Katherine’s K-pop Recap: June 7-13, 2021

A summary of the news, current and upcoming comebacks, charts and music show wins, and more!
(Sorry this is a little later than normal – this past week and weekend have been pretty crazy for me)

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

• INFINITE member Sungjong has renewed his contract with Woollim Entertainment. As of now, he and Woohyun are currently the only two members of the group who are still with their original agency. Meanwhile, Sungyeol has signed with Management 2Sang – which is where fellow member L (Kim Myungsoo) is as well. You can read more about the situation here.
• B.I has been indicted on suspicions of illegally purchasing and using marijuana and LSD in 2016. (This is the latest update in the ongoing scandal that resulted in his departure from iKON in 2019.) He previously confessed to some but not all of those accusations, and he tested negative for illegal drugs in 2020. Yang Hyun Suk, former founder and head of YG Entertainment, was also indicted for threatening the case’s informant You can read more about the situation here. (It’s a long and complicated story, so I’d suggest going to that page because it has a lot of links to previous news articles with detailed information.)
  • You can also read a translation of IOK Company’s statement about B.I’s indictment here.
• There have been several updates in the ongoing situation between DSP Media, April, and former April member Hyunjoo:
  • The defamation charges that DSP Media brought against Hyunjoo’s acquaintance were dropped. (This acquaintance is the person who wrote an anonymous post about April allegedly bullying Hyunjoo after the first post made by her sibling.) You can read a translation of DSP Media’s response to this here.
  • April members Naeun and Jinsol also released personal statements denying any bullying – Naeun posted on April’s fan cafe, while Jinsol posted on her Instagram account. You can read translations of both statements here.
• Former BTOB member Jung Ilhoon has been sentenced to two years of prison for purchasing and using marijuana, and he has also been ordered to pay a 113 million won fine. You can read more about the situation here.
• Kim Tae Eun, Chief Producer of survival show Idol School (which formed fromis_9), has been sentenced to one year in prison for vote manipulation. You can read more about the situation here.
  • Lee Haein, who had ranked first in viewer votes at the end of the show but was eliminated by Kim Tae Eun and other producers, spoke out about these recent events. You can read a translation of that here.
• MAMAMOO’s Wheein has decided to leave RBW Entertainment, though she will still be part of the group and promote with them until December 2023. (Since the other members renewed their contracts, I assume that December 2023 is the date they extended them to.) You can read a translation of RBW Entertainment’s statement here and a translation of Wheein’s own personal statement on Instagram here.
• An acquaintance of ITZY’s Lia has been cleared of defamation charges. (This person wrote a post accusing Lia of middle school bullying and JYP Entertainment took legal action). You can read more about the situation and JYP Entertainment’s response 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.)

Coming Up Next Week

Monday (6/14)	Tuesday (6/15)	Wednesday (6/16)	Thursday (6/17)	Friday (6/18)
UP10TION	BamBam (GOT7)		Brave Girls	SEVENTEEN
			Yugyeom (GOT7)

This Week’s Music Show Wins

The Show (SBS MTV)	TXT, “0X1=Love Song” (1st win)
Show Champion (MBC)	TXT, “0X1=Love Song” (2nd win)
M! Countdown (MNET)	TXT, “0X1=Love Song” (3rd win)
Music Bank (KBS)	TXT, “0X1=Love Song” (4th win)
Music Core (MBC)	BTS, “Butter” (7th win)
Inkigayo (SBS)	BTS, “Butter” (8th win)

Album Sales, Streaming, and Charting

Gaon Weekly Chart

NOTE: Gaon‘s weekly charts reflect the previous week. To see a full breakdown of the chart, you can go here.

	#1	#2	#3	#4	#5
Album Sales	TXT, The Chaos Chapter: Freeze	NCT Dream, Hot Sauce	Monsta X, One of a Kind	Joy (Red Velvet), Hello	MAMAMOO, WAW
Overall Digital	BTS, “Butter”	Oh My Girl, “Dun Dun Dance”	Heize, “Happen”	aespa, “Next Level”	Justin Bieber, “Peaches”
Streaming	BTS, “Butter”	Oh My Girl, “Dun Dun Dance”	Heize, “Happen”	aespa, “Next Level”	Justin Bieber, “Peaches”
Downloads	The Boyz, “Kingdom Come”	BTS, “Butter”	TXT, “0X1=Love Song”	Heize, “Happen”	Baekhyun (EXO), “U”
Social	BTS	BLACKPINK	Im Young Woong	Stray Kids	Block B

Gaon Monthly Chart (for May)

	#1	#2	#3	#4	#5
Album Sales	NCT Dream, Hot Sauce	TXT, The Chaos Chapter: Freeze	Highlight, The Blowing	ONEUS, Binary Code	ENHYPEN, Border: Carnival
Overall Digital	Brave Girls, “Rollin'”	Justin Bieber, “Peaches”	IU, “Lilac”	Brave Girls, “We Ride”	IU, “Celebrity”
Streaming	Brave Girls, “Rollin'”	Justin Bieber, “Peaches”	IU, “Lilac”	Brave Girls, “We Ride”	IU, “Celebrity”
Downloads	NCT Dream, “Hot Sauce”	BTS, “Butter”	The Boyz, “Kingdom Come”	Oh My Girl, “Dun Dun Dance”	Heize, “Happen”

(NOTE: There was no information about May’s Social Chart in the article I looked at.)

Gaon Certifications

Group/Artist	Album/Song	Certification
Baekhyun (EXO)	Bambi	Million (physical album sales)
SEVENTEEN	An Ode	Million (physical album sales)
ENHYPEN	Border: Carnival	Double platinum (physical album sales)
ASTRO	All Yours	Platinum (physical album sales)
NCT	Resonance Pt. 2	Platinum (physical album sales)
Kang Daniel	Yellow	Platinum (physical album sales)
ITZY	Guess Who	Platinum (physical album sales)
Kassy	“The Day Was Beautiful”	Platinum (downloads)
Lauv	“Paris in the Rain”	Platinum (downloads)
IU	“Love Poem”	Platinum (streams)

The International Side of K-pop

• BTS’s “Butter” stayed #1 on Billboard‘s “Hot 100” for the second week in a row. It also placed #1 on the Global 200 and the Global 200 Excl. U.S. charts.
• TWICE performed “Alcohol-Free” on Ellen, which you can watch here.
• TXT appeared on Good Morning America for the first time, where they performed “Magic” one day and “0x1= Love Song” another.
• The following music videos reached new viewer milestones on YouTube:
  • BLACKPINK’s “Boombayah” is the first K-pop debut music video to reach 1.2 million views.
  • NCT Dream’s “Hot Sauce” is their fastest music video to reach 100 million views, and is their second to do so after “Boom.” (It’s the seventh NCT video to do so overall.)
  • Super Junior’s “Mamacita” is their fifth to hit 100 million views.

Notable Variety Shows Featuring K-pop Idols

	Weekly Idol	Knowing Brothers	Amazing Saturday
This Week	TXT	Non-idol guests	TWICE (Sana and Dahyun)
Next Week	fromis_9	Non-idol guests	SEVENTEEN (S.Coups, Hoshi, and Seungkwan)

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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: TWICE’s Twitter (original tweet here)

VIDEO SOURCES: YouTube, AOMG (Yugyeom), Cube Entertainment (LIGHTSUM), C9 Entertainment (EPEX), JYP Entertainment (TWICE), OUI Entertainment (WEi), SM Entertainment (EXO), TheEllenShow

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