Today in K-Pop

The mid-to-late 2010s saw no shortage of K-pop girl groups — the so-called "third generation" of idol acts that gave us Blackpink, Twice, Red Velvet and dozens more. Oh My Girl were never quite the frontrunners, but they did make their presence felt. Coming out of the smaller-label WM Entertainment, the group built a loyal fanbase on dreamy, experimental concepts and some genuinely inventive tracks. They also became one of the industry's unlikelier success stories, breaking through commercially

Oh My GirlBLACKPINKTwice

Rose's "APT." has topped the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) Global Single Chart 2025, the organization representing the global recording industry said Friday. According to the chart unveiled Sunday (U.S. time), the global hit by the BLACKPINK member and Bruno Mars was the biggest-selling single of last year. "It is the first time the IFPI Global Single Chart has been topped by an artist outside of North America or Europe," it said on its website, adding it is also "the first time a winning single has featured non-English lyrics, reflecting the increasingly global nature of recorded music and the role of labels in breaking language and market barriers." The song is closely followed by "Golden" from Netflix's animated film "KPop Demon Hunters." The IFPI Global Single Chart calculates global consumption of a song, taking into account single-track downloads as well as streams on both free and paid platforms.

BLACKPINK

Rose of Blackpink bagged the No. 1 spot on Global Single of the Year 2025, charted by the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry, said the Italy-based organization on Thursday local time. Her collaboration with Bruno Mars, “APT.,” was the best-selling single in 2025, making her the first singer outside of North America and Europe to secure the title, it added. Psy was the first Korean singer to make the chart in 2012 and BTS made the cut in 2020 and 2021, as did Jungkook in 2024.

BLACKPINKBTS

CJ ENM’s long-running K-pop festival KCON has introduced a global ambassador role for the first time, appointing Zerobaseone (ZB1) member Sung Han-bin as its inaugural representative. The company announced Friday that Sung will serve as the first “KCON Global Ambassador,” a position designed to promote the identity and core values of the festival as a worldwide platform encompassing not only K-pop but also K-beauty, K-food and broader K-content and lifestyle trends. As ambassador, Sung will act

ZEROBASEONE

SEOUL, Feb. 20 (Yonhap) -- Rose's "APT." has topped the International Federation...

An update on BTS’ upcoming show “BTS The Comeback Live: Arirang” in central Seoul next month: Access to designated viewing areas for the concert will be limited to fans with advance tickets, organizers said, and the show will run for about one hour. Seoul police are preparing extensive crowd control measures amid expectations that attendance could reach 260,000. According to an announcement posted Friday on the global fan platform Weverse, entry to the main viewing zones for the one-hour event —

BTS

K-pop powerhouse HYBE has appealed against a court's ruling that ordered the payment of 25.5 billion won ($17.7 million) worth of put options to Min Hee-jin, a former CEO of a HYBE subsidiary named ADOR, judicial officials said Friday. The appeal was filed with the Seoul Central District Court's Civil Division 31 on Thursday after the same court last week dismissed HYBE's lawsuit seeking to confirm the termination of its shareholders' agreement with Min and ruled on the put option payment. HYBE was also ordered by the court on Feb. 12 to pay 1.7 billion won and 1.4 billion won, respectively, to two former ADOR executives for the same reasons. HYBE reportedly demanded in its appeal that the effect of the first trial be suspended until the appellate court makes a decision. The conflict between HYBE and Min began in April 2024 and Min was dismissed as CEO of ADOR in August of that year. HYBE has argued that the termination of the shareholders' contract is valid because Min violated it by seeking to end girl group NewJeans' agency contract with ADOR and pushing for an initial public offering

NewJeans

Stray Kids exceeded 300 million hits on YouTube with the music video for “S-Class” as of Thursday, according to label JYP Entertainment. It is the band’s sixth music video to accomplish the feat, after those of “God’s Menu,” “Back Door,” “Thunderous,” “Maniac” and “Lalalala.” Co-written by Bang Chan, Changbin and Han, “S-Class” is the eight-piece act’s hit from 2023 and the focus track from third studio album “5-Star.” The LP sold over 4.6 million copies in the first week, the most in K-pop hist

ChangbinHanStray Kids

Jungkook of BTS has clocked up 1.4 billion streams on Spotify for the second time with his solo single “Standing Next to You.” The single was released in November 2023 as the main track of his solo album “Golden” and debuted on Billboard’s Hot 100 at No. 5, charting 19 weeks straight on the main songs chart. It topped Billboard’s Global 200 and Global excl. US and spent 38 and 44 weeks, respectively. In UK, it ranked No. 6 on the Official Singles Chart, where it spent 11 weeks in the top 100. Af

JungkookBTS