8 Viral K-pop Songs That Never Won a Music Show, Shocking Netizens
Despite their massive popularity, these 8 K-pop songs never got 1st place on Korean music weekly shows.
In South Korea, music show wins can be considered a testament for a song’s success. Therefore, viral K-pop songs often amass multiple wins on weekly Korean music shows.
However, this is not always the case, as several viral K-pop songs never made it to 1st place, shocking netizens.
Below are some notable cases of these unlucky songs.
Stray Kid’s “God’s Menu”
It is no exaggeration to say that “God’s Menu” sent Stray Kids to a next level of popularity, both in and outside of Korea. The song was everywhere on SNS, appearing on every K-pop dance in public video, and its MV amassed hundreds of millions of views on YouTube.
Yet, “God’s Menu” never made it to 1st place on any Korean weekly music show, mostly due to Stray Kids not doing extremely well on Korea music charts and being blocked by IZ*ONE’s “Secret Story of the Swan” and SEVENTEEN’s “Left and Right”.
SEVENTEEN’s “Very Nice”
Prior to blocking “God’s Menu” with their song, SEVENTEEN faced a similar situation with one of their most iconic songs – “Very Nice” (also known as “Aju Nice”). In fact, even today, SEVENTEEN is affiliated with “Very Nice” in South Korea, making it extremely surprising to learn that this song never got a single win.
According to fans at the time, “Very Nice” was released on the same day as “Why So Lonely” and “Ribbon” by Wonder Girls and BEAST, respectively – who are considered “digital monsters”, leading to it unfortunately losing out.
aespa’s “Next Level”
aespa’s “Next Level” achieved a “next-level” degree of success, with the song’s choreography going viral across the globe. In addition, the song itself won “Song of the Year” at the 2022 Korea Music Awards, as well as nominated for the Grand Prize Daesang at MelOn Music Awards, Golden Disc Awards, and MAMA Awards.
Therefore, it is extremely jaw-dropping to learn that “Next Level” never won on weekly music shows. The reason is extremely simple, however, as “Next Level” was competing against BTS’s “Butter” – a just-as-powerful competitor.
BTS’s “Black Swan”
With the group’s immense influence, “released by BTS” is basically a guarantee for music show wins. However, this didn’t apply to “Black Swan”, which did well enough, but as a B-side with barely any promotion and no physical album scores, had low chances of securing a win.
As a result, “Black Swan” made this unfortunate list, though the song itself still enjoyed great popularity.
PENTAGON’s “Shine”
Back in 2018, PENTAGON dropped “Shine”, which immediately became a sensation and an earworm to K-pop fans all over the world. In fact, the song can still be considered PENTAGON’s greatest success till this day – only to never secure a win on Korean music shows.
Unfortunately, “Shine” was competing against WANNA ONE’s “Boomerang”, TWICE’s “What is Love”, and WINNER’s “Everyday” – which artists are the Korean public’s favorite, and was unable to surpass all these strong competitors.
GFRIEND’s “Me Gusta Tu”
“Me Gusta Tu” was EVERYWHERE back when it was first released in 2015, and did rather well digitally in Korea.
However, GFRIEND was a rookie at the time, leading to them not yet having a strong enough fanbase to secure physical and voting scores. As a result, “Me Gusta Tu” failed to win on Korean music shows, though the song’s impact is still insurmountable.
RIIZE’s “Get a Guitar”
RIIZE’s debut with “Get a Guitar” can be considered the “renaissance” of boy groups, as after years of the Korean public refusing to listen to new male artists, RIIZE appeared and slowly but surely made their way up.
Even now, “Get a Guitar” is charting well on the MelOn chart, but though impressive, the slow rise was not enough to secure music show wins. Nevertheless, RIIZE is now enjoying wins with the group’s latest song, “love119”, so the group’s efforts have borne fruits.
DAY6’s “You Were Beautiful”
“You Were Beautiful” is the most liked song on MelOn for a JYP group, even surpassing TWICE’s “Cheer Up” and ITZY’s “Dalla Dalla” – a strong testament to the song’s impact.
In fact, even today, 7 years after its release, “You Were Beautiful” is doing well on Korean music charts – it just never had the right timing to secure music show wins.
Source: Reddit, Krb
