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
- Abyss Company is taking legal action against malicious netizens who wrote hateful comments about Sunmi in reference to her mentoring on survival show Girls Planet 999. Sunmi herself responded to several of these comments and death threats on social media. You can see translations of her post here and Abyss Company’s statement here.
- There are updates in the legal dispute between former Momoland member Daisy and MLD Entertainment, with the Seoul District Central Court recently ordering the agency to pay her 79.26 million won in unpaid wages. The company has decided to appeal the decision, so the situation hasn’t been completely resolved yet. You can read more about it here.
- The 2021 Asia Artist Awards will take place on December 2nd, hosted by Super Junior’s Leeteuk and former IZ*ONE member Jang Wonyoung.
- Lee Hyori will be hosting this year’s MNET Asian Music Awards (MAMA), which will be happening on December 11th.
- SF9 members Dawon and Hwiyoung have tested positive for COVID-19 after coming into contact with a confirmed case. You can read FNC Entertainment’s statement about it here.
- HYBE denied dating rumors about BTS’s V, which started when he was spotted at an exhibit with the daughter of The Paradise Group’s chairman. You can read more about the situation 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.)
ENHYPEN, “Tamed-Dashed” (10/12)
LIGHTSUM, “Vivace” (10/13)
TRI.BE, “Would You Run” (10/12)
Donghae (Super Junior) feat. Jeno (NCT), “California Love” (special single, 10/13)
Coming Up Next Week
| Monday (10/18) | Tuesday (10/19) | Wednesday (10/20) | Thursday (10/21) | Friday (10/22) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| IU | CL | |||
| Woohyun (INFINITE) | SEVENTEEN |
This Week’s Music Show Wins
| The Show (SBS MTV) | Woodz, “Waiting” (1st win/1st ever win) |
| Show Champion (MBC) | aespa, “Savage” (1st win) |
| M! Countdown (MNET) | ITZY, “LOCO” (3rd win) |
| Music Bank (KBS) | aespa, “Savage” (2nd win) |
| Music Core (MBC) | aespa, “Savage” (3rd win) |
| Inkigayo (SBS) | aespa, “Savage” (4th win) |
Album Sales, Streaming, and Charting
Gaon 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 | aespa, Savage | NCT 127, Sticker | ITZY, Crazy in Love | Woodz, Only Lovers Left | NCT, Resonance Pt. 1 |
| Overall Digital | The Kid LAROI and Justin Bieber, “Stay” | Lee Mujin, “Traffic Light” | Coldplay and BTS, “My Universe” | aespa, “Savage” | AKMU feat. IU, “Nakka” |
| Streaming | The Kid LAROI and Justin Bieber, “Stay” | Lee Mujin, “Traffic Light” | Coldplay and BTS, “My Universe” | AKMU feat. IU, “Nakka” | aespa, “Next Level” |
| Downloads | Woodz, “Waiting” | Lee Chanwon, “Cheer Up” | aespa, “Savage” | Coldplay and BTS, “My Universe” | Youngjae (GOT7), “Vibin'” |
| Social | BTS | BLACKPINK | Lisa | BOL4 | aespa |
aespa also recorded the 4th highest first week album sales for girl groups on Hanteo, and they recently became the first girl group to receive a Perfect All-Kill with a 2021 song. (Brave Girls earned one earlier this year, but it was for their 2017 song.)
The International Side of K-pop
- K-pop on the Billboard Charts:
- “My Universe,” BTS’s collaboration with Coldplay, ranked #12 on Billboard‘s “Hot 100” in its second week. Meanwhile, “Butter” ranked #58 in its twentieth week on the chart.
- TWICE debuted on the “Hot 100” when their first English single “The Feels” ranked #83.
- “The Feels” also debuted at #5 on Billboard‘s Digital Song Sales chart, making TWICE the second K-pop girl group to reach the Top 5 of the chart (after BLACKPINK).
- NCT 127’s album Sticker ranked #88 on the Billboard 200 in its third week, making it the third K-pop album of 2021 to spend three weeks on the chart (after TXT’s The Chaos Chapter: FREEZE and TWICE’s Taste of Love).
- ITZY’s album Crazy in Love ranked #99 on the Billboard 200 in its second week, making them the third K-pop girl group to ever have an album on the chart for two weeks (after BLACKPINK and TWICE).
- aespa made their U.S. television debut by performing “Savage” on The Kelly Clarkson Show, which you can watch here.
- Rookie boy group MIRAE has reached 1 million followers on TikTok, becoming the first K-pop group that debuted in 2021 to do so.
Notable Variety Shows Featuring K-pop Idols
| Weekly Idol | Knowing Brothers | Amazing Saturday | |
|---|---|---|---|
| This Week | ENHYPEN | Non-idol guests | Mingyu and Seungkwan (SEVENTEEN) |
| Next Week | Super Junior D&E | aespa | Non-idol guests |
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: BE:LIFT LAB (ENHYPEN)
VIDEO SOURCES: YouTube, BE:LIFT LAB (ENHYPEN)*, Cube Entertainment (LIGHTSUM), SM Entertainment (Donghae), Universal Music Group (TRI.BE), The Kelly Clarkson Show
*”Tamed-Dashed” music video distributed by HYBE Labels.
OTHER SOURCES: YouTube, Wikipedia, Billboard, Gaon Chart, KBS, MBC, MNET, SBS
Katherine Does K-POP 