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IU grabs #1 spot on MelOn's Annual chart for very first time with 'Celebrity'

With her song ‘Celebrity’ that released last year, IU marked a career first, topping MelOn’s Annual chart for the very first time, even as 10 more

Since making her debut in the year 2008, there is hardly anything the Nation’s Sister IU has not achieved in a career spanning 14 years. IU, who made her debut in the K-pop industry at the age of 15, has broken a lot of records. As of February 7, she also achieved the Number 1 spot on MelOn’s annual chart for the best songs released in 2021. On February 7, the music platform MelOn released the chart for the top songs for last year and IU’s single ‘Celebrity’ from her fifth studio album 'Lilac' took the first spot.

This feat is remarkable as it marks IU’s first year topping the annual chart from MelOn. Other female acts like aespa. Heize, Oh My Girl, StayC, Blackpink’s Rose, Brave Girls are some of the other acts that also stood out on the same chart. The highest IU ever got in the past was the Number 2 spot, first in 2010 with her single, ‘Nagging’ and later in 2017 with ‘Night Letter’.

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IU tops MelOn’s Annual Chart

While this is IU’s first time taking the Number 1 spot on an annual chart for her hit 2021 single ‘Celebrity’. The song in general has been quite popular on MelOn’s other charts like the 24Hits Chart. 'Celebrity' had also topped the MelOn's Weekly chart for six weeks in a row and charted on MelOn’s Monthly list of top songs within 3 days of its release. Not only ‘Celebrity’ but songs like ‘Lilac', ‘Blueming’ and ‘Eight’ are among the total of 11 songs by IU that have made it to MelOn’s Annual chart for 2021.

Not only that, IU is the only act with not one but three songs in the Top 10 on MelOn’s 2021 year-end Chart with ‘Celebrity’ at Number 1, ‘Lilac’ at Number 6 and ‘Hold My Hand’ at Number 10. Other acts that follow IU’s ‘Celebrity’ are Brave Girl’s 2017 hit single, ‘Rollin’, BTS’ ‘Dynamite’ and ‘Butter’, aespa’s ‘Next Level’, Lee Mujin’s ‘Traffic Light’ and Kyoung Seo’s ‘Shiny Star’ from 2020. Other than these K-pop acts, Justin Bieber’s ‘Peaches’ also appeared on the chart at Number 4.

MelOn’s annual chart screams ‘girl power’

While IU took the lead, many other female artists also proved that K-pop is no longer a male-dominated genre. SM Entertainment’s monster rookies aespa took the Number 5 spot with their song, ‘Next Level’ while their October 2021 single, ‘Savage’ ranked 86th on the Annual Chart from MelOn. Heize on the other hand to the 14th spot for her single, ‘Happy Coincidence’ from her new mini-album ‘Happen’.

Other songs from female acts that dominated the chart were Oh My Girl’s ‘Dun Dun Dance’, StayC’s ‘ASAP’, and Taeyeon’s ‘Weekend’, Blackpink Rose’s ‘On The Ground’ that all made it to the Top 50 on the chart. Not only that, but Brave Girls came back with their 2017 hit ‘Rollin’ and took the Number 2 spot on MelOn’s Annual Chart that screamed 'girl power'.