A summary of the news, current and upcoming comebacks, charts and music show wins, and more! (Sorry this one’s a little late!)
NOTE: Except in special cases, the news recapped in these posts will refer to K-pop only. K-dramas, variety shows, and other forms of entertainment will only be mentioned if there is an idol or idol group involved.
News to Note
- Girl groups Wassup and 9Muses announced their disbandments.
- Plan A Entertainment (home to Apink and Victon) and FAVE Entertainment will be merging under Kakao M.
- The latest celebrity couple rumor is Yunhyeong from iKON and Daisy from Momoland! MMD Entertainment confirmed the dating news, but YG Entertainment denied it… so the jury is still out.
- Chani from SF9 and Hyunjin from Stray Kids have been appointed the new MCs for Show! Music Core along with Mina from gugudan.
This Week’s Debuts and Comebacks
- *DEBUT* ITZY, “Dalla Dalla” (IT’z Different)
- Taemin (SHINee), “Want” (Want)
- *SOLO DEBUT* Hwasa (MAMAMOO), “Twit” (twit)
- INFINITE, “Clock” (CLOCK)
- Dreamcatcher, “Piri” (The End of Nightmare)
Coming Up Next Week
| Monday (2/18) | Tuesday (2/19) | Wednesday (2/20) | Thursday (2/21) | Friday (2/22) |
| *Monsta X | *LOONA | *Yoon Jisung (solo debut) *SF9 |
This Week’s Music Show Wins
| The Show (SBS MTV) | CLC, “NO” (1st EVER win) |
| Show Champion (MBC) | SEVENTEEN, “Home” (8th win) |
| M! Countdown (MNET) | SEVENTEEN, “Home” (9th win)* |
| Music Bank (KBS) | SEVENTEEN, “Home” (10th win) |
| Music Core (MBC) | Chungha, “Gotta Go” (7th win) |
| Inkigayo (SBS) | Woody, “Fire Up” |
*SEVENTEEN also won their first Triple Crown on M! Countdown.
Album Sales, Streaming, and Charting
Gaon Chart
| Physical Sales | Digital Sales | Download | Streaming | Social | |
| 1 | SEVENTEEN You Made My Dawn | Woody, “Fire Up” | Woody, “Fire Up” | Woody, “Fire Up” | BTS, “IDOL” |
| 2 | BTS Love Yourself: Answer | MC the Max, “After You’ve Gone” | Loco + Zion.T, “It’s Been a While” | MC the Max, “After You’ve Gone” | BTS, “DNA” |
| 3 | ASTRO All Light | Chungha, “Gotta Go” | Lee Sora + Suga (BTS), “Song Request” | Chungha, “Gotta Go” | BTS, “Fake Love” |
| 4 | BTS HYYH: Young Forever | Lee Sora + Suga (BTS), “Song Request” | Chungha, “Gotta Go” | Lee Sora + Suga (BTS), “Song Request” | BTS, “Mic Drop (Remix)” |
| 5 | ONF We Must Love | “DDING”* | MC the Max, “After You’ve Gone” | “DDING”* | BTS, “Fire” |
NOTE: Gaon‘s weekly charts reflect the previous week.
*”DDING” is performed by Jvcki Wai, Young B, Osshun Gum, and Han Yo Han.
The International Side of K-pop
- K-pop in the TOP 10 of Billboard‘s World Album Chart:
- BTS still holds the Top 3 spots with the Love Yourself trilogy: Answer (#1), Tear (#2), and Her (#3)
- #4: EXO (Don’t Mess Up My Tempo)
- #5: BTS (Face Yourself – Japanese album)
- #7: CLC (No.1)
- #8: Ateez (Treasure EP.2: Zero to One)
- #10: Monsta X (Take.1: Are You There?)
- ITZY‘s “Dalla Dalla” music video received almost 13 million views in 24 hours on YouTube, breaking the record for most views in the first 24 hours of a debut. (The previous record holder was IZ*ONE at about 4.5 million views.)
- BLACKPINK made their big debut in the United States, performing on shows like Late Night With Stephen Colbert and Good Morning America.
Notable Variety Shows Featuring K-pop Idols
| Idol Room Guest | Weekly Idol Guest | |
| This Week | Taemin (SHINee) Special Guests: Jeno and Jisung (NCT), Chani (SF9), and Kim Donghan | ONF |
| Next Week | Monsta X | Monsta X |
*SOURCES NOTE: I get my news from a mix of sources, and all of them report the same information and sometimes cite each other as well. So rather than linking the exact article for each and every news item (unless the article provides a lot more detail), I will cite my general news sources below. Each of them will most likely have an article and/or tweet providing more details on the item in question.
MY REGULAR NEWS SOURCES: Soompi, Omona They Didn’t (Livejournal), mes #TeamPinky (Twitter @OH_mes), The Seoul Story (Twitter @theseoulstory), Girl Group Zone! (Twitter @girlgroupzone)
FEATURED IMAGE SOURCE: ITZY’s Official Twitter (@ITZYofficial) – Tweet
VIDEO SOURCES: Happy Face Entertainment (Dreamcatcher), RBW Entertainment (Hwasa), SM Entertainment (Taemin), and Woollim Entertainment (INFINITE)
“Twit” music video distributed by 1theK.
OTHER SOURCES: YouTube, Wikipedia, Billboard, Gaon Chart, KBS, MBC, MNET, SBS
Katherine Does K-POP 