Melon's first nonKpop song to attain Daily #1 in the year 2023 is Akmu's Love Lee.
Jeon Jungkook's Seven reached #1 in Billboard Hot 100 but it took him 48 days to clear New Jeans from the #1 position in Korea.
And it took Akmu a whole five days to dislodge JK from his very hard earned #1.
I think that when IU invited NJ to her own show, a loose, informal alliance between IU, NJ and Akmu (a longtime ally of IU) was formed against BTS. Such kind of loose alliances are quite common in history , such as the informal alliance of the so-called "Big Three" against the Axis in World War 2.
Which might be why NJ helped Akmu since the latter had a shot of dislodging JK from the #1 in Melon chart, which it did.
So the shutout of nonKPop songs from Melon ended after 8 months, and the old order was restored.
That shows how hard it is to get rid of the old order - even when it seemed to be dead, it just revives , like a zombie.
When MAMA made IU a Senior Singer back in 2014 by awarding her the Lifetime Achievement Award, it created a problem in KPop which has proven to be insoluble ; KPop now had a Senior Singer who had a veto power over everyone else but did NOT contribute anything to KPop , did NOT have influences outside of Korea and did NOT follow a style of music the world likes.
And she has abused her power of Senior Singer very often.
I think BTS will have to deal with the loose alliance of IU-Akmu-NewJeans before it ever attempts its foreign adventure in probably early 2026.
That aside, the quick return of Akmu back to power shows how deeply ingrained the power of 'vocals' are in the Korean psyche. Just when the old style of Korean Pop was left for dead, when Akmu arrived the ghosts rose up from the dead.
And the Senior Singer said she will do a foreign concert later this year, although it is not known where she will go to. She might go to she had shunned before, after acts much smaller than her had their world tours there. That does not make up for her almost complete lack of contribution to Kpop's Global Expansion.
It seems the existence of a Senior Singer in KPop, who is best known for her lack of contribution to Kpop's Global Explosion, will continue to hinder KPop's progress for a long time.
