NewJeans will celebrate the end of 2023 by traveling across major year-end stages in Korea, the United States, and Japan. The successive love calls from the year-end stages at home and abroad, where the best singers of the year appear, are a testament to the popularity and status of New Genes around the world. Even though NewJeans has yet to begin full-fledged overseas activities, its scale is remarkable and attracts attention.
◆ 3 songs at Japan’s top awards ceremony and New Year’s greeting on a famous American broadcasting station
NewJeans will be hosting Japan's TBS's '65th Shine!' on the 30th. They will be on stage at the ‘Japan Record Awards’ (hereinafter referred to as ‘Japan Record Awards’). At the Japan Record Awards, Japan's most prestigious music awards ceremony, they are the first foreign artists to be nominated for the grand prize and perform complete sets of three songs ('Ditto', 'ETA', and 'New Jeans'). So far, the only artist who has performed three songs on the stage of this awards ceremony is Japanese singer YOASOBI, and New Genes is the first foreign artist. Prior to this, NewJeans announced Nippon TV's representative year-end music program 'Announcement!' on the 27th. This year's most listened to song ~Annual Music Awards 2023~' will also appear for the second year in a row.
On the last day of the year, they became the first K-pop girl group to appear on ABC's 'Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve with Ryan Seacrest 2024' (hereinafter 'New Year's Rockin' Eve'). 'New Year's Rockin' Eve' is the most-watched New Year's Eve special program in the United States, and is famous for its spectacular lineup every year. This year, prominent pop stars such as Post Malone, Ivy Queen, Jelly Roll, and Sabrina Carpenter are expected to appear. Meanwhile, NewJeans plans to meet viewers on the Korean stage.
NewJeans is already sweeping the domestic year-end stages and award ceremonies. Following KBS 2TV's '2023 Music Bank Global Festival', NewJeans appeared at '2023 SBS Gayo Daejeon' on the 25th and performed a parade of hit songs. In particular, at 'MMA 2023' held on the 2nd, a medley performance of all 6 songs from the second EP 'Get Up' was performed, demonstrating the 'New Genes power'. In addition, they are sweeping the grand prizes at major domestic awards ceremonies such as 'MMA 2023', '2023 MAMA Awards', and '2023 AAA'.
◆ This year’s remarkable performance swept the year-end accounts of overseas media outlets as well.
NewJeans' uninterrupted year-end activities prove their unrivaled performance this year. They continued the 'New Genes Syndrome' by sweeping domestic and international charts with their single album 'OMG' in January and their second EP 'Get Up' in July. Among K-pop groups, NewJeans ranked first on the US Billboard main album chart 'Billboard 200' in the shortest period of time (one year) since their debut. Additionally, 5 songs ('OMG', 'Ditto', 'Super Shy', 'ETA', and 'Cool With You') entered Billboard's main song chart 'Hot 100' this year. Based on these achievements, NewJeans won 'Top Global K-pop Artist' at the '2023 Billboard Music Awards', one of America's top three music awards ceremonies.
In addition, NewJeans has been listed in the 'Song of the Year' and 'Album of the Year' titles announced by leading overseas media outlets at the end of the year. From popular media such as Rolling Stone, Consequence, Billboard, and NME to Pitchfork, Gorilla vs. Even indie-oriented webzines and blogs, such as Bear, paid attention to New Genes' music. The common opinion is that novel and fresh music that breaks away from the existing K-pop grammar has shaken the hearts of listeners around the world, including the North American market.
NewJeans and their songs showed an unprecedented presence, recording the highest rankings among this year's K-pop artists and works selected by more than a dozen media outlets, and being the first K-pop artists and works to be included in the list in some media outlets. NewJeans, who is in his second year of debut, has proven his global status by being mentioned alongside this year's indispensable pop stars such as Taylor Swift, Caesar, Troye Sivan, and Olivia Rodrigo.
As NewJeans has received a lot of love this year, they are busy every day to repay the expectations and support of global fans. Looking at the packed schedule, it can be said that it is truly ‘flashing from east to west.’ New Genes, which ended 2023 by setting new records in various indicators, is looking forward to what new history of K-pop it will write in 2024.
Kim Ji-won, Ten Asia reporter bella@tenasia.co.kr