Having just made a solo debut, but it seems that Wendy (Red Velvet) has not had an impressive achievement like Rosé (BLACKPINK) has done before
Rosé achieved surprisingly high results while Wendy’s performance was not impressive as expected.
The first half of 2021 is the time when solo artists are active in the “arena” of Kpop, most notably the debut of Rosé (BLACKPINK) and Wendy (Red Velvet). They are the main vocals of the 2 top girl groups. If Rosé is famous for her unique voice, then Wendy is considered one of the best singers of the 3rd generation.
Both BLACKPINK and Red Velvet have positive digital achievements and achieved PAK at least once. Therefore, the main vocalists of the two groups cannot avoid being compared when making a solo debut even though they did not meet at the same time.
When Rosé released the song On The Ground on March 12, her debut single album title track was underestimated. Many people even were worried that the female idol would find it difficult to conquer the Korean chart when singing 100% in English.
But On The Ground has a good performance beyond expectations. Rosé’s debut song sometimes broke the PAK of the hit Rollin ‘(Brave Girls), peaking at # 2 on the iChart. Currently, although IU is dominating the chart with songs in the new album, Rosé and On The Ground still persistently stay at No. 6 iChart, enters the top 10 Melon 24Hits and real-time charts of Genie, FLO, VIBE, and Bugs.
Like Rosé, Wendy received great expectations when making her solo debut with the mini-album Like Water (April 7). This is the first time she officially released a music product after the terrible accident at SBS Gayo Daejun 2019. Unfortunately, the song Like Water took many hours to enter Melon 24Hits, only reached # 1 on Bugs, and slipped on the charts for the next few days.
As of 9:30 (KST) April 7, the song dropped to 76th of Melon 24Hits and more importantly #92 on FLO – a very dangerous position, likely to be out of this chart at any time. Notably, Like Water has just been released for more than 2 days, the first days are usually the time when the fandom is most actively streaming, but Wendy’s achievement is not positive at all.
Although the main vocalist Red Velvet does not have a satisfactory digital record as Rosé, the female idol’s record sales are relatively impressive. On the first day of sale, the mini-album Like Water sold 68,225 thousand copies. Although still inferior to Rosé, who is leading this chart, the number is still enough for Wendy to be in the top 5 female solo artists with the highest first-day album sales in Kpop.
Top 5 albums with the highest first-day sales of Kpop female solo singers
1. -R- – Rosé: 282,674 copies
2. LILAC – IU: 216,319 copies
3. Love Poem – IU: 125,388 copies
4. Purpose – Taeyeon: 96,749 copies
5. Like Water – Wendy: 68,225 copies
Temporarily ignoring their achievements, it is important that Rosé and Wendy have the opportunity to show their talents when making their solo debut. In particular, Red Velvet fans are extremely happy to see that the main vocalist of the group can return to work after a serious injury. And for them, the fact that Wendy can come back is more important than the chart or album sales.
