It wouldn‘t be an exaggeration to say that this is the 2025 version of the ‘I Love You’ craze. The first popular song to open the door to K-pop in the year of Eulsa is ‘Only Today I Love You’ by Boynextdoor.

No matter which social media you turn on, you can easily detect the love syndrome caused by Boynextdoor, or ‘Bonec’ for short. The ‘I Love You Challenge’, which utilizes the short video ‘shorts’ form, has emerged as a trend, and the choreography that accompanies it along with the chorus of ‘I love you aishiteru’ has naturally become an ‘SNS ritual’ for the younger generation.

The possibility of ‘Only Today I Love You’ being crowned the ‘1st Popular Song’ of the Year of the Pig can be easily predicted based on various popularity chart indicators at home and abroad.

For example, it ranked 23rd on the monthly chart for January on Melon, Korea’s leading pop music platform. With Boynextdoor‘s own highest ranking, the song entered the top 10 of both Melon’s Top 100 and Hot 100 charts on the 2nd, a month later, thanks to the spontaneous challenge boom on SNS.

It is also very popular overseas. While it has maintained the top spot for 23 days on Apple Music‘s ‘Today’s Top 100’, it has also succeeded in entering the Billboard chart, a representative global ranking chart, and has been on the rise for 2 weeks on the ‘Global’ (excluding the US).

‘Only Today I LOVE YOU’ is a dance song that cheerfully depicts the aftermath of a breakup. Although it is about a breakup, the atmosphere is charming and not overly sad. The ‘Life-related’ lyrics that stimulate empathy stand out, and in line with this, it has also earned the nickname ‘MZ‘s New Breakup Song’ among the younger generation, the main consumers of K-pop.

Meanwhile, Boy Next Door is meeting with One Door (fandom name) around the world through their first solo tour, ‘Knock On Vol. 1’. The tour, which successfully completed in Incheon and Tokyo, will continue to Aichi, Osaka, Miyagi, Fukuoka, Kanagawa, Japan, Singapore, Manila, Philippines, Bangkok, Thailand, Taipei, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Jakarta, Indonesia.


Reporter Heo Min-nyeong mignon@donga.com

This article is automatically translated using Google AI. If you notice any inaccuracies, please let us know at allkstar@donga.com.