The quintet's first single was revealed less than three weeks ago and now they have a No. 1 on Billboard's World Albums chart and a Top 10 entry on Heatseekers Albums.
It's an intrinsic property of the K-pop scene that its stars go through years of training before their public introduction. But for WINNER, the just-debuted boy band that joins BIGBANG, 2NE1, PSY and more at YG Entertainment, that process was rather atypical.
Instead of hitting the market with a debut single, the quintet were introduced on South Korean reality-survival show Who Is Next: WIN which put two potential boy bands from YG in direct competition to let the public vote which would become the act "WINNER." One hits the K-pop world, the other returns to trainee mode. The five-member outfit of Seungyoon (the band's leader as well as a singer/composer), Minho (rapper/composer), Taehyun (vocalist/composer),Jinwoo (vocalist) and Seunghoon (rapper), proved victorious in October 2013 with a debut imminent.
WINNER Picked As One of Billboard's K-Pop Acts to Watch in Early 2014
After nearly 11 months of silence, WINNER went full-force with their debut dropping a full-length LP led by two singles and accompanying music videos. The 2014 S/S album was a polished, eclectic 10-track set with melancholy, R&B/hip-hop hybrid singles "Empty" and "Color Ring" (see below). Last week, the LP made a strong Billboard debut, selling 1,000 copies and hitting No. 1 on the World Albums chart (this week it's at No. 11) and No. 6 on Heatseekers Albums, meaning a Billboard 200 debut wasn't far off.
WINNER's labelmates Akdong Musician and Lee Hi also earned well-received debuts (AKMU's Play hit No. 2 on World Albums, No. 20 on Heatseekers) as did newbie K-pop boy band GOT7 (a No. 1 on World Albums). But from a chart perspective, WINNER seems to be, well, winning.
When the band was in New York shooting for their album jacket, Billboard met up with the guys to get their thoughts as 2014's most unusual rookies.
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