Rookie girl group NewJeans makes impressive debut on charts

NewJeans, the first girl group from an independent label under K-pop powerhouse Hybe, has made an impact on music charts at home and abroad upon its debut.

The five-piece multinational group debuted Monday under the label ADOR with its first EP “New Jeans.” It consists of members — Minji, Danielle, Hanni, Haerin and Hyein — whose average age is 17.

The EP achieved 2.06 million streams, 226,000 cumulative listeners, and 88,000 followers on Spotify on the day of its release, setting new records in the three categories among all K-pop girl groups that debuted this year.

“Attention,” and “Hype Boy,” both lead tracks of the album, have stayed atop and at No. 2 on Spotify’s daily top songs chart in South Korea for two days in a row. “Cookie” ranked third and “Hurt” fifth on Tuesday.

The EP also topped iTunes top albums charts in nine countries or regions, including Finland, Russia, Indonesia and Thailand, as of 8 a.m. Thursday.

The singles are also ranking high on other domestic charts.

As of 1 p.m., “Attention” topped Bugs’ real-time streaming chart, with “Hybe Boy” coming in second. “Attention” was fourth on Genie’s and 12th on Melon’s real-time charts.

Earlier, “New Jeans” recorded the most first-week sales of any debut album by girl groups in South Korea by selling more than 440,000 copies in preorders. The previous record was 307,450 copies set by Le Sserafim with its first EP, “Fearless.”

Unlike most K-pop groups, which upload teaser images or videos ahead of their debut, NewJeans made a bold and unprecedented start by dropping the music video for “Attention” even before making its debut. The album “New Jeans” is set to be officially released Monday.