[BILLBOARD] EXO's Suho Makes Debut on World Albums With 'Self-Portrait' Solo EP

[Lee 4,794]

The singer is EXO's fourth member to make his mark on the tally.

While EXO has been a mainstay on Billboard's charts for years, the K-pop group's leader finally impacts the charts all on his own.

Suho sees his debut solo project Self-Portrait: The 1st Mini Album enter Billboard's World Albums chart at No. 14 this week. The EP earned 1,000 equivalent album units in the week ending April 2, according to Nielsen Music/MRC Data. While Suho had previously entered the World Digital Song Sales chart, all his entries were tracks alongside other artists thanks to 2017's "Curtain" alongside Youngjoo Song and 2018's "Dinner" with Jane Jang. Self-Portrait marks the first Billboard entry for Suho unaccompanied.

Spoiler

Suho is now the fourth EXO member to enter World Albums. He follows his band mataes Lay (who first entered with his Mandopop album 02 Sheep in 2017, and later hit No. 1 on World Albums with 2018's Namanana), Chen (who has two entries and has so far peaked at No. 4 with his debut April, and a Flower from early 2019) and Baekhyun (whose City Lights released in mid-2019 also peaked at No. 4). Several splinter groups and sub-units of EXO have also landed on World Albums including EXO-CBX (made up of members Chen, Baekhyun and Xiumin) and EXO-SC (Sehun and Chanyeol).

While EXO has shown a range of styles throughout the years, Suho's Self-Portrait delivers something still unexplored for the K-pop sensations -- rock music. Self-Portrait's lead single "Let's Love" comes complete with palpable live drums and even an electric guitar solo to act as a striking centerpiece among other sonic standouts like the racing pop-rock gem "O2," the groove-focused fan track "Made in You," as well as the sentimental title track "Self-Portrait." Something also new for Suho on this album is his heaviest artist involvement in an album yet, co-writing on all six tracks.