Blue Dragon Series Awards 2025 Presenters, Performers Lineup: Park Bo Young, Ahn Jae Hong, and More
Blue Dragon Series Awards 2025 productions announced on Wednesday (July 16) the lineup of stars to present at the fourth annual ceremony. Park Bo Young and Ahn Jae Hong are among the presenters set to announce the winners this year. Meanwhile, the producers also announced the names of K-pop bands and artists gearing up to perform live during the glamorous event.
The fourth annual award ceremony will feature a dazzling lineup of presenters and performers on stage, making the ceremony even more spectacular. The stars set to present award this year include Go Youn Jung, Kwak Joon Bin, Geum Hae Na, Park Bo Young, Park Ji Hyun, Shin Dong Yup, Ahn Eun Jin, Ahn Jae Hong, Um Tae Goo, Yoon Ga Yi, Lee Jung Ha, Yim Si Wan, Jang Ki Yong, Jang Do Yeon, and Jeon Do Yeon.
Girls' Generation member YoonA and veteran television personality Jun Hyun Moo will host the glamorous event, which will feature dazzling celebrity performances. Among the confirmed performers' lineup are a few groups set to feature unique and distinct performances. JAESSBEE will take the stage and showcase their unique style. Rookie girl group KiiiKiii is also getting ready to deliver an impressive act.
Blue Dragon Series Awards 2025
The annual award ceremony will be held on Friday (July 18) at 8:30 pm KST. People in Korea and other parts of the world, including the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, UAE, Singapore, Japan, Malaysia, India, Kenya, Denmark, Mexico, China, Thailand, and the UK, can watch the annual award ceremony live online.
The glam event was available to watch live online through the official website and the YouTube channels of KBS Entertainment and KBS K-pop last year. Streaming details for this year will be revealed by the organizers in the upcoming weeks. Stay tuned for all updates.
Sports Chosun is organizing the glam event, which premiered in 2022. The event focused on various dramas and variety shows for streaming platforms. The organizers continue to focus on the programs released through various OTT (over-the-top) streaming platforms. They honor the excellence in variety shows and dramas produced by several streaming platforms.
The organizers considered dramas and variety shows released between June 1, 2023, and May 31, 2024, for this year's nominations. The nominees were selected through online voting, which took place between June 10 and 25. Sports Chosun, entertainment news reporters, and industry experts evaluated the voting results to prepare the nomination list.
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AsiaOne
2 hours ago
- AsiaOne
North Korean defectors make debut in new K-pop boy band, Entertainment News
SEOUL - A new K-pop boy band made their global debut on Friday (July 18) with two members who defected from North Korea and an album that includes a song about the consequences of escaping one of the world's most repressive states. 1VERSE, pronounced "universe", is made up of five men in their 20s from North Korea, Japan and the US, who go by their first names, Hyuk, Seok, Aito, Nathan, and Kenny. At midnight, the group performed a live-streamed showcase of their first EP The 1st Verse featuring three tracks, including the debut single Shattered. A video to accompany the song will drop later on Friday. Recorded earlier this year, it shows the group sporting make-up and slick hairstyles, dancing against a stroboscopic background. Yu Hyuk, originally from the northeastern county of Kyongsong in North Korea, has been living in South Korea since 2013. As well as enjoying the freedom to show off his talent to the world, the 25-year-old also appreciates being able to eat three meals a day. In North Korea, he started work at the age of nine and said he was sometimes forced into desperate measures to get food, eating spoiled rice or worse, and resorting to theft. "After I was caught stealing, I was beaten hard until I was bleeding. I was really hungry and instinctively I was thinking about survival," he told Reuters at the group's studio in the South Korean capital. North Korea has stepped up control over people's lives since the Covid-19 pandemic when all borders were sealed, and abuses such as executions, forced labour and reports of starvation continue, a UN official investigating rights in the isolated state told Reuters last month. Hyuk escaped North Korea as a child — fleeing to China and then across other international borders with the help of a broker arranged by his mother, who was already in South Korea. While he is happy with his new life, he recalls that it was a wrench to leave his home. "I was hungry and tired, but I was happy surrounded by the people I like which made it tougher for me to want to come here at first," he said. The song Shattered encapsulates his feelings when he learned about the death of his father in North Korea, he said. Kim Seok, the other North Korean defector in the group and also 25, used to live in a border town near China. He was exposed to K-pop by a friend who shared music videos on a portable media player, including Psy's 2012 smash Gangnam Style. Seok escaped with his father and grandmother when he was 20 years old. Recent reports have suggested that Pyongyang is stepping up its crackdown on the consumption of South Korean culture, including a case where teenagers were sentenced to hard labour for watching K-pop, as well as suppressing South Korean speaking styles. Michelle Cho, producer and CEO of 1VERSE's label Singing Beetle, said she wanted to create a more authentic group in an industry often seen as picture-perfect. "Who doesn't love the story of someone from a humble background chasing their dreams, especially K-pop," she said. Despite their diverse backgrounds, the bandmates said they had plenty in common. "I mean isn't it fun? Like our group is just a unique type of global," said Kenny, who is Chinese American. While the group has drawn attention for having North Korean defectors, Hyuk hopes they will be judged by the quality of their work. "I want to become an idol that brings energy and the message that cheers up many people, that they aren't alone and there are even people like me." [[nid:718885]]
Straits Times
5 hours ago
- Straits Times
North Korean defectors make debut in new K-pop boy band
Find out what's new on ST website and app. Members of K-pop boy band 1VERSE perform their new single in front of a camera in Seoul, South Korea, on May 21, 2025. SEOUL - A new K-pop boy band made their global debut on July 18 with two members who defected from North Korea and an album that includes a song about the consequences of escaping one of the world's most repressive states. 1VERSE, pronounced 'universe', is made up of five men in their 20s from North Korea, Japan and the United States, who go by their first names, Hyuk, Seok, Aito, Nathan, and Kenny. At midnight, the group performed a live-streamed showcase of their first EP The 1st Verse featuring three tracks, including the debut single Shattered. A video to accompany the song will drop later on July 18. Recorded earlier in 2025, it shows the group sporting make-up and slick hairstyles, dancing against a stroboscopic background. Yu Hyuk, originally from the northeastern county of Kyongsong in North Korea, has been living in South Korea since 2013. As well as enjoying the freedom to show off his talent to the world, the 25-year-old also appreciates being able to eat three meals a day. Hyuk, who defected from North Korea, films a scene for 1VERSE's new music video in Seoul, South Korea, on May 21, 2025. PHOTO: REUTERS In North Korea, he started work at the age of nine and said he was sometimes forced into desperate measures to get food, eating spoiled rice or worse, and resorting to theft. Top stories Swipe. Select. Stay informed. World Trump diagnosed with vein condition causing leg swelling, White House says World Trump was diagnosed with chronic venous insufficiency. What is it? Asia Appointment of Malaysia's new Chief Justice eases controversy over vacant top judge seats for now Singapore Driverless bus in Sentosa gets green light to run without safety officer in first for S'pore Singapore SPCA appoints Walter Leong as new executive director World US strikes destroyed only one of three Iranian nuclear sites, says new report Opinion Is your child getting drawn to drugs? Don't look away and don't give up Business Granddaughter of late Indonesian tycoon pays $25 million for Singapore bungalow 'After I was caught stealing, I was beaten hard until I was bleeding. I was really hungry and instinctively I was thinking about survival,' he told Reuters at the group's studio in the South Korean capital. North Korea has stepped up control over people's lives since the Covid-19 pandemic when all borders were sealed, and abuses such as executions, forced labour and reports of starvation continue, a UN official investigating rights in the isolated state told Reuters in June. Hyuk escaped North Korea as a child - fleeing to China and then across other international borders with the help of a broker arranged by his mother, who was already in South Korea. While he is happy with his new life, he recalls that it was a wrench to leave his home. 'I was hungry and tired, but I was happy surrounded by the people I like which made it tougher for me to want to come here at first,' he said. The song Shattered encapsulates his feelings when he learned about the death of his father in North Korea, he said. Members of K-pop boy band 1VERSE perform their new single in front of a camera in Seoul, South Korea, on May 21, 2025. PHOTO: REUTERS Kim Seok, the other North Korean defector in the group and also 25, used to live in a border town near China. He was exposed to K-pop by a friend who shared music videos on a portable media player, including Psy's 2012 smash Gangnam Style. Seok escaped with his father and grandmother when he was 20 years old. Recent reports have suggested that Pyongyang is stepping up its crackdown on the consumption of South Korean culture, including a case where teenagers were sentenced to hard labour for watching K-pop, as well as suppressing South Korean speaking styles. Ms Michelle Cho, producer and CEO of 1VERSE's label Singing Beetle, said she wanted to create a more authentic group in an industry often seen as picture-perfect. 'Who doesn't love the story of someone from a humble background chasing their dreams, especially K-pop,' she said. Despite their diverse backgrounds, the bandmates said they had plenty in common. 'I mean isn't it fun? Like our group is just a unique type of global,' said Kenny, who is Chinese American. While the group has drawn attention for having North Korean defectors, Hyuk hopes they will be judged by the quality of their work. 'I want to become an idol that brings energy and the message that cheers up many people, that they aren't alone and there are even people like me.' REUTERS
Straits Times
6 hours ago
- Straits Times
From the land of K-pop come the joys of K-Swing
Find out what's new on ST website and app. K-Swing Wave dancers Rico Lim and Chloe Hong rehearsing at the Korean Cultural Center in New York, where the group of eight all-star South Korean swing dancers will perform. SOUTH KOREA – The smile was the lure. Mr Nalla Kim, a South Korean computer programmer, noticed the joyful expressions in the social media post of a fellow programmer whom he had never seen smiling at work. Curious, Mr Kim asked his colleague what had made him so visibly happy. The answer: swing dancing. Mr Kim had never heard of the dance form, which was created by Black Americans in the 1920s and 1930s. He discovered it when he was coming of age in Seoul in the early 2000s. He got hooked. He started attending swing dance events in the United States and after a few years entered international competitions. He travelled to dance, but he did not have to. In the past two decades, the swing dance scene in his home town has grown into the largest in the world. For a vintage American cultural practice to spread overseas and thrive there more robustly than at home is a story at least as old as jazz. Not in every case, though, does the transplanted form evolve into a local variant. That is what has happened in South Korea. In Seoul these days, there are around 10 clubs dedicated full time to swing and its core partnering form, Lindy Hop. Mr Andante Jang and his fellow K-Swing Wave dancers rehearsing at the Korean Cultural Center in New York. PHOTO: YE FAN/NYTIMES 'In New York, where Lindy Hop was born, we have zero,' said Mr Caleb Teicher, a prominent American Lindy Hop and tap dancer. Those Seoul clubs are filled with dancers of high skill. 'I've heard it joked among the New York dancers who've gone there that a bad dancer in Korea is a great dancer in New York,' he said. Moreover, in the jazz tradition that artists honour by developing their own voices and style, South Korean dancers have worked out their own fresh approaches to the form. 'When I go there to teach, I feel like I'm their student now,' he said. Wanting to display these developments to New York City, Mr Teicher has organised a mini-festival. On July 19, K-Swing Wave, a group of eight all-star South Korean swing dancers, are performing a free show at Lincoln Center's Summer for the City. The next day, the group will appear at the Korean Cultural Center New York and at a swing dance party at 92NY, the 92nd Street Y. Mr Kim, K-Swing Wave's project director, said the dancers selected were 'the best of the best', most of them leaders of their own groups. Mr Andy Seo, the group's artistic director, added that everyone had been so busy dancing, teaching and performing that they seldom had opportunities to collaborate. This is their first chance to figure out what an extended production of Korean swing dance might look like. Like Mr Kim, Mr Seo discovered swing dancing in the early 2000s. The swing dance revival of the 1980s and 1990s in the United States and Sweden had arrived in Seoul in 1999, imported by Korean-American dancer Alex Nah. K-Swing Wave dancers rehearsing at the Korean Cultural Center in New York. PHOTO: YE FAN/NYTIMES 'Couple dancing was not that familiar in Korea,' said Mr Seo, who had belonged to clubs for street and K-pop dance. 'But I fell in love with dancing with others.' Mr Nathan Bugh, one of Mr Teicher's colleagues in the popular production Sw!ng Out, recalled how a Korean couple memorised and performed the improvised social dancing of an American duo (preserved on video) exactly, including the mistakes. At social dance occasions, Mr Bugh added, rather than following the normal practice of pairing off, South Korean dancers would either stand and watch or wait in line to have the foreign instructor as a partner, sometimes bringing cups of water so the teacher would not have to take a break. 'It was like a factory,' he said. But every time these Americans returned to South Korea, they noticed changes. (From left) Mr Andy Seo and Mr Nalla Kim at the Korean Cultural Center in New York. PHOTO: YE FAN/NYTIMES For Authentic Jazz Weekend, an annual event that Mr Kim and Mr Seo founded in 2013, the South Korean dancers invited foreign instructors – often found on the internet – who were specialists in areas in which the South Koreans felt they were weak, especially solo jazz dancing and improvisation. At the same time, they were discovering their strengths. 'Maybe it's a cultural thing,' Mr Kim said, 'but Korean dancers are really great at group formations.' Numbers created by Mr Seo – whom Mr Bugh called his favourite vernacular jazz dance choreographer in the world – have the kaleidoscopic complexity, sharp synchronicity and clever details of the most intricate K-pop routines, while remaining recognisably in a jazz dance idiom. On multiple scales, they swing. Broadway producers should take note. 'The first piece by Andy I saw was made for students,' Mr Teicher said. 'And when you looked at the dancers individually, they were not the strongest. But the choreography – it was genius. I had never seen a team jazz piece that good before.' Mr Kim has made a project of interviewing international swing dancers about the history of the dance and their experiences, and then translating the videos into Korean. Talking with African-American dancers, he said, he was surprised to discover commonalities. Swing dance was born from the blues of oppression, and Korea also had colonisation and caste, he said. 'Many Korean art forms are from that sadness, even if they look as happy as the Lindy Hop. 'Dance is such a great way to learn about other cultures,' he added, sharing the hope that K-Swing Wave will contribute to a two-way exchange. Mr Seo agreed, but he stressed something simpler about swing dancing and why it should spread everywhere: It makes people smile. NYTIMES
