Hannah : koreaportal

Reporter : Hannah

K-WAVE - Apr 09, 2026 AM EDT - Hannah

He Left ENHYPEN. Then He Left the Name Too.

Former ENHYPEN member Heeseung officially launched his solo identity as EVAN on April 8, 2026 — adopting a childhood English name rather than his K-pop stage name, amassing 2 million Instagram followers before a release, as ENHYPEN prepares to tour without him.

CONCERTS - Apr 09, 2026 AM EDT - Hannah

BTS Arirang World Tour, Night 1 — Goyang Stadium, April 9 — They Came Back Bigger, and the Rain Proved It

BTS opened the Arirang World Tour at Goyang Stadium on April 9, 2026 — performing 23 songs through torrential rain on a 360-degree stage, with Jin recovering from injury and 4 million fans watching live on Weverse, in a show that delivered on the tour's ambitions despite its conditions.

K-WAVE - Apr 09, 2026 AM EDT - Hannah

SM Lost Two NCT Members on the Same Day. Mark Is Gone. Ten Is Not.

NCT members Mark Lee and Ten both officially parted ways with SM Entertainment on April 8, 2026 — Mark exiting the group entirely after a decade, Ten departing as an exclusive artist while remaining a member of NCT and WayV.

CONCERTS - Apr 09, 2026 AM EDT - Hannah

BTS Adds Three Latin America Dates. Presale for New Shows Is Live Now.

BTS added three shows to the Latin America leg of the Arirang World Tour on April 8, 2026 — one each in Lima, Santiago, and Buenos Aires — with ARMY Membership presale running today and general sale opening April 10.

INSIGHTS - Apr 09, 2026 AM EDT - Hannah

The K-pop Startup That Wants to Make Artists Optional

Galaxy Corp.'s Bloomberg IPO profile and SM Entertainment's simultaneous loss of Mark and Ten on April 8, 2026 frame the same structural problem: K-pop's most valuable agencies depend on human artists who leave, and the first company to replace that dependency owns the industry.

CONCERTS - Apr 07, 2026 PM EDT - Hannah

BTS Opens Their World Tour in Two Days. The Rest of the World Watches on April 11.

BTS World Tour 'Arirang' Live Viewing screens in cinemas worldwide on April 11 from Goyang Stadium and April 18 from Tokyo Dome — tickets available now via AMC, Cinemark, Fandango, and btsliveviewing.com, with two screenings per territory to cover all time zones.

CONCERTS - Apr 07, 2026 PM EDT - Hannah

TWICE THIS IS FOR World Tour — Chicago, April 6–7 — A 360-Degree Statement

TWICE delivered two sold-out nights at Chicago's United Center on April 6–7 on the THIS IS FOR World Tour, featuring a full 360-degree stage, nine solo performances, and a TAKEDOWN unit highlight — a strong mid-tour showing from a group now firmly in the top tier of global arena acts. Rating: 8/10.

K-WAVE - Apr 07, 2026 AM EDT - Hannah

BTS' "Swim" Drops to No. 2 on the Hot 100. The Album Is Still No. 1.

BTS's "Swim" falls to No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 for the week of April 11 as Ella Langley's "Choosin' Texas" returns to No. 1, while Arirang makes history as the first K-pop album to spend two consecutive weeks atop the Billboard 200.

INSIGHTS - Apr 07, 2026 AM EDT - Hannah

K-pop Stopped Exporting Idols. Now It's Exporting the Factory.

HYBE's Santos Bravos — a Latin boy group formed in Mexico under K-pop training methodology — begins Korean music show promotions this week, marking the most visible example yet of the industry's shift from exporting Korean idols to exporting the idol production system itself across global markets.

K-WAVE - Apr 06, 2026 PM EDT - Hannah

K-pop's Exits Are Piling Up. Heeseung, Mark, and What's Actually Happening.

ENHYPEN's Heeseung departure on March 10, NCT's Mark Lee exit on April 3, and ongoing Katseye Manon speculation mark an unusual wave of K-pop group departures, exposing the growing tension between the industry's group-first model and individual artists seeking solo careers on their own terms.

CONCERTS - Apr 06, 2026 PM EDT - Hannah

SEVENTEEN WORLD TOUR [NEW_] ENCORE — The Rain Didn't Stop Them. Nothing Will.

SEVENTEEN closed their seven-month New_ World Tour Encore at Incheon Asiad Main Stadium on April 5 with a rain-soaked finale, a DxS standout stage, and S.Coups' announcement that all 13 members have renewed their contracts with Pledis Entertainment for a second time. Rating: 9/10.

REVIEWS - Apr 06, 2026 PM EDT - Hannah

BTS Arirang — Seven Individuals Who Remembered How to Be a Group

BTS's comeback album Arirang — 14 tracks produced by Diplo, Kevin Parker, Mike WiLL Made-It, and JPEGMAFIA — is the group's most experimental record yet, uneven in places but driven by RM's curatorial instincts and the creative identities each member sharpened during four years of solo work. Rating: 8/10.

CONCERTS - Apr 06, 2026 PM EDT - Hannah

BTS 2026 South America Tour: Dates, Tickets & Presale Starts Tomorrow

BTS has confirmed the full Latin American leg of the Arirang World Tour, with 11 shows across Bogotá, Lima, Santiago, Buenos Aires, and São Paulo in October 2026 — including first-ever performances in Bogotá and Buenos Aires — with ARMY presale beginning April 7.

INSIGHTS - Apr 06, 2026 PM EDT - Hannah

A K-pop Ticket Sold for $9,000. Then the Government Got Involved.

BTS's Arirang World Tour — with tickets reselling for $9,000 in Mexico and 1.1 million fans competing for 150,000 seats — triggered diplomatic intervention from Mexico's president, a South Korea law imposing 50x fines on scalpers, and 16 arrests in a macro ring that made $5.4 million illegally, exposing the broken economics of global live music demand.

K-WAVE - Mar 16, 2026 PM EDT - Hannah

ILLIT names new album after an untranslatable word — and drops it April 30

ILLIT announces their fourth mini album MAMIHLAPINATAPAI, releasing April 30, 2026, with title track "It's Me." The Belift Lab girl group revealed the comeback at their sold-out Seoul concerts kicking off the Press Start Asia tour, which runs through Japan and Hong Kong.