[엑스포츠뉴스=전아람 기자] Group BIGBANG’s SEUNGRI fascinated the local fans in his first solo tour in Japan. 

From August 11 to August 12, SEUNGRI held his first solo tour in Japan titled ‘SEUNGRI 2018 1ST SOLO TOUR ‘THE GREAT SEUNGRI’ IN JAPAN’ in Makuhari Messe, fascinating a total of 30,000 fans.

SEUNGRI presented fresh joy and attractions through newly arranged tracks in his concert in Japan. He also revealed his various charms by having a DJ time, VJ under large LED lights, and laser illumination on groovy beats that set the concert scene in club vibes. 

SEUNGRI not only performed his solo tracks but also ‘HARU HARU’ arranged by himself, along with BIGBANG’s hit-song medley for the fans that are reminiscent of BIGBANG in full form. 

He performed a total of 27 tracks for 2 hours, releasing passionate energy in Japan following his concert in Korea. As his nickname ‘Seungtsby’ suggests, SEUNGRI presented various attractions including DJ, club, dance, and acting for the audience and their special memories. 

The 6 major sports newspapers in Japan headlined and praised SEUNGRI’s solo tour.

Sankei Sports wrote, “SEUNGRI started his solo tour filled with determination. He filled up the stage by himself and not as a member of BIGBANG, revealing his capabilities”, while Sports Nippon introduced, “SEUNGRI’s first solo tour in Japan progressed with touching moments”. 

SEUNGRI’s Japan tour will be consisted of 6 concerts in 3 cities and is expected to bring out 78,000 audiences. SEUNGRI will continue his solo tour by holding the remaining 4 concerts on September 5~6 in Fukuoka International Convention Center, and from September 19~20 in Osaka Jo Hall. 

After successfully wrapping up his first solo concert in Japan, SEUNGRI will return to Korea and perform in Daegu in 10 years. He will perform in Daegu EXCO’s first floor on the 15^th at 6 PM, and in Busan BEXCO Exhibition Hall 1 on the 19^th at 6 PM. He originally planned to perform only in Seoul but decided to perform nationwide, as the reactions from his first solo concert were supportive. 

2018 . 8. 13.

For BIGBANG, the bond isn’t strong just between the members, but between their families as well!

On August 12, Seungri shared a photo on his personal Instagram account with the caption, “BIGBANG’s parents are even closer than BIGBANG. They came to my solo concert in Japan to cheer me on. Thank you for giving birth to such great sons!” In the photo, Seungri is not only posing with his own parents, but the parents of fellow BIGBANG members G-Dragon and Taeyang as well.

Seungri is currently the only member active as the other four members of BIGBANG are fulfilling their military service. He recently released his solo album “The Great Seungri” and also held his first Korean solo concert as well. For his Korean concerts, the other members of BIGBANG prepared flower wreaths with witty messages to show their support for their youngest member.

Seungri is currently on tour in Japan.

Source (1) Soompi

On the latest episode of tvN’s “Salty Tour,” BIGBANG’s Seungri and Jung Joon Young spilled the beans on each other’s love lives!

The two singers traveled to China together on the August 11 broadcast of the reality show, which followed the cast as they headed to the city of Xiamen.

While chatting over a meal, Seungri woefully mentioned that he had never been contacted out of the blue by a female celebrity, unlike his popular bandmate G-Dragon, who often received calls and messages from girl group members.

When the “Salty Tour” cast responded with skepticism, Jung Joon Young playfully cut in, “The reason is because [Seungri] is the type to contact girls first, before they contact him.”

A flustered Seungri quickly jumped to explain, “The funny thing about me is that I need to be the one to approach a woman, rather than have her approach me. I get scared easily, so if a girl approaches me, I [start wondering], ‘Why did she contact me? What does she want from me?’”

Jung Joon Young jokingly replied, “To be set up with G-Dragon!”

Seungri ignored him and continued, “I get scared. It’s because I’ve had so many bad experiences with women before.”

After Seungri finally convinced the cast members that he was telling the truth about not having been contacted by a female celebrity, Jo Se Ho pointed out that Jung Joon Young had been contacted by a few. Seungri chimed in, “He’s really popular.”

When Park Myung Soo asked why, Seungri joked, “I don’t know why. But he’s like a snake—once he wraps around [a girl], he never lets go.”

“Salty Tour” airs on Saturdays at 10:30 p.m. KST.

Source (1) (2) soompi

On the latest episode of tvN’s “Salty Tour,” BIGBANG’s Seungri dished on G-Dragon’s impressive popularity among female idols!

During the August 11 broadcast of the travel reality show, Seungri and gugudan’s Kim Sejeong joined the cast as they jetted off to the Chinese city of Xiamen for their latest journey. While enjoying a meal together, Seungri warned Kim Sejeong about the pitfalls of achieving fame at an early age.

Explaining that he had become overly confident after the success of his solo track “Strong Baby,” Seungri remarked, “I became arrogant and thought, ‘I can do fine on my own without the other BIGBANG members.’ I was exactly Sejeong’s age when I became cocky.”

He added, “You have to be careful at that age. It’s an age at which you find yourself becoming arrogant.”

Seungri then asked Kim Sejeong if she had her own phone, warning, “You’re going to start getting a lot of ‘love calls’ from now on. [You’ll get messages] that say, ‘I’m so-and-so from such-and-such group, and I’d like to get closer to you, Sejeong,’ with hearts and smiley faces.”

When the “Salty Tour” cast members accused Seungri of talking about his own past experience, the BIGBANG member insisted that he wasn’t. He then revealed that he had seen G-Dragon receive messages from many girl group members expressing an interest in him.

“In G-Dragon’s case, so many girl group members contacted him,” said Seungri. “[They’d say,] ‘I’d like to be close friends with you.’ I don’t know how they found out his phone number, but he’d get so many messages.”

He playfully went on, “And [G-Dragon] would always brag about it. He’d say, ‘So-and-so contacted me. What should I do?’ Why would he ask us that? [I’d think,] ‘Why are you telling me?’”

Seungri jokingly continued, “At the time, I thought that I might also end up receiving that kind of [phone call or message] at some point. So I would answer all my phone calls from unknown numbers, which people usually don’t do. But I would get nervous and feel butterflies in my stomach every time I received a call from an unknown number.”

However, to his dismay, Seungri reported that the only unexpected phone calls he had received from other celebrities had been from other men.

tvN’s “Salty Tour” airs on Saturdays at 10:30 p.m. KST.

Source (1) via soompi

A look back at BIGBANG’s “Haru Haru,” 10 years later https://t.co/sH29wcO24cpic.twitter.com/bTGgI5SaNX

— billboard (@billboard) August 9, 2018

It’s hard to imagine what the music world would look like today if BIGBANG hadn’t seen major success in 2008 with their song “Haru Haru (Day By Day)” and its now-iconic music video.

Released on Aug. 8, 2008 — exactly 10 years ago — the song not only solidified the quintet as leaders of the South Korean music industry, but also kicked off their path to global superstardom and helped shape K-pop as we know it today.

Let’s take a closer look at “Haru Haru,” 10 years later.

The Song

At first glance, “Haru Haru” may look a bit like an anachronism to international listeners who may be more familiar with dance bangers like “Fantastic Baby” and “Bang Bang Bang” rather than the group’s more sentimental offerings, like this year’s “Flower Road.” And at the time of its release, the group was going through something similar. “Haru Haru” had been preceded the year prior by the group blowing up through the catchy electro-pop vibes of “Lies” and “Last Farewell.” But with their new song, the act proved its ability to diversify its sound while still capturing the attention of listeners and ultimately cemented their place as leaders in the industry. “Haru Haru” laid the groundwork for BIGBANG’s success and much of their later artistry, and is still popular to this day in South Korea and among the band’s global audience.

Co-written by G-Dragon and Japanese producer Daishi Dance, the song blended the hip-hop leanings the group had started out with in 2006 and nostalgia-evoking, piano-based pop balladry of the very sort that thrives on South Korea’s music charts, where sentimentality and lite pop songs trump hook-filled dance tracks more often than not. Thanks to its evocative nature, with romantic regrets relayed by strong raps and desperately delivered verses, “Haru Haru” became one of South Korea’s biggest songs of 2008. It ultimately proved to not only be BIGBANG’s biggest hit of the year, but one of the most popular Korean songs of the past decade; it even made its debut on the World Digital Song Sales chart back in 2013, where it spent one week at No. 13.

The Music Video

As impactful as the song was on its own, the poignant music video released for “Haru Haru” is also largely responsible for the track’s success. Featuring a plot where G-Dragon thinks he’s betrayed by his girlfriend, played by popular Korean actress Park Min-young, and T.O.P, the video featured dramatic fight scenes between the members of BIGBANG and ultimately ended in tragedy, evoking All The Feels.

K-pop music videos that relay heartbreaking storylines aren’t anything new, but “Haru Haru” resonated with audiences immensely, first in Korea and then around the globe, and ended up as a prototype of what K-pop looked like in years to follow. It even got parodied by the cast of hit South Korean variety show “Infinite Challenge”, where the television personalities turned themselves into “Big Bag” to recreate the music video.

The BIGBANG clip recently surpassed 100 million views on YouTube, becoming the only music video by the act from the ’00s to reach that milestone.

Source: Billboard

[OSEN=김은애 기자] YG Entertainment’s representative producer YANG HYUN SUK shared a happy meal with BIGBANG’s DAESUNG, who is currently out on vacation. 

On August 8, YANG HYUN SUK wrote, “#BIGBANG #D-LITE #DAESUNG
Dinner time with my beloved Daesung during his army break” on his social media. 

Representative YANG HYUN SUK and DAESUNG were staring at the camera while YANG HYUN SUK put his arms around DAESUNG. DAESUNG’s short hair and the two-people’s friendly atmosphere grabbed the viewers’ attention. 

Members of BIGBANG including G-DRAGON, TAEYANG, and DAESUNG enlisted in the army this year. BIGBANG released a song titled ‘FLOWER ROAD’ on March as a gift for the fans before their last enlistment and swept various music charts as no. 1. 

Meanwhile, DAESUNG entered the ‘Ikija’ 27^th Infantry Division Recruit Training Center located in Hwacheon County, Gangwon-do on March 13 to receive his 5 weeks of basic military training. He is currently serving his active duty after being assigned. He is expected to be discharged on December 12, 2019. 

2018. 8. 8.