANG originally released the music video for “FANTASTIC BABY” on March 7, 2012 at 12 a.m. KST, meaning that it took the song just over nine years, 10 months, and 18 days to reach the milestone.

Congratulations to BIGBANG!

Watch the iconic music video for “FANTASTIC BABY” again below: