The second day of The A Festival at the Paris Event Center, on 25 October, gathered a great number of artists again. Japanese pop-rock, Chinese R&B, K-pop and Thailand’s increasingly influential T-pop industry all had their place on the programme. And what is worth discussing is not simply the international line-up, but the differences between…
Tag: K-pop
Jay Park & LNGSHOT in London: A Night for Performance Lovers – Concert Review
Many are the opinions that swirl around Jay Park: none of which deny his talent on stage. The South Korean singer and rapper has been in the music industry since before many of his fans were born, including one of the boys under his own label, More Vision, that he’s been working closely with, amongst…
Determination Is an Understatement: Lee Han Gyul on His Solo Mini-Album “NOISE” and Why He Never Gave Up on Music – Exclusive Interview
Lee Han Gyul‘s music journey hasn’t always being an easy one. From his early days with IM to competing on The Unit and later Produce X 101, where he earned a place in X1, Han Gyul has experienced the excitement of debuting, the disappointment of unexpected endings and the challenge of starting again. His subsequent…
KTAM Unleashed Brings Emerging Korean Artists to London and Brighton This November
K-pop fans in London and Brighton have plenty to look forward to this November as KTAM Unleashed Winter Showcase prepares to bring a selection of Korean performers to the UK. Taking place across a few dates, the event will present several artists who may not yet be familiar names outside South Korea. Organised by KTAM,…
The A Festival: AM8IC on Music, Identity and Their Dark Fantasy World – Exclusive Interview
Watching K-pop from China and then moving to South Korea to train and eventually debut as K-pop artists turned out to be two very different experiences for AM8IC. Mingkai, Roux, Saho, Chungyi and Chen had all admired K-pop artists before becoming trainees themselves, but once the five members were living and training in Seoul, the…
Big Ocean on Their New Single, “Love Sign”, New York Fashion Week and Digital@UNGA – Exclusive Interview
PJ, Chanyeon and Jiseok have spent the past two years doing something no one before them had done in K-pop. As Big Ocean, the industry’s first hard-of-hearing idol group, they have had to find their own ways of singing, dancing, staying in time and performing while experiencing sound differently, but their hearing was never supposed…
A Sound of His Own: WOW Talks “LOW”, Afrobeats and Going Solo – Exclusive Interview
When A.C.E debuted with CACTUS in 2017, WOW began a journey that would see him spend the next several years performing, making music and growing alongside the other four members. Since then, the group have moved through different sounds and concepts, never really staying in one place for too long, while WOW has built much…
BIGBANG at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium: Twenty Years In, They Still Know Exactly How to Own a Stage – Concert Review
Twenty years is a long time in pop music and it is surely an eternity in K-pop. When BIGBANG debuted in 2006, the industry they entered looked very different from the one that now fills stadiums thousands of miles away from Seoul. Social media had not yet become the engine through which Korean music travels…
TAEMIN “PHASE 1: Soft Violence” Review: An Attempt At Something New – EP Review
What do you do when you’re an artist with an already well-established visual and musical language? Do you tap back into what everyone loves you for, or try something new? Taemin is having a go at the latter in his newest 10-track EP PHASE 1: Soft Violence, promoting it with a title track we wouldn’t…
Love Includes Everything: JUNHEE on “LOVED METHOD”, Healing and the Music He Wants to Leave Behind – Exclusive Interview
JUNHEE, a member of the beloved K-pop group A.C.E, has worked incredibly hard to reach where he is today. Although his solo career is still in its early stages, he has already shown that he has no intention of pausing. One thing that has always impressed me is that, whether with A.C.E or as a…
The A Festival Is Bringing Asia to Paris – And It’s Much Bigger Than You Think
Paris is hardly short of festivals, but on 24 and 25 October 2026, something rather different is taking shape at the Paris Event Center. The A Festival is setting out to bring several corners of Asian entertainment into the same space: K-pop and T-pop, P-pop, Japanese rock and pop, Chinese artists, Thai hip-hop, music from…
K-Music Festival Returns to London with Its Most Diverse Programme Yet
The K-Music Festival returns to London this autumn with another ambitious programme that highlights the richness and diversity of Korean music. Running from 28 September to 23 November, this year’s edition brings together traditional folk music, shamanic rituals, jazz, hip-hop, indie rock, experimental sound art and even video game music, offering audiences a chance to…
ZELO Finds a New Sound with “ELA” – Single Review
ZELO has never been afraid to try something different, and “ELA” is another step away from the sound many fans first knew him for. Instead of going for a powerful K-pop sound, ZELO takes a different approach with the song. The Latin-inspired pop track is light and very catchy. But while the melody feels carefree,…
The Wind: Keeping Feel-Good K-Pop Alive with “Second Wind: S#00” – Exclusive Interview
Just ahead of their appearance at Sound in Colors – the biggest and first-ever K-pop festival in Poland – View of the Arts sat down with The Wind following the release of their 4th mini-album, Second Wind: S#00. Since their debut in May 2023, the six-member group – Thanatorn, Choi Hanbin, Park Hayuchan, An Chanwon,…
