K-pop artists postpone music releases, debuts amid Omicron surge

Eight of the nine members of boy group Cravity tested positive for COVID-19. Courtesy of Starship Entertainment

By Lee Gyu-lee

A number of K-pop groups are postponing their scheduled activities as the current wave of COVID-19 infections is rocking the music industry. More than 30 artists have been confirmed to be infected with the virus, and the country is struggling to contain the high transmissible spread of the Omicron variant. Korea saw yet a new daily record, with the number of COVID-19 cases surpassing 93,000 on Wednesday.

The rookie group, TEMPEST, which was slated to make its debut next Monday, has pushed back the release of its debut album, "It's ME, It's WE," to next month after all of its seven members tested positive for the virus.

"One of the staff reported getting infected, so we got the members tested and heard back that the results were positive," the group's agency Yuehua Entertainment said in the statement, adding that the members had each received two shots of the vaccine.

Boy groups BtoB and Cravity have indefinitely postponed their music releases after reporting infection cases among some of their members.

BtoB's agency, Cube Entertainment, said that one of its members, Seo Eun-kwang, tested positive for the virus about a week before the group was set to drop its third album, "Be Together," on Feb. 21.

"Seo has halted all of his scheduled activities and is taking the measures as advised by the authorities," the agency said. "The rest of the members were also tested a day after Seo's test result came out. And their results came out negative."

Almost all of the members of the nine-piece group, Cravity, reported getting infected, with eight of the members testing positive for COVID-19 as of Wednesday.

Starship Entertainment, the agency of the group, said that it will indefinitely delay the release of the group's upcoming album, "LIBERTY: IN OUR COSMOS," slated for Feb. 22, after seven members ― Serim, Allen, Jungmo, Minhee, Hyeongjun, Taeyoung and Seongmin ― tested positive, on Sunday.

About three days later, it announced that another member, Wonjin, had also tested positive after showing symptoms of a fever and sore throat.

"Currently, the members are fully focused on getting some rest and following the authorities' guidelines for self-treatment," the agency said. "Although Woobin tested negative, he is separately self-quarantining and frequently testing himself with self-test kits."

K-pop girl group ITZY postponed its fan meeting event scheduled for Saturday, after three of its members tested positive for the virus. Courtesy of JYP Entertainment

JYP Entertainment's girl group, ITZY, has pushed back its first official fan meeting event, which was originally scheduled for Saturday.

Earlier this week, the agency announced that two of its members ― Lia and Yeji ― had been infected with the coronavirus. The group then added another infection case, Chaeryeong, Wednesday.

Quartet 2AM canceled its upcoming concert, "2AM Concert 22 S/S," only a day before it was scheduled to be held, on Feb. 12 and 13, when group member Jo Kwon reported getting infected. This event was supposed to be the group's first concert in nine years since its last one in 2013.

"Jo Kwon was confirmed positive also after conducting a self-test, so he headed straight to a public health center for a PCR test, which also tested positive," the singer's agency, Cube Entertainment, said, adding that he was fully vaccinated with the third dose.

An alternative date for the concert has not been announced yet.

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