Dreamcatcher Adds First Award To Accolades, Continuing a Monster Year Of Achievements In 2022
K-Pop — Dreamcatcher Recall
The K-Pop industry’s rock/pop-based septet attended their first awards show, taking home their first industry trophy while continuing content drops both expected and unexpected in late August.
SuA and the rest of Dreamcatcher can check off another couple boxes on their bucket list of achievements in the industry — something that appears to be a trend so far in 2022.
The group’s Main Dancer had recently cited on a Weverse Live stream with fans that the group had long wanted to attend an awards show, and they finally got to be able to not only do that at the inaugural K-Global Heart Dream Awards this past week, but take home some hardware as well.
We’ll get back to that accolade in just a bit, because that wasn’t the only thing that Dreamcatcher delighted fans with this past week. Let’s take a quick peek at the latest from the group!
Speaking of SuA, she’s been enjoying the bit of press that her and the group have been getting as a result of her first OST track release for K-Drama “Cafe Minamdang”. The full album with all of the show’s music released on August 25th, and SuA expressed her thankfulness at being able to record in an interview that appeared on Naver this past week. Considering the drama has been very well-received and the OSTs have been flying off of the shelves on some digital storefronts, it's safe to say this has been a success and perhaps a bit of extra exposure for both SuA and Dreamcatcher.
[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SEmCf_TQUKE[/embed]
While the success of an OST for a fairly popular Korean drama series may have been expected, what wasn’t expected was a cover drop out of nowhere. It had been a while since we’d had a random bit of content the fans didn’t know was coming, and what was given made the wait worth it.
JiU and Yoohyeon teamed up to film a Special Clip cover of Red Velvet Irene and Seulgi’s “Monster”, one of K-Pop’s most popular songs from 2020 and whose dark, aggressive vibes seemed a perfect fit for the Dreamcatcher subunit. Considering the duo’s last collaboration for a Special Clip was the more decidedly light-hearted “Angel 2 Me” cover, this huge shift in concept was even more of a surprise. Low-toned singing in particular is something we barely if ever have seen out of JiU, so this was nice to see. This song isn’t quite on my top list of tunes due primarily to personal preference, but I can acknowledge it’s become well-recognized and worthy of a homage from Dreamcatcher.
[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q44eT2_3HNY[/embed]
What fans have been anticipating for a while is all of the video content from the group’s recent North American leg of their World Tour, and the wait for that was finally over this past week. Dreamcatcher has never disappointed with their tour-related videos, from Notes to personal Vlogs, and this was no different. Part 1 covered the first two cities on the tour, New York City and Reading, Pennsylvania, with everyone getting some screentime to talk about what it was like to be on the road for the first time in two years. From Yoohyeon’s talk (and consumption of) food to Handong finally getting to tour in NA after missing their last engagement in 2019 to SuA dropping some insights about changing their setlist and styling slightly, and more, the 13-minute video was insightful, entertaining, and funny, and highlighted how much we’d missed content-wise by them not traveling. And if there was any doubt that the company was completely fine with the purposefully over-the-top “No Dot” sequence that entertained and delighted fans, that was erased with the inclusion of one of the tour’s most memorable “No Dot” dance covers — a nice accompaniment to the “No Dot” (and more) Special Clip Behind photos that surfaced on the group’s Naver Post. Be sure to check it out, especially as the video confirms some of the individual vlog content to come from some of the members.
[embed]https://weverse.io/dreamcatcher/live/0-103811028[/embed]
The Love Catcher/Love Stealer video fan sign event was this past week as well, and time for fans with the group revealed a few changes in hairstyle, most notably Handong cutting her hair/removing her extensions to go with a short style reminiscent of SNSD’s Taeyeon. Along with Dami, Handong discussed exercise habits, did a few short covers, and provided a couple of upcoming album spoilers that didn’t show off anything that could be definitively placed, though, like SuA in her Cafe Minamdang OST interview, they hinted that new music would be coming “soon”. Given that the layoff between comebacks was longer-than-usual last time, and that the group potentially might want to head back out to do one more regional leg for their tour before the end of 2022, we might be seeing those Behind photos and Mystery Codes sooner than we think. Be sure to keep an eye out.
[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U8e6hUPZI74[/embed]
Despite everything we got from the group this past week, the main attraction was still the group’s first time at an awards show. The 2022 K Global Heart Dream Awards were Dreamcatcher’s first to attend, and the awards’ first year was jam-packed with a star-studded schedule including groups such as IVE, ITZY, TXT, Golden Child, and more. Dreamcatcher’s red carpet appearance (featuring a small and funny error by leader JiU almost missing the actual red carpet) also showed off brand new hairstyles and colors for some of the members — a shorter medium-length bob for Siyeon, newly bleach blonde Dami, and a teal/mint-colored tone for Yoohyeon. Besides creating a new look for the group, the changes began the usual speculation from the fandom about how close a second comeback in 2022 could be.
With confirmed performers at K-Pop awards shows commonly also winning awards, fans waited to see if Dreamcatcher would cross off two achievements in one day — attend their first awards show, and win an award on one. InSomnia were not disappointed, as not only did Dreamcatcher put on yet another solid performance of 2022 winning title track “MAISON”, but also took home one of the awards for “Best MV”, their first ever. While the music video has had its share of mild criticism (mostly for its sometimes awkwardly edited CGI), it’s clear the MV overall resonated with the domestic audience and industry representatives evaluating such content, and as a whole is a worthy and excellent addition to the pantheon of Dreamcatcher’s story-filled and highly visual title track media.
The most important thing, however, is that the award marks yet another first-time achievement in a year full of them for a group that, despite their mostly international fanbase, smaller company, and non-traditional concept/music, appears to finally be hitting a new level of recognition in their fifth year. In that context, the award takes on new meaning, something that both Dreamcatcher and their fans both recognize (and hopefully won’t see the last of).
Dreamcatcher’s August may be coming to an end but they are certainly gearing up for more in September and beyond. As always I’ll be here to report on the latest from the group, so be sure to clap, subscribe, and signal boost if you like what you see! We’ll see you here next week for more Dreamcatcher news and events!
