If you spent this year waiting for midnight deliveries, refreshing fancafe posts, and crying over enlistment news, you weren’t alone. We were doing the same thing at KpopStarz. We’ve seen fandoms celebrate victories, worry about scandals, argue about rumors, and still show up at every stage and back. Our job was to select the news, verify the facts and tell the stories behind the posts and hashtags.
In this annual review, we’ll look at the 10 KpopStarz articles our readers cared about most. These stories follow contract changes, dating talks, chart records, tour news and moments that rocked fandoms.
Starship Entertainment has apologized after “accidentally” reposting a sexual deepfake of IVE member Yujin on its official Weibo account, sparking anger and disbelief among fans. The agency said the post, which contained AI-generated sexual content and insults aimed at the idol, appeared while staff were trying to report the original malicious upload.
In a statement, Starship said the deepfake post had been deleted and promised to handle its accounts more carefully, apologizing to IVE and its supporters for causing distress. Many fans, however, have questioned the explanation, pointing out that Weibo notifies users more than once before a repost is posted and arguing that such an error should not occur on an official channel, especially at a time when deepfake abuse of female idols is a growing concern in K-pop.
Stray Kids member Felix walked the runway for Louis Vuitton’s Fall/Winter 2025 womenswear show at Paris Fashion Week, marking his second time modeling for the luxury brand. The idol stepped out on March 10, wearing a black and white textured sweater, brown and gold plaid pants and a navy bag, completing the look with a woven belt and sneakers.
Felix’s return to the runway comes nearly two years after he was named an ambassador for Louis Vuitton in August 2023, a partnership that artistic director Nicolas Ghesquière praised as talented, energetic and bold in his style. Fans celebrated Felix as the first and only fourth-generation K-pop idol to walk the brand twice.
KATSEYE member Daniela Avanzini’s mother has spoken out after fans discovered she was following Donald Trump’s personal Instagram account. He said the move was not political and that people were reading too much into his social media activity.
According to his statement, he followed Trump’s account after seeing a touching post about the Pope and stressed that it did not reflect his or his daughter’s political beliefs. The issue quickly spread online and led some fans to falsely accuse Daniela of sharing the same views, but many others then defended the idol and her family, saying that children should not be held responsible for their parents’ bills. The incident also tied into larger debates over KATSEYE’s ties to HYBE America CEO Scooter Braun and showed how quickly political and family issues can affect K-pop idols in the public eye.
THE BLACK LABEL is facing growing backlash over alleged cultural appropriation just days before the debut of its new mixed group, ALLDAY Project. The controversy centers on member Lee Chaewon, known as Tarzzan, who has been criticized for repeatedly wearing braided hairstyles that many say borrow heavily from styles rooted in black culture.
Photos on Tarzzan’s Instagram and in the group’s teaser images show him in various braided looks. The situation escalated when fans noticed he follows Canadian rapper Tory Lanez, convicted in 2023 of assaulting Megan Thee Stallion, and some see him as support for a convicted molester.
TOP has broken his silence on why he left BIGBANG, saying he decided to leave because he felt he had “caused so much damage” to the group following its marijuana scandal. In his first press interview in 11 years, the actor-rapper, who now works under his real name Choi Seung Hyun, said he told YG Entertainment and members that he would leave after finishing his military service, as he did not want to further harm the team.
He recalled spending years in isolation at home and in the studio, struggling with guilt as fans continued to hope for a full BIGBANG reunion and tag him in old group photos. TOP said seeing those images was like watching “a family that has been separated” and admitted he still finds it difficult to contact the remaining members, even though he worries about them. He confirmed that there are no plans to rejoin BIGBANG and said that he accepts the criticism that comes with his decision, instead focusing on moving forward with his acting and music on his own.
The son of Democratic Party presidential candidate Lee Jae Myung has been fined 5 million Korean won for posting sexually explicit comments about Aespa member Karina, according to court documents made public this week. The posts were made in online poker communities in 2021, where he wrote things like “wanted to eat her once” under photos of the idol.
Records show that the Suwon District Court issued the fine in October 2024 for breaking the obscene content law and repeated gambling, and the fine became final after he chose not to appeal. The same account also made sexual comments about DJ Soda, adding to public anger. The case first surfaced after a YouTube channel reported his comments to police, and the renewed attention has now turned into a political issue, with rival politicians using it to attack Lee Jae Myung’s image even though he remains a leading presidential candidate.
Areum, a former T-ARA member, was sentenced to eight months in prison, two years of probation and 40 hours of child abuse prevention classes for child molestation and defamation charges involving her children and ex-husband.
The case follows a 2024 investigation in which police found no evidence to support Areum’s previous claims that her ex-husband had abused their children, leading to the dismissal of her case and new charges against her for abuse, neglect, kidnapping and defamatory livestream comments. The Suwon District Court said the woman admitted to the charges and condemned the emotional harm caused to the children’s legal guardian.
ASTRO member Cha Eunwoo will begin his mandatory military service on July 28, 2025, after being officially accepted into the South Korean Army Military Band. His agency, Fantagio, confirmed the news, making him the second ASTRO member to enlist after MJ, who completed his service in 2023.
Fantagio said Cha Eunwoo will enter a training center for basic training before serving about 18 months in the military band, with a discharge expected around January 2027, and asked fans for understanding as enlistment details will be kept private to avoid security concerns. Before leaving, Cha Eunwoo will join ASTRO’s solo concert “The 4th ASTROAD [Stargraphy]” in Incheon and continue filming Netflix drama “The Wonder Fools,” adding to a busy schedule following her recent drama “Wonderful World,” a music video appearance for IU and her solo EP “Entity.”
ITZY has confirmed that they are in talks to renew their contracts with JYP Entertainment, sharing the news during a press conference for their new mini-album “Girls Will Be Girls”. Chaeryeong said it felt surreal to already be discussing the renewal in their seventh year and promised that they would “provide good news,” although it is unclear whether all five members will eventually re-sign.
The discussions come as ITZY returns with their tenth mini-album, led by the title track “Girls Will Be Girls.”
aespa’s Karina is facing backlash after posting a photo on Instagram that some netizens saw as a hidden political message ahead of South Korea’s presidential election. In the now-deleted post, she wore a black jacket with red patterns and a clear “2” on it and added a red rose emoji, leading critics to link the image to the conservative People Power Party, whose candidate is No. 2 on the ballot and whose color is red.
Online communities quickly gave her nicknames like “Conservative Karina” and questioned her awareness of the “no color, no gesture” rule that idols are expected to follow during election season. As criticism grew, SM Entertainment issued an apology saying Karina had no political intent, deleted the post once it realized it could be misconstrued, and promised to be more careful in the future.
