K-Pop 2019: A heated race to “Rookie of the Year” between ITZY, TXT, Kang Daniel and many other impressive names!
Even though it has been only 8 months, 2019 is undeniably the year of K-Pop rookies!
The 2019 K-Pop Race is slowly coming to an end when the awards shows are heading into preparation. It has only been 8 months, but K-Pop has welcomed countless rookie groups. Especially, the rookies of this years are all impressive with detailed investment and originated from famous survival shows and big agencies. It’s not hard to predict that the race to the title “Rookie of the Year” this year will be harsher than ever with a blockbuster list of nominees. Let’s take a look back at the impressive accomplishment of the rookies through the past few months.
1. Cherry Bullet
Cherry Bullet is a 10-member group whose members are from South Korea, Japan and Taiwan. They debuted on Jan 21st, 2019 with the 1st album “Let’s Play Cherry Bullet”. As the little sister group of AOA, Cherry Bullet was highly expected by fans. After 1 comeback, currently, their album sales is in 2nd place among female rookies debuted in 2019. Moreover, even though they only debuted this year but have appeared many times on the monthly top 100 girl group brand value.
2. ITZY
There’s no need to say anything more about the “super rookies” from JYP and their impressive achievement. ITZY officially debuted on Feb 12th, 2019 with their 1st single “IT’Z DIFFERENT” and the MV for their title track “DALLA DALLA”. Right from their debut, their MV views has risen to the top spot among other rookies and even equal to that of their seniors’ MVs. ITZY also possesses a marvelous album sales, leading the chart compared to other female rookies. ‘Til now, ITZY has had 11 wins on weekly music shows and this number surely won’t stop.
3. EVERGLOW
EVERGLOW left a deep impression with the track “Bon Bon Chocolat” in the album “Arrival of Everglow” on March 18th, 2019. In the group are famous trainees from survival shows such as Produce 101, Produce48 or Idol School. “Bon Bon Chocolat” was reviewed as a hit among debut songs in 2019 with its catchy and trendy tunes, which might be the reason why they have climbed to #5 on World Digital Song Sales Chart right after their debut. This electro-track is also widely loved in the U.S with almost 1 million streams in 1 week.
4. Jeon Somi
Even though I.O.I’s activity has stopped for quite some time, but Somi has taken quite a long time to move from JYP to The Black Label and finally debuted on June 13th, 2019 with “Birthday”. The song did well on digital charts and the MV view is quite impressive 1 month after its release. Her fame is mostly from the fact that she was a famous JYP trainee before signing with YG’s subsidiary. Will Somi be able to defeat other rookies of this year?
5. TXT
TXT is Big Hit Entertainment’s 2nd boy group which debuted on March 4th, 2019. With the advantage of being BTS’s junior boy group, TXT has been in the center of attention even before their debut and finally proved their potential with “Crown”. Apart from the most MV view among male rookies, TXT also tops the album sales chart among groups debuted in 2019 with their 1st mini album “The Dream Chapter: Star”.
6. AB6IX
AB6IX is a 5-member group with very familiar faces which are WANNA ONE ex-member Daehwi, Woojin and 2 famous trainees from Produce 101 season 2. This is why their popularity is huge. Their album “B:Complete” has officially surpassed 100.000 copies sold on Hanteo, making them the fastest rookie of 2019 to reach 100.000 copies album sold on Hanteo (13 days), broken the record before of the super rookie from Big Hit – TXT. In only 13 days, they also got their first win on The Show.
7. CIX
CIX is a boy group formed and managed by C9 Entertainment. In this group, there is Bae Jinyoung who had debuted once with WANNA ONE. The debut track called “Movie Star” has given CIX their first win on music show only 7 days after their debut which placed them in 2nd place on the chart of fastest win among male groups. A very impressive and promising result.
8. Kang Daniel
On July 25th, after the lawsuit with his former agency has passed, the “nation’s center” Kang Daniel has officially debuted with the album “Color on Me” and the title track “What Are You Up To”. His achievement in term of album sales is impressive indeed. “Color on Me” of Kang Daniel has broken the record of first-week sales among solo artists with 460 thousand copies sold, broken the record of many famous senior artists.
9. X1
Even though X1 won’t debut until Aug 27th but it is safe to say that this boy group from Produce X 101 will be able to compete in the category of “Rookie of the Year”. With talented members, countless visuals, along with the heat from the survival show, X1 is expected to be a big hit with their debut mini album “Quantum Leap”.
Source: k14
