Katherine’s K-pop Recap: April 19-25, 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

• EXO’s Baekhyun has become a “double million seller” after his latest album Bambi passed 1 million in sales. He also achieved this feat last year with Delight. Earning 1 million in physical album sales is a very rare achievement for solo artists; when Baekhyun earned his first “million seller” title in 2020, he was the first one to do so in about 19 years.
• (G)I-DLE will be releasing their new special single without Soojin, who is currently on hiatus while the bullying allegations raised against her are being sorted out. They had recorded a song for Universe (the fandom platform they belong to) as a full group before these events, but they had to re-record it as five members. You can read Universe’s statement about the situation here.
• Though DAY6 dropped their new album this week, they will not be officially promoting it and do not have any scheduled activities. You can read JYP Entertainment’s statement about it here.
• CJ ENM has closed down Stone Music Entertainment as they reorganize their sub-labels. Until this point, Stone Music Entertainment managed artists like Davichi, Eric Nam, and TO1. (IZ*ONE’s Yuri was also signed to Stone Music Entertainment as a trainee when she competed on Produce 48.) You can read more about the situation here.
• Former BTOB member Ilhoon confessed to buying and smoking marijuana at his first court hearing this week. (Both are illegal in South Korea.) You can read more about the situation here.
• All of the members of ONEWE tested negative for COVID-19 after one of their staff members contracted it. You can read RBW Entertainment’s statement about it here.
• Cosmic Girls member Dayoung is taking a break from activities due to illness from an autoimmune disorder. (Normally I’d link Starship’s statement, but that’s basically all it says.)
• D-CRUNCH members O.V and Hyunwook tested positive for COVID-19. You can read their agency’s statement about it here. All other members tested negative, as did several artists who came into contact with the group during promotions; you can read more about that here.

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.)

*”Phantom Pain” is the pre-release track for Yesung’s comeback in May.

Coming Up Next Week

Monday (4/26)	Tuesday (4/27)	Wednesday (4/28)	Thursday (4/29)	Friday (4/30)
AB6IX		ONF		ITZY
ENHYPEN		Hot Issue (debut)

This Week’s Music Show Wins

The Show (SBS MTV)	Kang Daniel, “Antidote” (1st win)
Show Champion (MBC)	Kang Daniel, “Antidote” (2nd win)
M! Countdown (MNET)	No broadcast/winner (aired the latest KCON)
Music Bank (KBS)	Kang Daniel, “Antidote” (3rd win)
Music Core (MBC)	Kang Daniel, “Antidote” (4th win)
Inkigayo (SBS)	Kang Daniel, “Antidote” (5th win)

Album Sales, Streaming, and Charting

Gaon Weekly Chart

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

NOTE 2: Because not many K-pop songs often make it onto the digital charts, I’ll usually 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. However, this week I’ve included all the charts in the table because many of the songs are K-pop or K-pop adjacent. (This has been happening a lot – maybe I’ll have to change this disclaimer soon.) To see a full breakdown of the chart, you can go here.

	#1	#2	#3	#4	#5
Album Sales	Kang Daniel, Yellow	SHINee, Atlantis	Baekhyun, Bambi	Hwang Chi Yeol, Be My Reason	The Box OST*
Overall Digital	Kang Daniel, “Antidote”	IU, “Lilac”	Brave Girls, “Rollin'”	IU, “Celebrity”	Justin Bieber, “Peaches” feat. Daniel Givens and Giveon
Streaming	IU, “Lilac”	Brave Girls, “Rollin'”	IU, “Celebrity”	Justin Bieber, “Peaches” feat. Daniel Givens and Giveon	Brave Girls, “We Ride”
Download	Kang Daniel, “Antidote”	SHINee, “Atlantis”	Im Young Woong, “My Starry Love”	Davichi, “Just Hug Me”	IU, “Lilac”
Social	BTS	BLACKPINK	Young Tak	Im Young Woong	Jang Min Ho

*The Box is a Korean movie starring EXO’s Chanyeol that was released at the end of March just before his enlistment.

Kang Daniel also topped the BGM chart with “Antidote,” so he technically had a quadruple crown this week.

The International Side of K-pop

• McDonald’s is partnering with BTS to release the “BTS Meal” around the world in late May and June. The meal itself is the 10 piece Chicken McNuggets with a medium fries and drink, as well as some sauces that are available at McDonald’s in Korea. (This is actually pretty much what I’ve been ordering from McDonald’s for half my life – I even use the same sauces since I moved to Korea – so I find this HILARIOUS.) To see the locations where the “BTS Meal” will be available, you can look here.
• BTS have also become the latest global ambassadors for Louis Vuitton.
• TWICE will perform “Cry For Me” on The Kelly Clarkson Show on the April 27th broadcast.
• GOT7’s Jackson Wang appeared on The Late Late Show with James Corden on April 21st to perform his song “LMLY,” which you can watch here.
• BLACKPINK’s Rosé is now the global ambassador for well-known jewelry brand Tiffany & Co.
• These K-pop music videos reached new viewer milestones on YouTube:
  • EXO’s “Love Shot” is their first music video to reach 400 million views.
  • BLACKPINK’s “Lovesick Girls” hit 400 million views as well.
  • BLACKPINK’s “As If It’s Your Last” is their 4th music video to get 1 billion views. As of now, they are the only K-pop artist or group to have four music videos over 1 billion views.
  • BTS’s “IDOL” reached 900 million views.

Drama and Variety Show Casting News

• tvN’s popular variety show Amazing Saturday (also known as Doremi Market) now has an upcoming spinoff: Idol Dictation Contest. Much like Amazing Saturday, the cast listens to various Korean songs and has to correctly write down the lyrics – except the members of this show are mostly idols. The cast currently includes Super Junior’s Eunhyuk, EXO’s Kai, VIXX’s Ravi, Lovelyz’s Mijoo, SEVENTEEN’s Seungkwan, Golden Child’s Jangjun, and IZ*ONE’s Yena. (Many of these idols are fairly experienced with appearing on variety shows.) Idol Dictation Contest will start airing on May 21.

Notable Variety Shows Featuring K-pop Idols

	Weekly Idol	Knowing Brothers	Amazing Saturday
This Week	Brave Girls	Highlight	TREASURE (Jihoon and Jeongwoo)
Next Week	AB6IX	ITZY	Girls’ Generation (Hyoyeon and Yuri)

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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), The Seoul Story (Twitter @theseoulstory), and Girl Group Zone! (Twitter @girlgroupzone)

FEATURED IMAGE SOURCE: Pledis Entertainment (NU’EST)

VIDEO SOURCES: YouTube*, FNC Entertainment (P1Harmony), JYP Entertainment (DAY6), Pledis Entertainment (NU’EST), SM Entertainment (Yesung), The Late Late Show With James Corden
*Music video for “Inside Out” is distributed by HYBE Labels.

OTHER SOURCES:  YouTube, Wikipedia, Billboard, Gaon Chart, KBS, MBC, MNET, SBS