[Music&Talk] iKON’s long-time stay in top ranks on Japanese Oricon chart… “What does it mean?”
[뉴스1스타=이경남 기자] Group iKON is consolidating their status as the leader of new Korean Wave in Japan.
According to Japan’s biggest music-ranking website Oricon Style on the 30 this month, iKON’s debut album “WELCOME BACK” released in Japan took fourth place on Oricon’s daily album chart.
“WELCOME BACK” was released in Japan on January 13 this year. It has been over 70 days since the release, but the album is still ranked in top places on Oricon chart. That fact itself is an astonishing record is the proof of the big popularity and big spotlight iKON is enjoying in Japan. The album showed an enormous potential that is unusual for a rookie, recording 50,000 sales on the very day of release.
iKON already proved an exceptional level of recognition in the country by drawing 26,600 fans to total 12 events of fan meeting tour “iKON FAN MEETING 2015 IN JAPAN iKONTACT” last year, even before their official debut in Japan.
Plus, recently, iKON successfully hosted Japan Arena tour that drew 146,000 fans to 14 concerts in five cities including Fukuoka. Notably, iKON stood under a big spotlight from local media for their concert held at Tokyo Budokan within 33 days of their official debut. Budokan is called the Mecca of concerts in Japan.
At that time, iKON expressed their feelings about their first concert at Budokan, saying, “We thank our fans for enabling us to stand on the stage of Budokan this early. We’re really pleased to hold a concert at this historical place”.
iKON is now kicking off their Asian tour going beyond Korea and Japan, within six months of their debut. That is the reason why music fans are paying keen attention to next moves of iKON who is writing a new history of K-pop music.
2016. 3. 31.
