harry

Since it's been a couple years, I was having trouble remembering the names to the 2019 faces, but then I randomly watched this, and it all came back to me.  Mostly.

Yeah, I figure if they did disband we'd see a bunch of messages on their Instagram accounts.

 

At least we know they're all close friends and we'll still see them together no matter what happens

What seems to have happened is that Lime is no longer in Fantagio.  So assumptions were made.  Lime was the one member with the oddball contract since she was never a trainee at Fantagio (or Pledis, even).

I'd be really surprised if Fantagio Music as it's currently being ran would be interested in investing money into another Hello Venus album.  Although, as Nara, Yooyoung, "Alice" and Seoyoung are all working actresses (maybe Yeoreum, too), they would have a place at the Fantagio agency.

Might be a situation where they never formerly announce a disbandment.  And then in a few years, when the former CEO of Fantagio has his new agency more established, he can organize a passion project 10th anniversary reunion show.  Maybe even sign up Yoonjo and the civilian Yoo Ara to participate.  At one point, Hello Venus were the #1 girl group of the 2012 class.  There must be some nostalgia value just in that alone.

Same person?

Hey, look, Pritz!

Good news at least on the Fantagio side.

So Doyeon and Yoojung will next have a project group with Matilda's Saebyeol and Dan-a.

Found something cute.  At the end of 2015, Asha as we knew them essentially disbanded.  Six months later, EXID released the song "L.I.E".  And here is Asha covering the song in the Philippines:

Not sure how I feel about this now TBH.  I mean if its just a week of promotions or something then that's fine, but if its 3-4 weeks then I don't know.

 

 

 

Weki Meki are trying to establish themselves as a group and a name in a hugely saturated market.  2 comebacks is nowhere near enough to have done that, and to have the two most popular members then embark on a full promo cycle as a sub-unit that's with another group?

 

I mean...look at how much rubbish we had to go through with the title track being so heavily slanted with Yoojung/Doyeon..this will just fan the flames of the group being a Yoojung/Doyeon + 6 girls group.  I would rather see them concentrate on group related stuff that helps get the other 6 names out there.

 

I suppose the flip side is that people will hope if any recognition for this happens then some of it will filter back to the rest of the group and increase their popularity. 

 

Maybe I am just worrying over nothing.

 

 

The strange thing is Yoojung and Doyeon being the two most popular members of Weki Meki -- and two of the more popular idols from the I.O.I phenomenon, for that matter.  Meanwhile, the contribution coming from WJSN isn't Cheng Xiao, isn't Yeonjung, isn't even Bona or Zlatan -- it's their B-class line.  Which I guess is still pretty good when you have 13 to choose from, but this is definitely not a unit of equals.  Seola and Luda have plenty of admirers, but little recognition outside that.

That Starship is apparently running this, and that they're in cahoots with Yuehua, and their parent company has management by Tencent, and Fantagio was recently stolen taken over by raiders from the north and suddenly their two best female idols are going to assist in giving a couple really pretty lesser known girls a promo seems like a plan concocted in Beijing.

it's not like they've disappeared completely.

Even less so today:

Saw this in my subs and was wondering if anyone knew what was going on, like why there's 3 now and why are they dressed like Pungdeng-e, but I guess when you do disappear, so does the interest.

She's not 22? I mean Mamamoo got their atenttion it didnt matter about their ages

If the hottest music producer in Korea and the largest Korean media conglomerate suddenly decide to invest in Nara, I'll be all for it.

Do you think ASHA will comeback? Nara is not being that succesful

Considering the SNS intelligence shows Asha is currently a one-member group, I guess this would be an Asha comeback.

She at that age (23) where it'd be hard to find interest in starting up a new girl group around her.  She's around the age of most of the Sha Sha girls who just debuted with a Shinsadong Tiger track and CJE&M distribution, and they've gotten no traction.  I had assumed she'd've shown up on one of those trainee audition shows by now, but it didn't happen.  She was clearly the star trainee and this seems like a winding down of the contract she had.

But hey, who knows.  While this promo appears to have flopped (song wasn't that interesting, either), maybe it did better then we think among kpop investors.  Or maybe she'll get a call to replace Choa in AOA.

Haven't been posting any performances from music shows because, well, they haven't been that good -- usually bad camera work, or sometimes the mic level is bad or Nara is off key.  What is good is she has gotten on a lot of shows.  Not sure if it's because of the personal connections her CEO has or if it's the lack of female acts active to start the year combined with shows trying to avoid a sausage-fest.  Anyway, she did perform on that infamous sidewalk stage outside that shopping center, and that at least looked pretty good:

She also did a

Maybe I'll post a show performance that isn't too bad.  The most recent The Show performance was pretty good (at least she was on key), but finding a youtube upload can be challenging.

So Nara recorded an appearance on Simply K-pop, which should be airing at a special time today, less than an hour from now.  Anyway, from that lineup page:

 

Despite her group ASHA's hiatus, NARA continued to work hard without resting to return to the stage as a soloist with a charming voice.

Oh, it's a hiatus.

Nara will also be on Music Bank today. 

Exciting times we live in.

So, looks like Nara is finally going to have her solo debut...

It'd be hilarious if this song was the song Asha was supposed to comeback with like 4 years ago.  Actually, that wouldn't be very hilarious at all.

Good luck!

JTG? They are Berry Good's hoobaes, then!

Good luck to them!

On the other side, there are a lot of similarities between Monstergram and the presumably now defunct Pandagram -- and it's not just the name.  The interests in animation, the hero concept, managing young actors, advertising contents production along with the look and a little of the sound of the group are very similar.  That they hooked up with JTG is an interesting coincidence because JTG by way of their Asia Bridge heritage should have significant contacts in Japan, which is where the company previously known as Pandagram went to do animation full time a couple years ago after they finally gave up on their kpop girl group dreams.

And now we have power idol busters?!

Nah, probably a coincidence.

Anyway...

New content.

What else?

 

They officially released the MV!

I don't think that's an official channel.  Unless a group who's distributed by CJE&M figures it's a good idea to upload captures of M!CD performances off of unauthorized re-streams since, well, that's the only way anyone will ever see them on youtube.

Looks like Nara is going to release a solo album.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BabeNaugpc4/

I thought I posted this here.  Hmm.  Anyway, back in May, during a show that was mostly for Gugudan, this girl came out to sing a few songs, and it turned out to be Nara from Asha.  She even identified herself as such.

I made a little

Maybe she performed somewhere else, I dunno.  Hard to search for Nara now and not come up with the other girl.  Maybe she's going to show up on MIX9, I dunno.  Maybe someone knows her new instagram ID, I dunno.

 Yeah seriously wtf was the stylist doing? It looks very unprofessional. They could have at least of made them all wear nice jeans instead of whatever is going on there. At least the sports jackets all match.

I assume the jackets were a gift/loaner from the university they performed at since the school's name was printed on the back of them.

Maybe the fire alarm went off at their dorm and they couldn't get back inside before they had to leave.

OMG can't wait to see Jiho's mukbang again  or is it the lieV?!

They might just be doing laundry.

In case anyone was still wondering what was up with the group, there was a GirlsGirls sighting at a craft beer festival.

And they weren't just there for the beer as there was a performance, but the audio is so distorted it makes me sad.

no.. they seem so inactive :(

They may seem inactive, but she isn't:

Are we ever gonna get that quartet of WA$$UP?

LipBubble gonna be on SBSMTV The Show, starting in about 90 minutes. Get hyped.