Contrary to claims that ITZY's new album is a "flop," the media and music critics gave their reviews to the group's performance so far.
On January 8, the "4th-gen leader" ITZY started the 2024 by unveiling their new mini-album, "BORN TO BE," with the title track, "UNTOUCHABLE."
Upon release, criticisms poured in, claiming that ITZY failed to meet the K-pop fans' expectations. This is considering how they used to create a huge hit with each of their songs when they were rookies.
Media, Music Critics Recognize ITZY's Rise in Charts + Powerful Performance
Despite the mixed reviews, international media Billboard expressed its high expectations to the group and acknowledged its rise.
The U.S. music chart analyzed that ITZY has quickly risen to international stardom by appearing on various Billboard charts since its debut, just like K-pop girl groups BLACKPINK and TWICE.
With their new mini-album, "BORN TO BE," Billboard is looking forward to the quintet's future global performance.
Aside from the media, even music critics only have high praises for ITZY, such as popular music critic Kim Do Heon, who said on January 16:
"The new album, 'BORN TO BE' is music with a powerful performance-centered concept that ITZY has not shown before.
It is creating a new moment in the girl group performance world."
Ha Jae Geun, another popular culture critic, left good words for the girl group, saying:
"ITZY shows that they are still trying new things and growing with this new album.
Their achievements are significant as there is no other K-pop girl group that puts forth strong performances like ITZY."
ITZY's 'BORN TO BE' Achievements
Not only the rave reviews of media and music critics can prove that ITZY is cementing their "K-pop Performance Queen" through their new album, "BORN TO BE."
Global K-pop fans also responded fondly to ITZY's charismatic transformation by giving them musical achievements.
Based on Hanteo Charts as of January 15, ITZY rose to the top of the world chart in the second week of January, immediately after its comeback.
The World Chart is Hanteo Chart's comprehensive chart compiled based on global data of K-pop artists, including albums, music sources, certifications, SNS, and media.
The new album also took first place on the weekly album chart, winning two awards, and swept first place on the Circle Chart's retail album chart for the second week, proving strong interest.
Their album sales are also not as bad as claims. Although they didn't beat their previous initial sales (sales in the first week after its release) of their last album, "KILL MY DOUBT," they still amassed 320,000 albums for "BORN TO BE" which is considerably huge for a K-pop girl group.
As of January 17, the official MV for its title track, "UNTOUCHABLE" has over 7.6 million views, 8 days after its release.
Read also: ITZY's Relevance Scrutinized Due to 'Declining' Album Sales: 'Their journey is quite sad'
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Written by Eunice Dawson.
