CORTIS picked up their first terrestrial music-show trophy on May 15, winning No. 1 on KBS2 '뮤직뱅크' with 'REDRED'. It's their fifth music-show win overall. After back-to-back wins on Mnet '엠카운트다운' (April 30, May 7, May 14) and on MBC M·MBC every1 '쇼! 챔피언' (May 13), this latest trophy means the group swept five music-show No. 1s in 16 days. Spotify monthly listeners stood at 11.17 million as of May 14, putting CORTIS in the all-time Top 4 among K-pop boy groups, and 'REDRED' has held No. 78 on 'Weekly Top Songs Global' for three weeks straight. The song also entered Billboard's 'Bubbling Under Hot 100' at No. 17 (May 16 dated) and landed at No. 1 on Billboard Japan's 'Hit Seekers Song' chart plus No. 32 on Japan's Hot 100 — a simultaneous push across the U.S. and Japan.

BTS's fifth studio album 'ARIRANG' returned to No. 1 on Spotify's Weekly Top Albums Global (tracking May 8–14) and held a Top 3 spot for a second straight month. Title track 'SWIM' also sat at No. 3 on the Weekly Top Rock Global chart, and on the daily charts it has stayed in the Top 3 for 56 consecutive days. All 13 album tracks have charted for eight weeks in a row, underlining the album's long-tail global streaming.

ENHYPEN's 'Bite Me' crossed 500,195,420 cumulative Spotify streams as of May 14, making it the group's first track to reach 500 million. The title track of their fourth mini-album 'DARK BLOOD' was released in May 2023, hit 400 million in August 2025, and added another 100 million in about nine months. At the same point, 'Sweet Venom' crossed 200 million streams — the group's seventh track to do so — bringing ENHYPEN's Spotify 100M+ catalog to 19 tracks and their cumulative streams to roughly 7.1 billion.

LE SSERAFIM, who release their second studio album 'PUREFLOW pt.1' at 5/22 13:00 KST, dropped four concept photos one by one between May 12 and May 15. BIRCH SCAR (5/12) → YUSU LILY (5/13) → PEONY ROOM (5/14), followed by a compact, office-set version (5/15) — four straight days of reveals. The BIRCH SCAR concept pulled directly from Mary Shelley's 'Frankenstein', with stitched scars and dark, sharpened-fingertip styling. The album packs 11 tracks total, including title track 'BOOMPALA' and pre-release single 'CELEBRATION' (April 24).

ITZY dropped a second music video teaser for their new mini-album 'Motto' late on May 15. Where the first teaser (May 13) leaned into intense performance, this second cut goes dreamlike and fairy-tale, leaning hard into a visual concept. The album drops at 5/18 18:00 KST, with a comeback countdown live at 17:00 KST the same day. Track list runs to eight: title track 'Motto', new tracks 'Glitch' and 'You And I', plus five solo cuts from the group's 3rd World Tour set — Yeji 'Pocket', Lia 'Asylum', Ryujin 'LOOK', Chaeryeong 'Undefined' and Yuna 'Tangerine'.

TXT's eighth mini-album '7TH YEAR: 가시덤불에 잠시 바람이 멈췄을 때' was certified Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of Japan (RIAJ), reflecting April shipments past 250,000 units in Japan. It's the group's 16th career Japan Gold Disc certification. The same album took No. 1 on Oricon's Weekly Album Chart dated April 27 — TXT's 14th career chart-topper, tying the record for most by any non-Korean, non-Japanese act.

IVE's Rei will host Day 1 of the Asia Star Entertainer Awards (ASEA) 2026, which opens at Saitama's Belluna Dome in Japan on May 16. It's her second straight year as MC — a return after last year's run, where her bilingual hosting in Korean and Japanese drew strong reviews for its quick wit. The awards run across two days, May 16–17.

aespa's Karina and pro gamer Faker (Lee Sang-hyeok) co-starred in Google Play's 'PLAY ON PLAY' campaign video. Five short-form clips, in which the two run into each other in everyday spots like a library, subway and bus stop, dropped on the Google Play Korea YouTube channel. The cuts include Faker's signature 'shh' pose and a scene where Karina forward-rolls across the subway floor to fetch Faker's phone. Outdoor ads tied to the campaign are running in Seoul's Seongsu district through May 17.

RIIZE's Japanese single 'All of You' (released February 18) crossed 500,000 cumulative copies in April and was certified Double Platinum by RIAJ on May 15. Around the same window — between college festival stages (May 8 at Incheon National University, May 14 at Sogang and Soongsil) — the group also slipped in short spoilers hinting at a June comeback. The group is now in a phase where their Japan debut single is settling in while a new studio-album build-up runs in parallel.

izna joined KCON JAPAN 2026 at Makuhari Messe in Chiba, Japan from May 8–10, marking their third straight year at the festival. On the M Countdown stage they performed 'Mamma Mia', 'SIGN', 'BEEP (Japanese Ver.)', 'SASS', 'Racecar' (remix) and 'IWALY', plus a cover of BOYNEXTDOOR's '오늘만 I LOVE YOU'. Koko and Choi Jung-eun also teamed up with members of KISS OF LIFE for a cover of Jennie's 'ExtraL' collab — a moment that lit up social media. The current active lineup is a six-member group: Mai, Bang Jee-min, Koko, Yu Sa-rang, Choi Jung-eun and Jeong Se-bi.