Faisal's blog

Former Produce 101 (2016) winner Jeon Somi returns with her new album "XOXO". Released in October 29th, 2021, the album spawned three singles: "Birthday" which released two years ago in 2019, "What You Waiting For" (2020), and two singles released in 2021: "Dumb Dumb" and the title track "XOXO". The album released digitally on iTunes, Apple Music and Spotify. - Who is Jeon Somi? Jeon Somi was born as Ennik Douma on March 9, 2001. She has a younger sister, Evelyn, who is eight years younger than her. Her father is a Dutch-Canadian while her mother is a Korean. In 2015, Somi contested in an auditional program called Sixteen , but failed to debut as a member of recent popular girl group Twice. In 2016, she contested in Produce 101 representing JYP Entertainment, and won the show to debut with a short-lived girl group I.O.I. from April 2016 until January 2017. Later that year in summer 2017, Somi left JYP due to her contract ex...

SINGAPORE (via WonderlandMagazine.com) – Serving up a delicious fusion of R&B and pop finesse with her debut single is newcomer Erika Tham with “Admit It”. Seamlessly blending the two genres together, the artist rides a sultry production, intertwining each tonal shift with intimate lyricism and instrumentation. Filled with cadence and sophistication, the artist showcases her powerhouse vocals on the track, as she effortlessly transcends between sweet honeyed whispers to raw and frank truths. “Sometimes music feels like the one place I can say things that I otherwise wouldn’t say in real life,” the artist revealed when discussing the track. “I think ‘Admit It’ is the perfect example of that. I know I could never have said these things to the person without breaking his heart… but there was nothing stopping me from writing it down in a son.” No newcomer to the scene, Tham has already had success in the acting world as she has made appearances in Nickelodeon’s  Make it Pop...

South Korean multinational girl group Secret Number returned with its new formation by adding two new members: Zuu and Minji. Their new single "Fire Saturday" is more refreshing and energetic than their previous singles "Who Dis?" and "Got That Boom". Unfortunately, for promotion of "Fire Saturday", one of the group's member Denise (Singapore) is unable to join the single's promotion due to contract dispute. Secret Number is a multinational girl group consisting of: Soodam (South Korea), Lea (Japan), Dita Karang (Indonesia), Jinny (USA), Zuu (China) and Minji (South Korea) signed under Vine Entertainment. - Track list 1. Fire Saturday 2. Dangerous In Love Follow Secret Number on Instagram

AUSTIN – Max Verstappen is in total control on his way to win the U.S. Grand Prix at the Circuit Of The Americas (COTA) at Austin, Texas on Sunday (10/24), the race where the Red Bull Racing-Honda driver maintained pressures from his title rival Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes) who pressured the 24-year-old Dutchman all-season long for his (Hamilton's) eighth world title. The COTA is not only dominated by Honda in F1 this year, but also in MotoGP courtesy of Marc Marquez who won in this circuit seven times. Verstappen's victory at COTA means that he increased his lead in the world championship by 12 points over Hamilton with five races remaining in the calendar. 2021 U.S. Grand Prix full results

SEOUL – Girls Planet 999, an audition program similar to Produce 101, has reached the final episode, which would be determine the nine members of the new girl group. The show started with 99 young female contestants (age 13-25) who either had advanced to the final episode or who eliminated in every episode since the show started in August 2021. In the final episode on Friday (10/22), it was announced that the top-nine finalists will be debuted in a new nine-member girl group named "Kep1er". The show won by Kim Chaehyun with 1 million votes, 2nd is Huening Bahiyyih (younger sister of TXT's member Huening Kai) with 923,567 votes. Jellyfish Entertainment trainee Kim Dayeon placed 4th with 885,286 votes, only behind Choi Yujin (member of girl group CLC since 2015) who ranked 3rd with 915,722 votes. - Su Ruiqi missed cut One of the contestants who became the spotlight of the show is Su Ruiqi. The Chinese contestant had performed well in every episode pr...

SINGAPORE – Singaporean singer and actress Erika Tham returns with her solo debut single "Admit It". Released on October 15, 2021, the song tells the singer about 'what I wish I could’ve said to someone that I was watching fall in love with me when I knew I didn’t feel the same. It’s an honest conversation with myself and him; admitting my faults and hesitations when it comes to love. I’m sorry I let it get this far and that I let you think I was the one. "Pardon my seduction, I’ll pardon your assumptions"'. - Who is Erika Tham? Jacqueline Erika Tham, better known by her stage name Erika Tham is a Singaporean born singer and actress born on December 15, 1999. Tham rose her popularity by making a lead role in a Nickelodeon's live-action teen drama "Make It Pop" from 2015 until 2016 alongside Korean-American singer Megan Lee and Filipino-Canadian actress Louriza Tronco. In the drama, Tham starred herself as Corki Chang, a high school ...

LONDON – The FIA announced its upcoming 23-race 2022 Formula 1 World championship calendar, as well as its "supporting" 14-round 2022 Formula 2, Formula 3 and W Series championships. Two new races added to the 2022 calendar are Saudi Arabian Grand Prix and Miami Grand Prix. The 2022 season will be started from Bahrain (March 20) and ends at Abu Dhabi (November 20) Here are the provisional 2022 F1 calendar as follows: Date Grand Prix Venue 20 March Bahrain Sakhir 27 March Saudi Arabia Jeddah 10 April Australia Melbourne 24 April Emilia Romagna Imola* 8 May Miami Miami** 22 May Spain Barcelona* 29 May Monaco Monaco 12 June Azerbaijan Baku 19 June Canada Montreal 3 July United Kingdom Silverstone 10 July Austria Spielberg 24 July France Le Castellet 31 July Hungary Budapest 28 August Belgium Spa 4 September Netherlands Zandvoort 11 September Italy Monza 25 September Russia Sochi 2 October Singapore Singapore* 9 October Japan Suzuka 23 October USA Austin* 30 October M...

Coldplay made an energetic return with their new album Music Of the Spheres . Released on October 15, 2021, the album released digitally on music platforms like Apple Music, Spotify, Tidal and Deezer, as well as its physical format in CD, cassette and vinyl. Coldplay produced this new album with music producer Max Martin, who has been worked with other award-winning musicians and bands including The Weeknd, Katy Perry, Taylor Swift, and many more. The majority of songs from Music Of the Spheres  are co-written and co-produced by Coldplay and Max Martin. - Singles The singles from this album are "Higher Power", "Coloratura", and their duet single with South Korea's global phenom BTS titled "My Universe". The album's first single "Higher Power" has the similar tune but different lyrics compared with their song from 2012's Mylo Xyloto  album titled "Hurts Like Heaven"; although some music critics compared "High...

JAKARTA – PT Mercedes-Benz Distribution Indonesia (MBDI) officially launched its new Mercedes-AMG compact sport cars: the AMG A 35 Sedan and AMG GLA 35 during the Mercedes-AMG Track Day at Sentul International Circuit, Bogor, West Java on October 9-10, 2021. Those models will be locally assembled at its Wanaherang factory plant and will be delivered to Indonesian customers starting November 2021. Choi Duk-jun, president director of MBDI said: "We are very happy that our new AMG models (A 35 sedan and GLA 35) will be locally assembled by our partners at MBDI. With the introduction of the new AMG models, we will keep our promise to serve our Indonesian customers with luxury high-performance vehicles." - Mercedes-AMG A 35 Sedan The A 35 sedan is the A-Class-based compact sports car. It is powered by a four-cylinder turbo engine that produced a power output of 306 hp and 400 Nm of torque. Its AMG Speedshift 7G-Tronic automatic transmission with 4MATIC all-...

ISTANBUL – Valtteri Bottas promised that he will at least win two races before leaving Mercedes to Alfa Romeo next seaaon. It all proved in the rain-soaked race at Turkish Grand Prix (10/10). The 32 year-old Finn holds his nerves from the pressure by Red Bull Racing's Max Verstappen who finished 2nd to retake championship lead. Verstappen is happy to leave Turkey as a championship leader . Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes) was handed a ten-grid penalty after switching to new engine power unit. Hamilton went on to relinquish his championship lead to Verstappen who 2nd in the race as Hamilton finished 5th. - The title fight continues until the end? With six races to go, Verstappen currently leads Hamilton by six points. The final six races will take place in the Americas (Brazil, Mexico and United States) and in Middle East (Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Abu Dhabi) F1 Turkish GP 2021 full results

SEOUL – Two South Korean music giants Bangtan Boys (BTS) and Blackpink continue to reign as world number one boyband and girl group respectively, as they topped October 2021 reputation rankings based on the Korean Business Research from September 9 to October 10, 2021. - Boyband rankings BTS once again on top of the ranking, courtesy of their duet with Coldplay titled "My Universe", which will be featured on the British rock band's upcoming album Music Of The Spheres . The song topped the Billboard Hot 100 chart in the 2nd week of October . 2nd place goes to the new world number two NCT, who completed their NCT 2021  campaign with NCT 127's hit "Sticker". Previously, another NCT unit NCT Dream released their hit titled "Hot Sauce" in May. Here are the boyband ranking for October 2021: 1. BTS 2. NCT 3. SEVENTEEN 4. EXO 5. INFINITE 6. Stray Kids 7. THE BOYZ 8. TXT 9. Highlight 10. BTOB 11. ASTRO 12. Super Junior 13. ATEEZ 14. SHINee 15. MONSTA X 16. ...

ISTANBUL – Red Bull and AlphaTauri’s cars will race with special liveries at this weekend’s Turkish Grand Prix, on what was originally slated to be power unit supplier Honda’s final home race at Suzuka. The Red Bull RB16Bs of Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez will run in a predominantly white livery, inspired by the paint scheme of the Honda RA272 that Richie Ginther raced to victory at the 1965 Mexican Grand Prix. Pierre Gasly and Yuki Tsunoda’s AlphaTauris, meanwhile, will feature the word arigato – the Japanese word for thank you – on the rear wings of their AT02s. Honda announced towards the  end of 2020  that the 2021 season would be their last in Formula 1, having returned to the sport to power McLaren back in 2015. They first supplied AlphaTauri – back in their Toro Rosso days – in 2018, before supplying both Red Bull teams from 2019 onwards. The partnership has netted 14 victories in total to date, including Pierre Gasly’s memorable triumph at the 2020 Italia...

SEOUL – Former Gugudan member Shin Bora will star in the first ever 4D webdrama "Mr. LEE", which will be air later in 2021. In this upcoming drama, Bora will make her lead role as Cha Eun-joo, one of Mr. Lee's love interests. The filming for the drama is currently in progress. This will be Bora's acting debut since officially joining FN Entertainment in August 2021 . Bora (28) will also make her box office debut by starring in the film "She's From Another Planet" in which she will also make another lead role as Na-eun. Source: -  https://entertain.naver.com/now/read?oid=112&aid=0003469885 -  http://osen.mt.co.kr/article/G1111640713

LONDON – British rock band Coldplay once again makes history as their collaboration single with South Korea's global phenom Bangtan Boys (BTS) titled "My Universe" topped the Billboard Hot 100 in its major chart debut. The song became Coldplay's number one hit since 2008's "Viva La Vida". It also became BTS’s sixth song to top the Hot 100, following “Dynamite,” “Savage Love (Laxed – Siren Beat)” with Jawsh 685 and Jason Derulo, “Life Goes On,” “Butter,” and “Permission to Dance.” The group has achieved six No. 1s in a year and just over one month, making them the second fastest to do so after The Beatles’ record of one year and two weeks in 1964-1966. - Coldplay to release another collaboration single for upcoming album It was also announced that Coldplay will release another collaboration single to be featured on their upcoming album Music Of The Spheres  which will be released on October 15, 2021. Their third single of the album, titled ...

DOHA – On September 30 2021, FIA announced that the Qatar Grand Prix will be added into Formula 1 calendar starting 2021. The 2021 event is due to replace canceled Japanese Grand Prix. In addition, the Qatar Grand Prix will be part of Middle East triple-header alongside the newly added Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, and Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. The upcoming Qatar GP will take place at Losail International Circuit, which currently held FIM Grand Prix motorcycle racing events including MotoGP and World Superbike Championships. FIA had also held their events at Losail, including GP2 Asia series where Sergio Perez (Red Bull) won the race 2 when he was raced for Barwa Campos team back in 2009. According to the F1's official site, the Qatar GP will be take place in a 57-lap sunset-to-night race, which is a similar racing schedule to Abu Dhabi GP. Source: -  https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article.breaking-qatar-to-join-f1-calendar-in-2021-as-country-signs-additional-10.50lbiJcZfoo...