K-pop icons Big Bang announce world tour

SEOUL, South Korea—One of K-pop’s biggest boy bands, Big Bang, announced on Thursday their first world tour in three years, spanning Asia and the Americas to promote a much-anticipated new album.

The five members of the South Korean group are among the best-known faces of the K-pop phenomenon, whose popularity has swept Asia and beyond over the last 10 years.

The upcoming tour kicks off with two concerts in Seoul on April 25 and 26 and then moves to at least 15 countries including China, Japan and the United States, the band’s agency YG Entertainment said in a statement.

A total of 70 concerts have been scheduled, with the agency promising new venues and well-trodden K-pop stages in Southeast Asia.

Popular rapper and the band’s leader G-Dragon earlier said Big Bang was planning to release a new album along with the global tour.

Their last album, “Alive,” was released in 2012 and became the first Korean-language entrant in the US Billboard 200 album chart.

Since then, the five members of the band have largely concentrated on individual projects.