The singer who has contributed the least over he aggregate career towards the expansion of KPop around the world is returning.
Her legendary failure to contribute anything to KPop makes her a big anomaly in KPop history.
Despite of that, because of her reputation in Korea, and Korea only, she is considered to be a major figure in Korean Pop, which is virtually unique since in virtually every other genre foreign popularity is considered to be more important than domestic relevance.
Despite of her virtual irrelevancy outside of Korea, it is likely that the koreans will once again elect her as the #1 singer this winter, throwing another round of dirt to acts which are more relevant in foreign countries than her.
Because of the dual system, she was ranked in the same level with BTS and BlackPink, acts much more relevant than her outside of Korea. And this trend is expected to continue as long as the Koreans do not give up their duality system.
I went to a KPop shop yesterday. The newer generation has left Bts and moved on to acts like txt, SKZ, Enhypen, ZB1, etc. LS and NJ were popular - apparently the BP merchandise are more carefully controlled by YG.
And there was no sign of a certain 1,345 years old anywhere. Foreign fans don't really care about her.
I think 2024 should be the year where ifans get to ignore Korean opinion once for all. It skews the entire opinion to the wrong side, and does not really help KPop's growth. Korea is less than 10% of all KPop markets yet it wields too much influence.