MAMAMOO rise as new iconic girl band

RBW Entertainment’s girl band MAMAMOO poses during the press conference for their new mini-album “Purple” at YES24 MUV Hall in Mapo-gu, Seoul, on June 22. From left are girl band members Moonbyul, Solar, Wheein and Hwasa. / Couretsy of RBW Entertainment

BLACKPINK expands its presence abroad

By Kim Jae-heun

Summer is often called the battle season for girl bands as many K-pop groups return with new releases to captivate audiences.

After former “queens of summer,” SISTAR disbanded in late May, groups with younger singers are flocking to seize the title and MAMAMOO is the most prominent candidate so far.

RBW Entertainment’s girl band returned to the K-pop scene after six months with its fifth mini-album “Purple,” June 22. The first single “Yes I Am” instantly topped the biggest local online music chart, Melon.

It is a significant achievement as Melon has over a 50 percent market share in the streaming music service. MAMAMOO’s new album also topped the Mnet music chart.

“I guess all the girl bands return with the same determination to do well,” said MAMAMOO’s Hwa-sa during a press conference at YES24 MUV Hall in Mapo-gu, Seoul. “Also it gets really tiring when we start our activities. We depend on each other to overcome our tough schedules.”

MAMAMOO spoke honestly about the burden they feel about putting together a good performance on the music charts.

“In fact, while practicing our song a few days ago, producer Kim Do-hoon visited us and said he is nervous. He told us not to expect too much because we may get very disappointed if it turns out to be unsuccessful. We know what he is talking about but we have to care about the result as we are human beings,” said Solar.

The girl band’s album topped the world album chart on America’s Billboard Monday after winning four weekly awards at local TV music shows, shooting them to the stardom as a new iconic K-pop girl band.

YG Entertainment’s only girl group BLACKPINK returned with their third digital single “As If It’s Your Last” on the same day. However, it fell behind MAMAMOO’s new song to rank second on Melon. Still, they managed to sweep the other six online music charts such as Bugs Music, Naver Music and Genie.

Plan A Entertainment’s girl band Apink poses during the press conference for their new mini-album “Pink Up” at Mecenatpolis in Mapo-gu, Seoul, on June 26. From left are girl band members Oh Ha-young, Jeong Eun-ji, Yoon Bo-mi and Son Na-eun. / Courtesy of Plan A Entertainment

BLACKPINK is more popular overseas, especially in China.

The girl band’s new digital single topped the new song chart on China’s biggest music service platform QQ Music for nearly a week. Its “As If It’s Your Last” music video also became the most popular content on both main and K-pop music video charts.

They became the first Korean band to join the top 10 most popular idol groups on the Chinese music service that ranks the number of downloads and streaming use of the song as well as how many “likes” they received.

Star Empire Entertainment’s girl band 9Muses returned as a 4-member act three days earlier but their new mini-album “Muses Diary Part.2: Identity” failed to make the top 10 on any of the local charts.

Another popular girl band “Apink” of Plan A Entertainment returned to the stage June 26, breaking a nine-month hiatus.

Apink’s return was much anticipated as they have regularly topped the local charts with previous hits “NoNoNo,” “Mr. Chi” and “Luv.”

However, their new song “Five” failed to get into the top five on any of the charts, falling behind the newly released songs of MAMAMOO, BLACKPINK and Heize, a female rapper.

The second round of the girl band battle is upcoming as S.M. Entertainment’s Girl’s Generation and rising star group GFriend are yet to make their releases, which they will do in August and July, respectively.