NEWS
Several K-pop retailers across the globe have announced that they will be halting restocks of RIIZE merchandise amid growing unhappiness among fans due to the group’s line-up controversy.
Numerous retailers specialising in K-pop merchandise have announced the temporary halt of RIIZE merchandise imports in light of the recent events surrounding the departure of former member Seunghan. They include numerous major and minor retailers across various continents, including North America, Europe, Australia and Asia.
SubK Shop, a major K-pop retailer based in the US, announced today (October 16) that it would pause imports of RIIZE merchandise “out of respect for our customers, fans, and the artist”.
It added that existing orders will continue to be fulfilled, while “future sales will be re-evaulated as the situation evolves”. Other competitors in the US market, including K-pop Nara and Choice Music LA, have made similar moves.
Elsewhere, numerous European shops have also announced halts in RIIZE merchandise imports. These include the continent-wide retailer iPurple, France’s Boutique Musica, Germany’s Nolae and the Netherlands’ Hey!Hallyu among others.
In Asia and Oceania, Australia’s I Heart K-pop and K-pop Time have both also paused restocks of RIIZE goods, while several other Asian stores such as the Philippines’ CNA K-pop and Seoul Stop have also done the same.
SM Entertainment has yet to respond to ongoing uproar from international K-pop fans against the departure of Seunghan from RIIZE. Seunghan’s decision to leave the group happened just two days after the K-pop agency announced that he would be returning to RIIZE after a year-long hiatus.
Reneé Rapp is seen as a “huge inspiration” by SZA.
The 25-year-old artist performed SZA’s Good Days in the BBC Radio 1 Live Lounge, accompanied by two acoustic guitarists and a harp player. SZA, 35, was deeply moved by the rendition.
She posted a short video of the moment on Instagram Stories and wrote: “Renee is a HUGE inspiration, energy, voice spirit.”
During her chat with the BBC, Renee shared her thoughts about the track. She said: “I mean, I love SZA. I mean, she was one of my favorite artists in high school. And she's remained one of my favorite artists to this day. I think she's amazing. She's also, I mean, she's an incredible songwriter, but I think because she has so much swag. People don't realize how good of a singer she is. She's a fantastic vocalist and is really, really, really articulate. And I don't cover a lot of songs anymore. So I wanted to cover something that was, like, slightly challenging and also really vocally impressive, and frankly, hard for me to do.”
Renee is currently in the middle of promoting her second album, Bite Me, and opened up about how much more enjoyable it was to create compared to her first project.
She explained: “I mean, I feel like everything was incredibly different. I stopped listening to people that don't make music, because if you don't make music, then why the hell am I listening to you. And I also think the biggest difference, I think I just got a lot better. I think I have just become a better songwriter. I think I understand how to make pop music now in a way that I didn't really before. And I was very sure about what this album was and thematically, what it needed.
“So I felt like I was quite like, headstrong in like, what was gonna work and what wasn't. Because, nobody knows something better than yourself. I think a lot of things were different. I also just, like, had a lot of fun making it, like, I made it with like, three people, mostly, like, it was always like, four of us in the studio all the time, and we got so close, and some of us were already so close. So it was also just like a mess. It was such a mess, like we were just tweaking every day. It was so fun. And I don't think I enjoyed making the first one as much.”
