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| K-pop girl group KARA / Courtesy of RBW |
By Dong Sun-hwa
K-pop girl group KARA has returned to the limelight with its new release, "Move Again" ― an album celebrating the 15th anniversary of its debut.
The music video for "When I Move," the lead single of the album that dropped on Nov. 29, has garnered more than 3 million views on YouTube as of Monday afternoon.
A YouTube video of the group's performance at the 2022 MAMA Awards ceremony at the Kyocera Dome in Osaka, Japan, has also drawn over 1.5 million hits, with another clip featuring KARA's take on its previous hits ― "Mister" (2009), "Lupin," (2010) and "Step" (2011) ― attracting 4 million views.
"When I Move" is also reigning atop the real-time chart on Bugs, one of the major streaming platforms in Korea, as of Monday. It has also secured the No. 28 and No. 34 spots on two other platforms, Melon and Genie, respectively. After the K-pop stars performed "Mister," "Lupin," and "Step" at the MAMA awards, all of the songs climbed back up the charts as well.
It has taken more than seven years for KARA to roll out a fresh album, after it unleashed its seventh EP, "In Love," in 2015. Members Nicole and Jiyoung quit the act in 2014, but rejoined the team this time to drop "Move Again," which carries three more tracks: "Happy Hour," "Shout It Out" and "Oxygen."
"I thought it would be impossible for us to make a comeback," member Seungyeon said in a written Q&A session on Nov. 29. "We just wanted to try some small things that we can do this year, but we have reached this point (of releasing a new album). It is still unbelievable and we are so thankful."
Gyuri added, "As the title of our album implies, we made it to redisplay KARA's music and performance. Our members took part in its production, hoping that it can become a gift for our followers."
After bursting onto the K-pop scene in 2007 with the first full-length album, "The First Blooming," KARA put out a series of hits like "Mister" and positioned itself as one of the most popular second-generation girl groups, along with Girls' Generation and Wonder Girls. In 2013, it became the first K-pop girl group to play a concert at the Tokyo Dome, the biggest baseball stadium in Japan's capital city, which can accommodate more than 40,000 audience members.
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