B.I is a South Korean musician, singer-songwriter, and record producer, signed under his label, 131. He is also a former member of iKON. The artist’s BTBT, featuring Soulja and Devita, has charted at #1 on iTunes in over 40 countries. The song also reached #1 on iTunes K-pop’s “Top Tracks” chart in over 31 countries. His debut album, Waterfall, hit #1 on iTunes charts in 24 countries around the world and was one of the best-selling Korean male solo albums of 2021, with Time Magazine naming it as “one of the best K-pop albums of the year”.

B.I is the first Asian and K-pop artist to perform for Grammy.com’s GLOBAL SPIN series. Last year, B.I released the first half of his second studio album, Cosmos, and will be releasing new music with a Global Album Project “LOVE OR LOVED [L.O.L] “partnered through Transparent Arts in the coming months.” On November 18 of this year, B.I released his long-awaited EP, Love or Loved Part.1.

His highly anticipated EP comes after the success of his aforementioned single BTBT, which also reached the top 10 on Spotify’s Viral 50 Global Charts. In addition, the song went viral worldwide on TikTok with #btbtdancechallenge. One of the main tracks of the EP, Keep Me Up, is a powerful dance track that centers on the young, intense infatuation that is well-portrayed through B.I’s romantic vocal tones with the catchy hook: Cause you keep me up / 불꽃이 P.O / I’m just tryna love ya /불꽃이 P.O P.O P.O / Cause girl you keep me up. “불” & “꽃” characters together in Hangul mean “fireworks,” but when separated, it means, “fire” and flower” respectively. B.I utilises wordplay with P.O as the literal sound for when you pronounce, “피어,” which translates to blossoming. The whole hook translates to both “fireworks are bursting” and “fire flowers are blossoming.”

You can find Love or Loved Part. 1 on all streaming platforms and for the music video, Keep Me Up, go to B.I’s official channel. 

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