Korean celebrity stories that made global headlines in 2017
BTS rocks US charts, Song-Song couple’s marriage, film director and his muse, suicides and drugs in action-packed year
By Park Jin-hai, Kim Jae-heun
K-pop boy band BTS struck a chord with Americans in 2017. The seven-member band broke into the Top 40 on the United States singles charts and clinched the top social artist award at the 2017 Billboard Music Awards. Here are the biggest entertainment stories of the year.
BTS soars in United States
BTS dominated K-pop in 2017. Since releasing You Never Walk Alone in February, the seven-member boy band, formed in 2013, continue to smash K-pop records.
The music video for their song DNA surpassed 200 million views on YouTube in the three months following its September release, which is the quickest for a K-pop music video. The videos for three more of their singles - Fire, Blood, Sweat & Tears and Dope. also passed the 200 million views.
The band became the first Korean group to win the top social artist award at the 2017 Billboard Music Awards in May. On December 5, Mic Drop broke into the Top 40 on the US singles chart, debuting at No 28 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, beating its previous best for DNA, which peaked at 67 on October 2, after debuting at 85.
BTS performed DNA at the American Music Awards and ranked in the Top 10 artists of the Billboard Year-End Artists of the Year chart.
Song-Song couple marry
The year started with news of a celebrity couple’s marriage. Singer Rain and actress Kim Tae-hee, after five years of dating, revealed the news two days before their wedding on January 19.
Following that were Song Joong-ki and Song Hye-kyo, co-stars of the 2016 smash-hit K-drama Descendants of the Sun. After repeated denials that they had been dating, the couple, nicknamed “Song-Song couple,” announced that they would wed.