K-pop News Today (Oct 30, 2026): BLACKPINK’s Order of Cultural Merit, JISOO’s ‘ADDICTED’ Day, A2O LITE in Japan

I’ll admit it: as a fan, I got a little emotional this morning. In the year of their 10th anniversary, all four members of BLACKPINK have been decorated by the Korean government, and JISOO’s new single lands in a few hours. Here are the stories K-pop fans were talking about on Oct. 29.

BLACKPINK Receive the Okgwan Order of Cultural Merit

All four members of BLACKPINK, JISOO, JENNIE, ROSÉ and LISA, received the Okgwan Order of Cultural Merit at the 2026 Korea Popular Culture and Arts Awards on Oct. 29, held by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and the Korea Creative Content Agency at the National Theater of Korea in Seoul. The awards are the government’s top honor for pop culture, and this year 36 people and teams were recognized, with the late Shin Hae-chul receiving the Eungwan order and host Yoo Jae-suk and singer Han Young-ae the Bogwan order. The honor comes in the group’s 10th anniversary year, after a decade of global success both as a group and through each member’s solo work. Ten years after “BOOMBAYAH” and “WHISTLE,” BLINKs now get to call their girls decorated artists, and it’s hard to think of a better anniversary gift.

Sources: Kukmin Ilbo, Oct. 29, Etoday, Oct. 29, Dong-A Ilbo, Oct. 30

Also read: K-pop News Today (Oct 26, 2026): A2O LITE's 4th Win, BABYMONSTER's 31M, RIIZE 'Insomnia'

JISOO’s ‘ADDICTED’ Arrives Today at 8 a.m. KST

JISOO marked D-Day on Oct. 30 with a new purple-toned poster, confirming that “ADDICTED,” the second pre-release single from her first full-length solo album, comes out at 8 a.m. KST today (7 p.m. EDT on Oct. 29). The single follows “CLICK,” released in September, and she will take it to music shows right after release, with an underwater performance teased in the MV. The official MV teaser had 2,506,262 views by 5 a.m. KST on Oct. 30, up from about 1.72 million a day earlier. The same week she was decorated with her group, JISOO gets to open a brand-new chapter of her own, and that is a very good Friday for BLINKs.

Sources: Top Star News, Oct. 30, Sports Donga, Oct. 29, YouTube views checked 5:00 a.m. KST, Oct. 30

A2O LITE’s ‘NEON’ Tops Oricon’s Weekly Streaming Surge Ranking

A2O LITE’s debut single “NEON” took No. 1 on Oricon’s weekly streaming surge ranking for Oct. 19-25, announced Oct. 29, and climbed to No. 4 from No. 47 on Billboard Japan’s Streaming Songs chart released Oct. 28, with about 5.19 million plays, roughly 2.3 times the week before. Back home, the Circle Chart for the same week made the group a triple winner, topping the Global K-pop, Digital and Streaming charts, and “NEON” has now spent 15 straight days at No. 1 on the Melon TOP100. All of this has happened barely two weeks after its Oct. 13 release. A song that started in Seoul is now spreading through Japanese playlists, and the next stop on the group’s calendar is the D Awards in Paris in January.

Sources: Tenasia, Oct. 29, Star News, Oct. 29, Break News, Oct. 29

KATSEYE Announce Their First Concert in Korea

KATSEYE will hold their first solo concert in Korea on Feb. 4, 2027, at KSPO DOME in Seoul’s Olympic Park, Live Nation and HYBE said on Oct. 29. The show is part of a new Asia and Oceania leg of THE WILDWORLD TOUR, which starts at Yokohama Arena on Jan. 27 and runs through Manila, Hong Kong, Seoul, Cebu, Singapore, Bangkok, Taipei, Sydney and Melbourne before ending at Auckland’s Spark Arena on March 5. The European and North American dates sold out within 48 hours of going on sale in May. Presales open Nov. 10 and general sale on Nov. 12 at noon KST through NOL Ticket. It also means Korean member YOONCHAE gets to bring her group to her home country, and Korean EYEKONs have been waiting a long time for this night.

Sources: Dispatch, Oct. 29, My Daily, Oct. 29, YTN, Oct. 29

Super Junior, AKMU, NMIXX and ENHYPEN Also Honored at the Pop Culture Awards

BLACKPINK weren’t the only K-pop names on the stage on Oct. 29. Super Junior received a Presidential Citation, alongside the band Boohwal, music director Kang Seung-won and actors Yoo Hae-jin, Ryu Seung-ryong and So Ji-sub, while AKMU received a Prime Minister’s Citation. NMIXX and ENHYPEN, along with singer Jang Min-ho and choreographer Lee Jung, received Minister of Culture Commendations. Leeteuk shared a smiling photo holding the citation and trophy on Instagram the same day. Super Junior’s 21 years and the newer groups’ world tours were honored on the same night, and every fandom in that room had something to celebrate.

Sources: Kukmin Ilbo, Oct. 29, Etoday, Oct. 29, Top Star News, Oct. 29

BIGBANG Meet Dooly and ENHYPEN Meet ‘Dune’ at the 2026 MAMA AWARDS

CJ ENM revealed the special stages for the 2026 MAMA AWARDS at a media day in Seoul on Oct. 29. BIGBANG, celebrating their 20th anniversary, will share a stage with the beloved 1983 cartoon dinosaur Dooly, and ENHYPEN will perform a “cinematic stage” linked to “Dune: Part Three,” opening in December, connecting their vampire storyline with the film’s world. The duo Panic, now 31 years since debut, will perform with CORTIS’s Martin and Seonghyeon, WOODZ, ZEROBASEONE’s Kim Tae-rae, ALLDAY PROJECT’s Woochan and Hearts2Hearts’ Yuha. The show runs Nov. 20-21 at Kyocera Dome Osaka with Park Bo-gum as host, and a first-ever MAMA Fan Festa takes over Osaka spots such as Dotonbori from Nov. 9 to 21. VIPs and ENGENEs, start counting down.

Sources: Tenasia, Oct. 29, JoongAng Ilbo, Oct. 29

BTS Bring the ‘ARIRANG’ Tour to São Paulo

BTS opened their São Paulo run at Estádio do Morumbis on Oct. 28 local time, with two more shows on Oct. 30 and 31 to close the Latin American leg of the “ARIRANG” world tour that began in Bogotá on Oct. 2. Spotify says BTS streams in Colombia have grown about 300% over the past three years, and Billboard Brazil reported a 727% jump in streams since the group’s full return. Jimin’s Brazilian fans welcomed his first visit in seven years with ads on six city buses and 38 screens at the Tietê bus terminal, one of the largest in the world. After Brazil, the tour moves to Kaohsiung on Nov. 19 to start the Asia leg, and ARMY in Brazil have already given them a send-off to remember.

Sources: OSEN, Oct. 29, Star News, Oct. 29

JEONGHAN X JOSHUA Top the Circle Album Chart With 802,030 Copies

SEVENTEEN’s unit JEONGHAN X JOSHUA took No. 1 on the Circle Chart weekly album chart for Oct. 18-24 with their first mini album “DREAMSCAPE,” selling 802,030 copies that week, the Korea Popular Music Industry Association, which runs the Circle Chart, said on Oct. 29. Across every version, the album has now sold 924,625 copies on the chart’s Top 100. PLAVE’s fifth mini album “HYPERDRIVE” topped the retail album chart with 281,933 copies, IVE’s “Looks Can Kill” led the download chart, and BTS returned to No. 1 on the Social Chart. Two members, one dreamy unit album and almost a million copies: CARATs clearly wanted this pairing.

Sources: Break News, Oct. 29, Top Star News, Oct. 29

CNBLUE Book Their First KSPO DOME Concerts

CNBLUE will play KSPO DOME for the first time on Feb. 20-21, 2027, with “2027 CNBLUE LIVE ‘에바뛰콘 – KEEP DREAMIN’, KEEP RUNNIN”,” FNC Entertainment said on Oct. 29. “에바뛰” is short for the band’s concert chant “Everybody jump,” and it will be their first solo show at the venue since their 2010 Korean debut. The band released its third full album “3LOGY” in January, toured 20 cities in Asia, Oceania and Europe, and wraps the tour with an encore in Macau in November. Seventeen years in, the band is still climbing to bigger stages, and BOICE will be jumping right along with them.

Sources: Queen, Oct. 29

LUCY Release ‘Again!’ After Fans Asked for It

The band LUCY will release its eighth digital single “다시!” (“Again!”) on Nov. 12 at 6 p.m. KST, unveiling the logo film and cover image on Oct. 29. The song was first played live, unreleased, at the band’s Seoul encore concerts “ISLAND” on Oct. 23-25, and fans asked for an official release right after. It’s LUCY’s first new music in about seven months since the second full album “Childish” in April, with lyrical violin lines over the band’s bright sound. A song that exists because the crowd wouldn’t stop asking for it is the kind of love story fans live for.

Sources: Xports News, Oct. 29, Sports Donga, Oct. 29

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“ADDICTED” drops at 8 a.m., BTS have two more nights in São Paulo, and I’ll be here tomorrow to see how BLINKs greet JISOO’s new song.

Featured photo: BLACKPINK at the pink carpet event in Seoul, Aug. 2024. Photo: TV10 (티비텐), now K-POPIT (Tenasia) on YouTube via YouTube/Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 3.0 (cropped).