Change of plans and Kpop news

          Today was the day I was supposed to be announcing my surprise but alas, life got in the way and I am jot done putting it together yet so it will have to be shifted to next month...2020 is definitely a ride. Instead let us do something that we have not done for a while, Kpop News.

          Yesterday was a bitter sweet day. EXO’s Chen (Kim Jongdae) enlisted into the military. We as EXO-Ls were worried that we would not get a photo like we got with the other boys but finally finally we got some. I was so happy to see that picture because we got to see two things: Chen’s beautiful smile surrounded by his brothers and Suho. Suho being the good leader and brother was there to see his brother off. I was so proud of him. I was sad that Kai was not there but he probably had a schedule that he couldn’t cancel and said his goodbyes previously. 

          It will be a year and six months before Jongdae is free and I hope by that time the haters would have moved on or calmed down or whatever so that our boy can live in peace. 

          Before he announced his enlistment Chen released a single which was so heartfelt and so beautiful but felt like a goodbye for now kind of song. Our feelings were confirmed when the next day his enlistment was announced. He suffered so much for doing something that normal human beings do everyday. I hope he has time to heal and that he is safe and happy when he comes back. 

This is the single cover:

Here is the song he released before enlisting:

And here are the beautiful pictures we got as teasers for this song:

He is so handsome in these photos. Chen has one of these faces that grow on you the more you see him and learn about his personality. 

Finally here are the pictures dropped to bid him goodbye for now. 

See you later Soldier Kim Jongdae. Stay safe and happy and remember we will wait for you until you come back.

EXO news

This should have been up yesterday but I got side tracked so without further ado...here it is!

SUHO:

       I’m going to start with what makes me happy. What makes me happy is that finally SM Entertainment decided to recognize that our leader Suho, EXO’s guardian Kim Junmyeon deserves to be recognized as a solo artist too. I swear, a lot of people have slept on Suho. He is a great singer, a good drama actor and an amazing theater actor. He does it all while being the single mom to 8 crazy kids, three of which he has to keep track of from afar (Lay being in China and D.O. and Xuimin being in the military). He does an amazing job. He is a good mommy. 

       Now let us talk about his new mini album Self Portrait.  As usual, there is minimum promotion from SM but EXO-Ls are doing an amazing job of promoting him...like they do for everything EXO related. So here is what we know for sure about the album. There will be two versions of the album. The album has 6 tracks and Suho was involved in every step of the process. The album will be released on March 30. 

          A teaser was released as well as some portrait paintings of Suho. On March 18, the teasers and images for the album will be released starting with a “mood Sampler”. 

          There is also a rumor that his title song is called Saranghja, which is EXO’s motto that Suho came up with. May I just say we love you too Leadernim!!!!!

Baekhyun: 

          While our boy has been busy with SuperM lately, he didn’t forget to drop the fact that he is in the studio recording music. So a Baekhyun comeback is happening y’all!!

Now I’m going to talk about what really makes me angry...

Chen:

          Seriously, Chen has been going through a lot lately but SM has not being doing much to protect him. There is only so much that we, his fans and real EXO-Ls, can do. We’ve fund raised quite a bit to counter EXOLACECAFE nastiness and we’ve been doing our best to report accounts who bully Chen or spread hate about him. This is actually one of the only times I’m glad he doesn’t have a social media presence beaides his Youtube channel. The stuff that people who call themselves EXO-Ls, spew is disgusting. ALL THE MAN DID WAS FALL IN LOVE for heaven’s sake. Our baby is human after all! 

        Even after EXO members through an SM statement told them that they wanted Chen to stay in the group they still are spewing their hate. They really need to get a life and stop their bullying ways. You don’t own the man! You can read about it here: 

SM statement

As I said the statement has not stopped them. They still continued with their hate by protesting in front of SM, which was a failure, and renting a truck to sit in front of SM with their demand which also failed because the truck was parked illegally. But their latest shenanigan is their most horrifying. They leaked his information on line as well as his parents’ information and they organized advertisements to go up on buses in Chen’s own hometown where his parents can see. Thankfully, the adverts were stopped since they did not comply with city regulations...however, how could anyone have this much hate in their heart for someone who just fell in love??

You may read about the shenanigans here:

EXO-L ACE HAS FINALLY GONE TOO FAR

CHEN’S HOMETOWN SHUTS DOWN EXO-L ACE’ATTEMPT TO EMBARRASS CHEN

  

No it is not Kim Jongdae’s Fault

This article appeared today.

Koreaboo Article

I can’t believe they are blaming Jongdae for something that was in the works since March of last year.

An Open Letter to Kpop Fans

          I had a whole different post lined up to go out today but after the news that broke out yesterday and everything that happened after it I felt like it was important for my blog today to be something different

          Yesterday Kim Jongdae, Chen from EXO, announced that he had a girlfriend that he loved and wanted to spend the rest of his life with and that she was pregnant. Immediately the reactions started to poor in. EXO-Ls were divided into two categories: those who were surprised and extremely happy for Jongdae and supportive of him and those who were surprised and were angry and wanted him to leave the group. The second group from what I can see, and I could be wrong, is mostly made up of Korean EXO-Ls. 

          Jongdae choose to reveal his relationship through the Fanclub on the Lysn app. He wrote a letter to the fans that shows how mature he is and how scared he is of the hit back he knew was going to happen. After all he has seen it before when Heechul’s relationship was exposed a couple of weeks ago, he saw it when it happened to Kai and when it happened to Baekhyun. He saw what happened to Sungmin from Super Junior when he announced his marriage. Kpop fans especially Korean ones are not kind. 

If you look in the Lysn app you will see that most of the basic members who happen to be international members of the fanclub are shocked but happy for Jongdae while the ACE members, who are for the most part Korean re asking Jongdae to leave EXO.  I want to talk about the ACE membership. For the most part most international members don’t pay for the ACE membership mainly because the benefits that are included in the pain membership favors Korean members more than international fans (concert tickets and what not) but if we are going to discuss how much international fans pay when they order albums and the cost of shipping most international fans pay more than the yearly membership that these ACE members do. Why do I bring this up? Because the ACE members keep telling basic members to shut up since they didn’t pay for the ACE membership. 

I have something to say so listen up ACE members. You bought a membership into the official fan club to get at tickets early, for a chance to get into fan signings and to get a chance at chatting with the members online. YOU DID NOT BUY THE MEMBERS’ PERSONAL LIVES. Their lives are their own. They have the right to love and be loved. They have the right to spend their lives with whomever they want as long as they are both consenting adults. I’m going to say the same to any other Kpop fan who thinks that they own the idol they Stan. No that idol is not going to marry you he dean’s know you exist. No that idol doesn’t have to love the person you ship them with just because you say so. THEY ARE HUMAN NOT PRETTY PIECES OF CARDBOARD THAT YOU DO WITH AS YOU PLEASE. 

Now that I got that off my chest there is one other thing I want all Kpop fans to think about. Why do you think so many idols suffer from depression? Why do you think so many of them think of suicide (like Sungmin did after announcing his marriage)? Why do you think many of them commit suicide (we just lost two idols recently)? Did you ever think it is because their every move is scrutinized? Did you ever think it was because they are so afraid that their personal lives are going to be exposed by the likes of Dispatch and over zealous fans like the ones who mobbed Chanyeol and Sehun in Vietnam and the airport employee who leaked their passport information? 

These are not things that are just there for you to look at because they are so pretty and they sing. They are humans beings with feelings and desires, they love and want to be loved, they get hurt and get scared just like the rest of us and they make mistakes too. It is time to grow up and protect the idols you love not destroy them. 

October/November Kpop Haul Part 1: Chen's Mini Album

          October was a really busy month for the Kpop industry and especially for the groups that I stan. However, while I preordered all these albums the mail is pretty much unpredictable here in Kuwait so I got these albums at the beginning of November. This is why the title says October/November. Also because there was so much going on I'm not going to make one long post but rather put each album on its own so I can talk about them a little more.

           Previously I’ve talked a little about Chen’s new album but here is the full story! On the first of October Chen from EXO dropped his Second Mini Album called Dear, My Dear. It had two versions: Dear Version and My Dear Version. I, of course, bought both. Chen is an amazing vocalist in his own right separate from EXO and deserves all the support he can get.

These are the covers for both albums. Each album comes with a poster, a random photo card and a postcard with a letter from Chen. So let us get into it. As I said I bought both albums so I got two posters. 

Sorry, the pictures for the posters kind of suck but they were folded and HUGE. They are so pretty but then the model is what made those posters pretty.😍

Let us start with the Dear Version:

Cover of the album, which is basically a book.

Random photo card (out of a possible 2)

Envelope with the name of the album

This was the postcard inside the envelope 

The flip side of the postcard was a letter from Chen.

This page contains the words to one of my favorite songs in Chen's album 

Random pages from the book.

My Dear Version:

Cover of the album, which is basically a book.

Random photo card (out of a possible 2) He looks so dang cute in this one!

Envelope with the name of the album

This was the postcard inside the envelope 

The flip side of the postcard has a letter from Chen which is different from the above version.

Pages from the book of more of my favorite songs from the album.

          So let us talk about the album itself. The mini-album has 6 songs totaling 22 minutes. The title song is called Shall We? and he released an MV for it as well as the second song from the album called My Dear.

Shall We?

My Dear

You'll probably be surprised to know that while I like these two songs they are not my favorite among the album. That honor goes to the songs that come after them and have no MVs attached to them. 

Of these 4 my absolute favorite is Hold You Tight. I tend to loop these four songs and listen to them continuously when the mood takes me. 

          Chen's letters are my challenge. As soon as I finish my exams I'm going to sit down and do my best to translate these letters and see what he had to say. I have not looked at any translations online just so I can challenge myself.        

Kpop September Haul and Kpop News

          This blog is going to be a mix of Kpop news and Kpop haul for this month. I want to start with the Kpop haul first. 

EXO PRESENT:

          Previously EXO had put out a Photobook called Gift, well now they have graced us with this new Photobook called Present. 

The book is very sturdy and I love that it lays flat when you open it to look at the pictures. This is great for when you see a picture that is extended into the opposite page. The pictures were taken on their trip to Hawaii. 

It also comes with two pictures in plastic covering with the boys split into two groups, 4 in each picture.

 Look at those two army buddies sitting together. I miss them both. 

The picture book is gorgeous and it shows the playfulness and the beauty of all the members in the pictures. 

EXO-SC:

I know what you are thinking...didn’t you already show us this album...yes but this is the Kihno Version. (Yes I’m obsessed with my babies, I feel like a proud mom so let me be). 

I got both versions available of course because why not and who needs to eat anyway :-p

I think I only have two complaints...well one and a half. The full complaint is that the booklet that comes with each album will not stay flat unless I break the spine and that might make the pages come out. And my half complaint is that I didn’t get a Chanyeol card. But it isn’t a full complaint because I got an extra Sehun one. 

SUPER M: 

This new/old group is going to debut next month and I have tons to say about it so it will be getting a blog of its own later on. They will be debuting in October.

Chen’s Second Mini Album - Dear, My Dear: 

Next month is going to be a really busy one with a lot of my favorite groups and individuals making a comeback. Chen is the one I am really looking forward too.  I’ve already pre-ordered the album in its two versions and after hearing the teasers....Chen always delivers!!!!

Check out the two Highlight Medleys he has already put out and the teaser MV. They will all give you chills...that voice...that voice. It doesn’t hurt that he is handsome too. 

Now look at some of these beautiful concept photos!!!

This interview was dropped today (the day the blog was posted):

ATEEZ - Full Album: 

Ateez will be having a comeback in October as well. With a full album this time and from what I can see it is the final episode to their Treasure series. It is called All to Action.

October is also going to be their first anniversary hence the below posters. It is going to be an event that will take place on that day.

The tracklist has been released.

I think they pull off this look so dang well!! The album will be released on October 8, 2019. I've already pre-ordered my albums.

Two teasers were dropped today (on the day this blog was posted) so here they are:

HONGJOONG’s teaser

SEONGHWA’s teaser

SUPER JUNIOR - Time Slip: 

Super Junior will also be having a comeback! 

I love the look of these posters! Their album will be released on October 14, 2019.

The track list was dropped today (on the day this is posted) so here it is!

EXO NEWS:

Recently on a live, Baekhyun was talking about his activities for SuperM but he also let slip that the EXO members are starting to record songs for their comeback. No date that I know of has been set. I’m leaving you with pictures of EXO members from their various solo activities!

EXO -Lay:

Lay released this song on September 9th on Weibo. He didn't even advertise it on his Instagram.
It is a beautiful song and very poignant one.

Listen to this beautiful love song while you look at his beautiful profile...