MAR 31 — News & Latest Releases
Events, News & Recent Releases in K-pop!
Wow! What a time it has been!
We had a blast at KoreaFest 2026 and highly recommend going next year if you’re interested. There were over 50 vendors, tons of food, Korean Games, Korean Instruments, and the stage was just popping off the entire event! With incredible performances from LÜC!D, UKDT, ALLURE, 5678crew, Cloud, Eric Sun, and more! Not to mention the Judge’s showcase with Gunmin, Seungyeon, Aaliyah, and 1VERSE! Kenny and Nathan’s vocals were incredible. Though Aito and Seok were not able to judge due to some challenges with visas, they seemed to have fun and were able to say hello to everyone on stage! Incredible work from the InWave team and judge teams!
Thank you to everyone patiently waiting for a new “News and Latest Releases” update. We recently had some team changes with the passing of one of our founders and friends, Kai Mann. He was an incredible person, a beloved author, editor, son, and friend. We continue to extend our condolences to his family and friends, and forever keep him in our hearts and a part of our team. Thank you. <3
For events coming up next, we have Forever K-pop happening in Raleigh! This is a celebration concert featuring many K-pop Hits! Happening April 4th, tickets and information can be found on foreverkpop.com or ticketmaster.com — don’t miss out!
March 31st (today? If I post this on time~) is the TWICE concert in Charlotte, along with the pre-concert flashmob, freebie meetup, dance showcase, cupsleeves, games, and more! After the concert is over, adults 21+ can head over to the After Party! We hope everyone has a fun time!
Triad K-pop is hosting several events this Spring, with notable events being Seonghwa’s Starlight Island on April 3rd, and K-Bloom Fan Fest on May 16th!
If you love NCT WISH, you’ll love Wishful Jjongie’s events! NCT WISH brings forward cute and refreshing concepts full of stars, critters, and dreamy ideas. On April 4th, the community will be celebrating the birthday of Yushi at The Bean Flower.
For more upcoming events, follow us on Instagram @nckpophive or visit https://www.nckpophive.org/#events.
Now, let’s get into what you may have missed! We often update on tour firsts, but at this point, that might as well include everyone. Our community seems especially excited for the TWICE and BTS tours.
Big Ocean will be returning to Raleigh on April 26th. The group first visited North Carolina in August of 2025, returned for a fan event in October, and had such a blast with our community in the Triangle area, and now they are back for more. Big Ocean (빅오션) is the first-ever South Korean hard-of-hearing boy group, which consists of 3 members: PJ, Chanyeon, and Jiseok. The boys use Korean Sign Language (KSL), American Sign Language (ASL), and International Sign (IS). All members use medical devices like cochlear implants and hearing aids. They first debuted on April 20, 2024, with a remake of ‘Hope’ by H.O.T, and have been making waves ever since.
However, be warned. While some of their songs are bright and fluffy, these boys enjoy fun, mature concepts too, and they will leave your jaw dropped at the end of every performance. Their duality is dangerous!
Other honorable mentions for tours include WayBetter, Ampers&One, Yves, I-DLE, WHIB, and more!
Now let’s cover releases from the month!
Early in March, we heard BUZZIN (Feat. Coogie, GRAY) from B.I (former member of iKon). If you’ve ever heard the song BTBT, it’s the same artist!
In the same week, the boy group TUNEXX finally made their debut with “I’m Alive.”, If you like the groups KickFLip, ARrC, 8TURN, or 82Major, you might just like TUNEXX’s sound!
EVERGLOW had a comeback with “CODE”, Big Ocean released their single “One Man Army”, and VO1D released the single “ROCKROCK” ahead of their new album! I highly recommend VO1D if you have ever enjoyed music from N.Flying, IZ, or enjoyed the K-drama Twinkling Watermelon.
Did you happen to watch the latest season of Traitors? If not, it’s similar to a game of mafia but played by global celebrities and filmed for TV. Eric Nam, singer-songwriter, participated this season and made it so far. Soon after the show finished airing, Eric released his latest single, “How the Fire Started,” with a Music Video featuring other contestants from the show.
A couple of days later, we also had “AMMO” from NOWZ, “PUNG!” from MADEIN, “FEELIN’ GOOD” from n.ssign, and a solo debut from ONE PACT’S Tag under the name RAPH4EL with the single “K.M.F.O.Y,” which is a total bop! He is such a talented producer and writer.
On March 5th and 6th, we got “Red Hot” from Rolling Quartz, “To. My First Love”" by H1-KEY, “Tweak” from GIRLSET, “FEEL” from Jay Chang of ONEPACT, “moonboy” by JVKE X JEON SOMI, and “ATTITUDE” by aespa. DEY and KYUNGMUN of YOUNITE released the single “ALRIGHT” on March 7th.
The following week brought us “The Little Things” by I.N of Stray Kids, “INSTANT CRUSH” by aoen, “TOUGH LOVE” by ONEW of SHINee, “POP IT LIKE” by NouerA, “Twenty” by KickFlip, “SELF” by Daily Direction, “Oh Perfect!” by the K-Band Dragon Pony, “Bonita” by ACE of VAV, “Tame” by E’last, “Butterfly Doors” by AtHeart, “Shapeshifter” by Baby DONT Cry, “UNIQUE” by P1Harmony and so many more!
Some of my personal favorites from this month include:
“CATCH CATCH” by YENA
“Hertz” by Moobyul
“DELULU” by xikers
“Dead Man Walking” by ALL(H)OURS
“Free Falling” by KANGMIN
“BEST ONE’" by KEYVITUP
“SWIM” by BTS
“Bittersweet” by Baby DONT Cry
“L.O.Y.L” by P1Harmony
And gosh, everyone has been so busy releasing new music this Spring! For upcoming releases, I’m excited for April releases from xikers, Cortis, YVES, Taeyong, Monsta X, TOP, Kep1er, NiziU, KickFlip, AKMU, AMPERS&ONE, RESCENE, LOVEONE, TOMORROW X TOGETHER, Hi-Fi Unicorn, Xdinary Heroes, NCT WISH, &Team, TWS, ILLIT, and of course, our one and only PARK JIHOON. It’s crazy to think most of these releases are in the first half of the month.
MODYSSEY will make their debut on April 13th, and the South Korean rapper, singer, and songwriter, ASH ISLAND, will also be releasing new music in April! I can’t wait! What are you most looking forward to? Leave a comment in the app or DM us on Instagram (I’d genuinely love to hear what you’re excited for haha)!
Oh, looks like there genuinely is a word limit. We’ll have to wrap up here this week. Thanks for reading this far. I’m hoping to play around with these posts more and hopefully get better at it over time. Thanks for reading! I hope you have a wonderful day!
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wait new song from I.N wait i gotta find this now (spotify WHY DIDN’T YOU TELL ME???)