The ‘K-pop signboard girl groups’ are taking over the US Billboard charts. Blackpink‘s Rosé and TWICE, who have risen to global stars, are properly showing off the power of K-pop by taking the top spots on Billboard’s main chart, which is considered an indicator of global pop music popularity.

According to the latest version of the ‘Billboard 200’, the main album chart announced by Billboard on the 17th (Korean time), Rosé‘s first full-length album ‘Rosy’ and TWICE’s 14th mini-album ‘Strategy’ debuted at 3rd and 4th place, respectively. ‘Billboard 200’ is ranked by adding up physical album sales, SEA, which converts streaming counts into album sales, and TEA, which tallies the number of digital music downloads.

Rosé immediately rose to the top with her first regular album, ‘Rosie’, selling a total of 102,000 copies. Through this, she also broke the highest ranking for a female K-pop solo artist. She will set another new record, following the title of the first K-pop girl group to top the ‘Billboard 200’ with BLACKPINK‘s second regular album, ‘Bone Pink’, in September 2022.

Rosé also made it onto the main song chart, the ‘Hot 100’. ‘Toxic Til The End’, the title song of ‘Rosie’, entered the ‘Hot 100’ at number 90 on the 21st. This is the third solo song to enter the chart, following ‘On the Ground’, ‘Rosie’’s pre-released song ‘Apartment’ in 2021.

TWICE‘s ‘Strategy’, released on the 6th, the same day as Rosé, ranked 4th on the ‘Billboard 200’ with sales of 88,000 copies in the first week. With this album, they achieved the feat of entering the ‘Billboard 200’ top 10 for 6 consecutive times. This is also the record for the most chart entries among K-pop girl groups. TWICE’s highest record was the 1st place of their previous 13th mini-album ‘With You’.

Twice collaborated with famous American rapper Megan Thee Stallion, creating a buzz in the local area and turning on the green light for box office success. They successfully attracted public attention in the US by participating in the ‘Amazon Music Live’ stage where global pop stars such as Ed Sheeran and Lil Wayne had previously performed and revealing some of their new songs.


Reporter Yoo Ji-hye yjh0304@donga.com