BTS’s Jungkook is named Billboard’s best K-pop artist

Billboard crowned BTS’s Jungkook as 2024’s best K-pop artist in its first-ever ranking of the top 100 K-pop stars, released in celebration of Billboard Korea’s launch in May.

The 2024 Billboard K-Pop Artist 100 is the the U.S. magazine’s first such ranking of K-pop artists, compiled by chart teams at Billboard and its Seoul branch, Billboard Korea, which will publish its first issue in June.

 

The rankings are based on the artists’ activity on the Billboard 200 albums chart, Billboard Hot 100 songs chart and Billboard Boxscore, which measures tour attendance and revenue, from Jan. 7, 2023, to Dec. 30, 2023, according to Billboard.

Group members were mostly listed together except for cases where notable solo activity separated the artists, as in the case of BTS’s Jungkook.

Members from a total of 16 groups were listed on this year’s rankings: BTS, Stray Kids, Fifty Fifty, NewJeans, Tomorrow X Together, Seventeen, Ateez, Enhypen, Twice, Blackpink, Le Sserafim, aespa, NCT 127, NCT Dream, (G)I-DLE and ITZY.

Jungkook was named Billboard’s top K-pop artist of 2024 on the back of the massive success of his first solo single “Seven” (2023) and album “Golden” (2023).

Second on the list is boy band Stray Kids’ leader Bang Chan, followed by Lee Know in third from the same band. All eight members of Stray Kids were listed in the top 10, with Changbin, Hyunjin, Han, Felix, Seungmin, and I.N placing behind their fellow band members, in that order.

Clocking in at No. 10 was rookie girl group Fifty Fifty, in which only member Keena currently remains.

Billboard Korea will hold a kick-off event in Seoul ahead of its launch in May, where the K-pop artists on the 2024 list will be invited as guests of honor.

BY KIM JU-YEON [kim.juyeon2@joongang.co.kr]