The "Rookie of the Year" award will be a tough choice for this year as many new girl groups have emerged and debuted at the top of the charts. Who will claim the trophy?
IVE & NewJeans Vie For 'Rookie of the Year' Trophy: Who Will Win?
This year, K-pop fans watched how many girl groups with exceptional star characteristics debuted. Many of them made headlines, while a few stayed being talked about.
Starship Entertainment's girl group IVE, JYP Entertainment's girl group NMIXX, HYBE x ADOR's LE SSERAFIM and NewJeans, and Kep1er are some of the top contenders.
The biggest question in the music industry this year is who will win the Rookie of the Year award. The new girl groups showed signs of becoming global stars in the future by dominating not only music and album performance but also overseas charts.
First 'Rookie of the Year' Candidate: IVE
IVE debuted in December of last year and has been a hit since their debut song "ELEVEN." The initial pre-orders for the album "ELEVEN" exceeded 150,000 copies, making it the No. 1 group that debuted that year.
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Then, IVE debut song climbed to the top of the domestic music charts and performed well on various global charts such as US Billboard, Spotify, China's QQ Music, Japan's Line Music, YouTube Music, and Billboard Japan.
Their comeback song, "LOVE DIVE" was released in April and is an even bigger hit.
According to a report, IVE's "LOVE DIVE" sold more than 330,000 copies in the first week, more than double that of "ELEVEN."
"LOVE DIVE" is still in the top 5 of the music charts even after 4 months. Not only on the domestic music charts, but also on the Billboard "Global 200" and "Billboard Global" (excluding the US) for 17 weeks in a row, continuing their long-term success.
Afterwards, IVE came back with the third single "After LIKE" and broke their previous records. They are beyond the "Rookie of the Year" award and has risen to a level comparable to that of the Grand Prize.
NewJeans Changing The Idol Game
The popularity of NewJeans, also known as the "Min Hee Jin girl group," which debuted in August, is a bit unusual. The new girl group from HYBE's sub-label ADOR, is a girl group with an average age of 16.
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NewJeans members show a youthful and innocent visual that makes them feel like five twins. They released a triple title song, and they changed the game of idols by releasing three music videos and videos for each member.
The first titles, "Attention" and "Hype Boy," ranked 1st and 2nd side by side on the Melon Chart. Among the debut songs of K-pop idols released over the past five years, "Attention" is the only song that "all-kill" on major real-time music charts.
Their debut album is also a new record. "New Jeans" sold 262,815 copies on the day of release alone. Its first-week sales record is 311,271.
This is a new record for a girl group's debut album. NewJeans' "New Jeans" went straight to the 11th place in album charts for all-time girl group albums.
It is also showing an upward trend on the global charts. "Attention" entered the Spotify Global Daily Top Songs chart at No. 176 and settled at No. 126. "Hype Boy" was ranked 183th, followed by 145th.
Who do you think deserves the title Rookie of the Year?
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Written by Jaswin Singh
