The first half of 2021 is the time when solo artists are active in the “arena” of Kpop, most notably the debut of Rosé (BLACKPINK) and Wendy (Red Velvet). They are the main vocalists of the two top girl groups, if Rosé is famous for her unique voice, Wendy is considered one of the best singers of Gen 3.
Both BLACKPINK and Red Velvet have positive digital achievements and achieved PAK at least once. Therefore, the main vocals of the two groups inevitably were placed on the table compared to their solo debut, even though they did not face off at the same time.
Being the main vocal of two famous girl groups, Rosé …
… and Wendy inevitably compared with each other when making a solo debut
When Rosé released the song On The Ground on March 12, the title song of her first single album was criticized for the reason that the melody was discrete and difficult to absorb. Many people worry that female idols will find it difficult to conquer the Korean chart when singing 100% in English.
MV On The Ground – Rosé
But On The Ground has a good performance beyond expectations. Rosé’s debut song sometimes broke the PAK of the hit Rollin ‘ (Brave Girls), peaking at # 2 on the iChart composite chart. Currently, although IU is sweeping the chart with songs in the new album, Rosé and On The Ground still persistently stay at No. 6 iChart, entered the top 10 Melon 24Hits and real-time chart of Genie, FLO, VIBE and Bugs.
Chart of the song On The Ground at 9:30 p.m. (KST) April 7 – almost a month after its debut
Like Rosé, Wendy received great expectation when making her solo debut with the mini album Like Water ( April 7). This is the first time she officially released a music product after the terrible accident at the SBS Gayo Daejun festival 2019 . Unfortunately, the song Like Water took many hours to reach Melon 24Hits, only reached # 1 at Bugs and slipped on the charts in the following days.
MV Like Water – Wendy
As of 9:30 (KST) April 7, the song dropped to 76th of Melon 24Hits and more importantly # 92 at FLO – a very dangerous position, likely to “fall” from this chart at any time. Come on. Notably, Like Water has just been released for more than 2 days, the first days are usually the time when the fandom stream is the most “thrilling”, but Wendy’s song “plays the slide” in an alarming way.
The song “ Like Water ” has a flat ranking even though Wendy has only debuted for 2 days
Although the main vocalist Red Velvet does not have a positive digital music record like Rosé, the female idol’s record sales are relatively impressive. On the first day of sale, the mini album Like Water “sold out” was 68,225 copies. Although still inferior to the leader, Rosé, the number is still enough for Wendy to be in the top 5 female solo artists with the highest first-day album sales in Kpop.
Top 5 albums with the highest first-day sales of Kpop female solo singers
1. -R- – Rosé: 282,674 copies
2. LILAC – IU: 216,319 copies
3. Love Poem – IU: 125,388 copies
4. Purpose – Taeyeon: 96,749 copies
5. Like Water – Wendy: 68,225 copies
Wendy ranked 5th in the chart of female solo singers with the highest first day sales in Kpop
Even so, the position of Champion still belongs to Rosé
Temporarily ignoring achievements, it is important that Rosé and Wendy have the opportunity to show their talents when making their solo debut. In particular, Red Velvet fans are extremely happy to see that the main vocalist of the group can return to work after a serious injury, and for them, the fact that she continues to sing is more important than the ranking on the chart or business album number.
Photo: Screenshot, Internet – Video: YouTube