Success story of AKMU: the national siblings discovered on audition program
[OSEN=선미경 기자] The newly debuted sibling duo AKDONG MUSICIAN (AKMU) has now gone beyond just audition program stars, but bona fide K-Pop stars.
The innocent brother and sister who performed “DON’T CROSS YOUR LEGS” with a guitar on last year’s K-Pop Star Season 2 have mesmerized the music world. Not only did they knocked down all music charts but the music video of their title song “200%” attracted 1.3 million viewers in just 4 days. This is nothing but astonishing for a newbie duo.
At noon on April 7, AKMU’s music career started as their debut album “PLAY” was unveiled. In just two hours of the release, the album topped 10 major real-time music charts on Melon, Mnet, Bugs, Soribada and more. This is a record that beats legendary artists and competitive girl groups.
On April 10their album still stands at the top of Melon, Genie, Olleh, Naver and Daum Music real-time charts. The top range is filled with green (the color of their album cover).
The latest album is especially significant as all songs are composed and written by LEE CHAN HYUK. His talents already recognized on K-Pop Star 2 through “DON’T CROSS YOUR LEGS,” “YOU ARE ATTRACTIVE,” “IS IT RAMEN?,” and “CRESCENDO,” the new album is also filled with healthy, vivacious and classy songs.
YG Entertainment’s Chief Executive Producer YANG HYUN SUK had been showing full confidence for the duo even before their official debut. When he announced the debut date, he added, “It has already been 16 years since YG began the music production business and choosing a title song has never been as difficult as doing so for AKMU’s first album. The reason behind such trouble was that all 11 songs carried the freshness and unique charms of AKMU, like when they first unveiled “DON’T CROSS YOUR LEGS” and “YOU ARE ATTRACTIVE” on K-Pop Star last year. Their ability to decipher untouched themes in pop music from a completely different viewpoint and the originality of their lyrics could be described by no word other than ‘astonishing’.”
He also showed much confidence when he held a preview event of AKMU’s album. Held at Seoul Forest on April 5, it attracted 5,000 people despite bad weather. There were no restrictions on mobile phone photography or filming, but rather, YG distributed booklets with lyrics in them—signifying his faith for the new album.
The fans responded quite enthusiastically. AKMU was on the front page of a search website right after the preview event, while ranging in the top of “the most searched word.” Videos of the event were uploaded as well. This was enough to prove their popularity. YANG’s confidence and fans’ attention helped the duo grow from simple audition program stars into true K-Pop stars.
Their popularity goes beyond the border. Immediately after the release the album topped iTunes of Indonesia, Malaysia, Taiwan, Thailand and Singapore in the album category.
AKMU. They are growing with an incredible speed while mesmerizing the public. All eyes are on the siblings to see where they go from here.
2014. 4. 10.
