aespa, Weeekly, ENHYPEN and More: K-pop Radar Selects 5 Rising Artists in 2021

On Dec. 31, K-pop Radar has revealed their "Rising Artists" list for 2021 based on the cumulative number of music video views and SNS followers after their debut. Find out who the five rookie groups are below.

aespa, Weeekly, and STAYC are the Female Rookies Chosen as Rising Artists by K-pop Radar

Among the new girl groups that debuted in 2020, aespa, STAYC, and Weeekly have been selected as among the rising artists in K-pop.

aespa, consisting of Karina, Winter, Giselle and Ningning, made their debut on Nov. 17, 2020 with their first single "Black Mamba." The quartet is SM Entertainment's first girl group in six years since Red Velvet's launch in 2014.

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According to K-pop Radar, aespa gained 4.6 million more followers on Instagram in 2021, while they earned 1.2 million new followers on Twitter.

On YouTube, aespa's music videos accumulated hundreds of millions of views. In particular, the "Next Level" MV had 179.8 million views while the "Savage" MV received 131.6 million views. The "Forever" MV, on the other hand, was watched 44.4 million times.

Taking the second spot on the "5 Rising Artists" list is Weeekly, IST Entertainment's (formerly called Play M Entertainment) second girl group in 10 years, following Apink. The group is composed of seven members namely Soojin, Jiyoon, Monday, Soeun, Jaehee, Jihan and Zoa.

The septet debuted on June 30, 2020 with their first EP "We Are." In 2021, the girl group garnered more popularity thanks to their hit song "After School."

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Based on the data that K-pop Radar accumulated in the past 12 months, Weeekly's Instagram and Twitter accounts had 739.1K and 152.2K new followers respectively.

In addition, Weeekly's "After School" MV had 113.1 million YouTube views while the "Holiday Party" MV had 24.2 million views.

Finally, STAYC debuted as the first girl group under High Up Entertainment on Nov. 12, 2020 with their first single album "Star to a Young Culture." The members include Sumin, Sieun, Isa, Seeun, Yoon and J.

In the past 12 months, the sextet earned 754.5K new Instagram followers and 289.1K new Twitter followers.

STAYC was considered a rising artist because of their impressive YouTube views as well. The "STEREOTYPE" MV gained 45.8 million views while the "ASAP" MV got 30.1 million views.

ENHYPEN and TREASURE are the Male Rookies Considered Rising Artists by K-pop Radar

On K-pop Radar's "5 Rising Artists" list, ENHYPEN secured the third spot. The boy group is the first idol group formed by Belift Lab and is made up of seven members namely Heeseung, Jay, Jake, Sunghoon, Jungwon, Sunoo and Ni-ki.

Debuted on Nov. 30, 2020, ENHYPEN earned an incredible number of SNS followers in 2021, both on Instagram and Twitter. The septet garnered 4.9 million additional Instagram followers and 4.3 million new Twitter followers.

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Last year, four music videos of ENHYPEN were popular. The "Drunk-Dazed" MV got the most views, gaining 57.3 million views. Meanwhile, the "FEVER" MV earned 53.2 million views, the "Hey Tayo" MV had 21.2 million views and the "Tamed-Dashed" MV accumulated 20.8 million views.

Completing K-pop Radar's "5 Rising Artists" list is TREASURE, which debuted on Aug. 7, 2020. Ranking fifth on the list, the boy group comprises 12 total members namely Hyunsuk, Jihoon, Yoshi, Junkyu, Asahi, Mashiho, Yedam, Haruto, Jaehyuk, Doyoung, Jeongwoo and Junghwan.

In 2021, TREASURE had an additional 1.3 million followers on Instagram and 1.5 million followers on Twitter. They only had one popular music video, which is the "MY TREASURE" MV that was watched 35.7 million times.

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Written by Mhaliya Scott