K-Pop groups have set the summer temperatures soaring with hot new releases. Last week saw a great line-up of comebacks from Korean acts, but it was music from three artists that were highly anticipated by fans in the UAE. These are the top K-Pop stars that topped the local iTunes chart:
Yesung
Super Junior’s Yesung made a successful comeback with third solo EP ‘Pink Magic’ on June 18.
The singer’s six-track EP is fronted by rhythmical pop title track ‘Pink Magic’, and contains songs ‘Eat’s OK’, ‘Every Day, Wait for Us’, ‘Parallel Lines’ as well as self-written tracks ‘I’ll Remember’ and ‘I Wish’.
Along with the EP came a colourful, bubbly music video that featured a pink-haired Yesung telling you that you’re his ‘Pink Magic’ with special appearances by Super Junior’s Donghae and Kyuhyun
He cast his ‘Pink Magic’ on the iTunes Album charts not only in the UAE but also in 24 other countries, including Oman, Saudi Arabia, Ecuador, Argentina, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Costa Rica and more.
It’s Yesung’s first solo comeback in two years since releasing 2017’s ‘Spring Falling’. After promoting his new music, he is expected to join his bandmates for a performance in Saudi Arabia next month as part of Jeddah Season.
Red Velvet
Seven months since their first Korean release and after making a splash two summers ago with ‘Red Flavor’ in 2017 and ‘Power Up’ in 2018, Red Velvet brought back some magic with them on June 19.
They kicked off their own kind of music festival with new EP ‘The ReVe Festival: Day 1’ and its electro pop single, ‘Zimzalabim’.
Written by the songwriters behind the group’s catchy song ‘Red Flavor’, ‘Zimzalabim’, which means the same as abracadabra, encompasses a variety of genres with an addictive chorus.
Alongside the lead song, they dropped an amusement park themed music video.
Red Velvet continued to earn the nickname Summer Queens as they topped the charts with their new music. In addition to charting high on the domestic music charts, ‘The ReVe Festival: Day 1’ topped the iTunes Top Albums chart in the UAE and in 27 countries that include the US, Lebanon, Bahrain, Philippines, Greece, Poland, Turkey, Bulgaria, Romania, Brazil and New Zealand.
The EP is the first of ‘The Reve Festival’ series project. ‘Day 2’ and the ‘Finale’ are planned for release this year and is expected to explore various concepts.
BTS
K-Pop heart-throbs BTS released ‘All Night’ featuring rising Chicago rapper Juice WRLD for their upcoming mobile video game ‘BTS World’. It’s the third song from the ‘BTS World’ soundtrack led by the group’s rappers, RM and Suga.
It didn’t take all night for the song to climb to the top of the local chart on June 21. The hip hop offering debuted at No 1 on the iTunes chart, beating the likes of Shawn Mendes and Camila Cabello’s ‘Senorita’ and Chris Brown’s ‘No Guidance’ featuring Drake.
Produced by RM and Powers Pleasant, BTS’s single comes after Jungkook, Jin and Jimin’s ‘Dream Glow’ with British singer Charli XCX on June 7 and ‘A Brand New Day’ featuring J-Hope and V with Swedish pop songstress Zara Larsson on June 14. Both songs also topped the iTunes albums chart in the UAE the day it was released.
The full ‘BTS World’ soundtrack is scheduled to drop this Friday.