Dreamcatcher Begins 2024 With Celebrations, Releases, And World Tour News

I remember last year around this time, when I was happy to see that Dreamcatcher had a longer-than-usual break for their holidays in 2023. While they still managed to give us plenty of content they'd pre-made (such as Handong's Dreamcatcher song medley in Chinese or Gahyeon's cover of "White"), it was nice to see them get an extended break.

But if Dreamcatcher has taught me anything over the years, it's that the group seems to feel most at home when they're busy and working, and that's exactly what they did to end 2023. The late date of their 2nd comeback in November meant that the group had schedules all the way up until just before the New Year, and though they had some scattered time off for the holidays, they continued to promote their new album. It seems 2024 is going to have more of the same, and that means more content from me as well as them. As such, let's take a look at how Dreamcatcher kicked off their 2024!

Leave it to Main Vocalist Siyeon to choose the end of 2023 and the beginning of 2024 to drop in something new to be inspired by. "Start Over", her second Digital Single and first since 2020's "Paradise", is a remake of the hugely popular original by Gaho for the soundtrack to K-Drama "Itaewon Class". Featuring actor Nam Dareum, the song intersperses him in the daily grind, working multiple jobs and having moments of both doubt and determination, with Siyeon's vocals set against a rooftop backdrop of a South Korean cityscape.

I've always appreciated Siyeon's ability to take existing songs and make them her own with her own style and flair (much like she did in 2019 with EXO's "Overdose") and having an actual drama-style MV for this one really added to the power she wielded doing so this time around. On top of that, it's just an appropriate song to start the New Year, when lots of people (including myself) are looking to start new things or press the reset button. Thanks for the encouragement, Siyeon!

Dreamcatcher plans to put their money where their mouth is when it comes to Siyeon's remake song lyrics - following up on an announcement for their 7th anniversary concert in Seoul, the group and company announced their plans to tour Europe in February. Most fans knew about the tour being a thing, but last week saw some more details emerge including the 2024 EU tour's official event page via MyMusicTaste along with seating and pricing for each of the five stops.

Inflation, changing venue and operational costs, and more likely factor into the slight-to-moderate price increases we're seeing compared to the last time Dreamcatcher came through the EU in 2022. While this might affect some fans' decisions to go, it is nevertheless still nice to see this opportunity come back around to the region and I'm personally optimistic that we'll see the group sell decently. Ongoing negotiations with places in Latin America mean that Dreamcatcher may be returning to more than just Europe in 2024, so fans are certain to stay tuned for more details for what has become an annual Dreamcatcher staple.

One other thing I've gotten used to as a staple this past month is seeing JiU and SuA improve their skills at NBA 2k24, part of a month-long collaboration by outlet MEN Noblesse. I've enjoyed seeing the duo get better at playing the game - especially JiU, who's not known to be much of a gamer, and their constant matches and banter have been entertaining to watch. We got the last of these episodes this past week, and aside from seeing how much fun they were having, watching JiU and SuA take home some prizes was a nice bonus as well. I'll miss this series, but between this and CeCi Korea this past year, I'm hopeful this won't be the last time Dreamcatcher works with a small-to-medium YouTube channel for unique content.

Of course, not to be outdone with content, the official Dreamcatcher YouTube channel began cranking out historical Notes for prior work, starting with the 2024 Season's Greetings photoshoot and the first part of "OOTD" era promotions. Of note in both of these videos is the fact that Dreamcatcher, despite being a group almost seven years old, has never failed to keep mixing it up insofar as fashion and concepts under a theme.

I wasn't expecting either of the youth or sports concepts for Season's Greetings, and the group's recent comeback and its focus on narcissistic fashion sense gave them plenty of opportunities to do great things with over-the-top yet cool-looking outfits and styles. We're likely to see reduced video content due to most music shows being on hiatus, but I have a feeling this will be made up for with Dreamcatcher's always-entertaining behind-the-scenes fun moments, as we saw from the above two videos.

Last, but not least, Dreamcatcher is almost always guaranteed some early content in the year simply due to the fact that Lead Vocalist Yoohyeon's birthday ends up within a week of the New Year. This time around, Yoohyeon opted for another gaming live stream, choosing to play Counterstrike Online in a variety of modes, including traditional rescue the hostage missions, knife-only fights, and some of the fun custom maps and modifications which even included playing a bit of football/soccer. Yoohyeon's gaming livestreams have been a recurring thing for a while now, but I really enjoyed this one just for the pure chaos and occasional victory from her. Like Gahyeon before her, she managed to get in plenty of time playing with fans, and it seemed they had just as good of a time as she did.

But if Dreamcatcher fans thought Yoohyeon was just planning a livestream for her birthday, they were proven wrong with a nice surprise that appropriately dropped on 1:07 PM KST on January 7th. Yoohyeon's cover of Stella Jang's "L'Amour, Les Baguettes, Paris" seemed well-timed, not just for the obvious birthday reference but of course, for the group's upcoming return to Paris for their tour, so having Yoohyeon drop this for fans was a nice treat.

Yoohyeon has been frequently referred to in terms of the group as one who's been most interested in learning and speaking other languages, and from the few French speakers that I talked to, it seemed she did her homework decently well for this Special Clip. Additionally, I really feel like she's at some of her strongest vocally with these expressively, emotional ballads - I was, after all, first drawn to the group in part because of her cover of Little Mix's "Secret Love Song", and this still-picture video setup reminded me of her work with Ed Sheeran's "Perfect" as well. All in all, an unexpected, and welcome, gift from Yoohyeon to Dreamcatcher fans on her birthday.

The group will no doubt have many more gifts of their own to give to fans in 2024 in terms of performances and content, and, as always and as I have been for the past four years, you can count on me covering and reporting on all of those as Dreamcatcher's seventh year unfolds. So for all that, and more, I'll see you then - and be sure to encourage your friends to sign up here at The Low Key Geek if they want to see the latest from the group and more!

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