Katherine’s K-Pop Recap: January 11-17, 2021

A summary of the news, current and upcoming comebacks, charts and music show wins, and more!

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

After several rumors and reports, JYP Entertainment officially confirmed all the members of GOT7 are leaving the agency and pursuing their own paths. Their contract will effectively end on January 19th, so we will probably get more definitive news about each member’s future plans after that. GOT7 also celebrated their 7th anniversary this week.
MLD Entertainment is taking legal action after hidden camera photos of Momoland member Nancy started spreading online. The illegal pictures were taken when she was changing backstage while hosting the 2019 Asia Artist Awards in Vietnam, and they were also taken by a staff member. They were then photoshopped and circulated on a K-pop forum. (It’s unclear if it was a MLD staff member or someone working for the awards – I think it’s the former, but I’m not sure the Asia Artist Awards said they were cooperating with both Vietnamese and Korean police and MLD mentioned overseas law enforcement. But maybe that’s because the incident didn’t happen in Korea.)
There have been rumors that CJ ENM is discussing contract renewal with the members of IZ*ONE and their agencies. IZ*ONE’s agency Off the Record said that nothing has officially changed as of now, and the members are committed to promoting together until their contract expires in April.
Kim Sang Kyo, the whistleblower of the Burning Sun scandal of early 2019, made a now-deleted Instagram post directly mentioning Hyoyeon from Girl’s Generation. Hyoyeon was a DJ at the club on the night of the incident, and the post implied that she saw something but wasn’t saying anything. Both SM Entertainment and Hyoyeon herself spoke out denying those claims – you can read translations here.
There is currently a conflict over management of rookie group TOO between CJ ENM and n.CH Entertainment. Originally, the former was supposed to take care of album production while the latter handled management and promotions. However, n.CH has said that CJ ENM terminated a contract that was supposed to last seven years and told them to step down from managing TOO – directly affecting TOO’s comeback process, as they were preparing their next album. You can read more information about the situation here.
After taking a hiatus from social media and having limited activities, Red Velvet’s Irene posted another apology message to her fans regarding her attitude controversy last fall. The original post is on LYSN, the fandom community that SM Entertainment artists use. You can read a translation of Irene’s apology letter here.
TWICE is set to perform for TIME Magazine’s upcoming TIME100 Talks event, where leaders from different fields all over the world discuss major global issues. Other K-pop groups like Monsta X and Red Velvet Irene & Seulgi have performed at previous TIME100 Talks events.
SM Entertainment announced global auditions for their next boy group – any male born between 2002 and 2008 can apply, so basically any male who is high school or middle school age. (This means that the oldest possible member will be the same age as Jisung, the maknae of NCT.)
The Gaon Chart Awards were held on January 13. I’ve put some of the winners below, but you can see the full list here.

Artist of the Year (Digital, by Month)	Winner
December (2019)	Red Velvet, “Psycho”
January (2020)	ZICO, “Any Song”
February	BTS, “ON”
March	M.C. the MAX, “Bloom”
April	Oh My Girl, “Nonstop”
May	IU feat. Suga, “eight”
June	BLACKPINK, “How You Like That”
July	ZICO feat. Rain, “Summer Hate”
August	BTS, “Dynamite”
September	Chungha and Christopher, “Bad Boy”
October	BLACKPINK, “Lovesick Girls”
November	BTS, “Life Goes On”

Artist of the Year (Physical, by Quarter)	Winner
1st Quarter	BTS, Map of the Soul: 7
2nd Quarter	Baekhyun (EXO), Delight
3rd Quarter	SEVENTEEN, Heng:garae
4th Quarter	BTS, BE

This Week’s Debuts and Comebacks

(Please note that I won’t necessarily link every release that came out this week – just the ones that I’m aware of or popped up on my radar. The same is true of the “Coming Up Next Week” category.)

Victon, “What I Said” (1/11)

TREASURE, “My Treasure” (1/11)

(G)I-DLE, “HWAA” (1/11)

T1419, “ASURABALBALTA” (DEBUT 1/11)

Coming Up Next Week

Monday (1/18)	Tuesday (1/19)	Wednesday (1/20)
Epik High	CRAVITY	Cherry Bullet
Yunho (TVXQ)	ONEUS
AB6IX

This Week’s Music Show Wins

The Show (SBS MTV)	No broadcast/winner
Show Champion (MBC)	No broadcast/winner
M! Countdown (MNET)	Rain, “Switch to Me” with JYP (1st win)
Music Bank (KBS)	NCT U, “90’s Love” (2nd win)
Music Core (MBC)	BTS, “Life Goes On” (9th win)
Inkigayo (SBS)	aespa, “Black Mamba” (1st win)

Aespa’s win is especially impressive considering “Black Mamba” is two months old and they’re no longer promoting it – a win under those circumstances is practically unheard of for rookie groups.

Album Sales, Streaming, and Charting

Gaon Chart

NOTE 1: Gaon‘s weekly charts reflect the previous week.

NOTE 2: Because not many K-pop songs make it onto the digital charts, I’ll only list the Top 5 for album sales and the social chart. Then I’ll make notes of any K-pop songs that placed high on the digital charts. To see a full breakdown of the chart, you can go here.

	#1	#2	#3	#4	#5
Album Sales	NCT (Resonance Pt. 2)	SuperM (Super One)	NCT (Resonance Pt. 2 Kit version)	MCND (MCND Age)	Kim Ho Joong (The Classic Album I)
Social	BLACKPINK	BTS	Song Ga In	Im Young Woong	Kim Ho Joong

Rain and JYP’s duet “Switch to Me” topped this week’s digital download chart, while Jeong Sewoon’s “In the Dark” debuted at #3.
BTS’s “Dynamite” placed #3 on the overall digital and streaming charts.

The International Side of K-pop

BTS’s “Dynamite” entered its 20th week in the Billboard Hot 100 at #25.
Several groups hit some viewer milestones on YouTube this week:
- BTS’s “Boy With Luv” passed 1.1 billion views, their second music video to do so after “DNA.”
- BLACKPINK’s Jennie became the first Korean female soloist to have a music video with over 600 million views with “SOLO.”
- Big Bang’s “Bang Bang Bang” became their first music video to reach 500 million views.

Notable Variety Shows Featuring K-pop Idols

	Weekly Idol	Knowing Brothers	Amazing Saturday
This Week	(G)I-DLE	Yunho (TVXQ), DinDin*	Epik High
Next Week	ONEUS	Non-idol guests	Yunho (TVXQ), DinDin

*Jungwoo, Jeno, and Chenle of NCT also appeared on the After School spinoff of Knowing Brothers, which can be found on YouTube and will probably be subbed in a few days.