A Rookie K-Pop Artist And A Newly Charted Soloist Just Leapt Onto A Billboard Singles Chart

One of them has only charted once previously, and the other never has before!

While it isn’t uncommon anymore for K-Pop songs to chart on the Billboard World Digital Song Sales chart — and in fact, it often takes up several of the listings on the chart — it’s still always exciting to see new songs debut on it, especially if the artists are still young in their career or haven’t charted before!

SEVENTEEN’s Jun | @pledis_17/Twitter

This week, both a young rookie K-Pop artist that just debuted late last year as well as a solo artist that has never ranked on the chart before have new songs debuting on the chart. The listings on the World Digital Song Sales chart are based on sales of international singles in the United States, and they’re updated weekly to reflect this.

aespa | @aespa_official/Twitter

The highest-ranking new K-Pop song on the chart this week is “Forever” by SM Entertainment‘s newest group, aespa. Even though the single is a remake of an older song by Yoo Youngjin that was first released 21 years ago in 2000, it still ranked at #11 for its debut week because of the girl group’s lovely cover of it.

This is their second time on the chart, with their debut single, “Black Mamba”, reaching a peak placement at #5 when it was released back in November 2020. This is a huge accomplishment for a brand new group, and it’s likely that they’ll continue to see such success in the future!

The second new song by a K-Pop artist to make it onto the chart this week is “Crow” by SEVENTEEN‘s Jun, going by his full name, Wen Junhui, for the single. This is his second solo track, and though it is a Chinese song, he still deserves to be mentioned because he’s most well-known for being a K-Pop idol! It’s his first solo song to make it on the chart, and is ranked at #14 for its debut.

His first solo Chinese track, “Can You Sit By My Side”, came out over two years ago in December 2018 with a single album of the same name. “Crow” was initially released on February 5, but it was also included on his repackaged second single album, Silent Boarding Gate, which was released on February 14.

Along with these two songs, 13 other K-Pop songs are ranking on the chart this week, making a total of 15 K-Pop songs out of the 25 listings on the chart.

As is often the case, most of these belong to BTS, who has 5 songs on the list this week despite no recent comebacks from them: “My Time” at #3 for its 49th week on the chart; “Euphoria” at #4 for its 52nd week on the chart; “Filter” at #5 for its 49th week on the chart;  “Life Goes On” at #12 for its 12th week on the chart; and “Mic Drop” (ft. Desiigner) at #19 for its incredible 135th week on the chart!

BLACKPINK also has multiple songs ranking this week: “How You Like That” at #9 for its 32nd week on the chart; “DDU-DU DDU-DU” at #22 for its 90th week on the chart; and “Kill This Love” at #25 for its 84th week on the chart!

Outside of these two artists, (G)I-DLE has the highest-ranking K-Pop song on the chart, with “HWAA” coming in at #7 for its 5th week on the chart, making a huge leap up from its place at #20 last week. ASTRO‘s Eunwoo‘s solo song, “Love So Fine”, spends its 2nd week on the chart at at #13, up from its #19 place for its debut. HyunA‘s “I’m Not Cool” is at its 3rd week on the chart this time around, placed at #16 and down from #8 last week.

Two soloists finish off the list of K-Pop songs on the chart this week! PSY‘s “Gangnam Style”, now on its incredible 354th week on the list, is ranked at #18. And finally, IU‘s latest single, “Celebrity”, charts at #20 for its 3rd week!

Congratulations to all the charting artists this week!