Rookie girl groups this year have had a range of origins, with a big-3 company putting out a group, Apink getting a little-sister group, and a few groups where most of the members are debuting for the second time. I fear that many of these groups won’t make it too far, but I am also extremely optimistic for a few of these groups as well heading into the future. One notable point here is that Purple Kiss is still in pre-debut due to the original debut plans being delayed after a member got injured, so be sure to look for them next year, as they will likely be near the top. Also, if you want to quickly look through all the different awards this year, be sure to check out the hub article to quickly and easily see which awards we’ve given out, and which ones are coming in the near future.
7. Woo!ah! (Scores: 5,5,7 | Average: 5.7)
Woo!ah! has some good minds behind them, and are a group that I think has potential for growth if well managed. They are a very young group, and have a set of decently mature sounding vocalists, so there is some growth potential that if fostered can be fairly impressive. That said, their music is not quite there for most of us, although Bad Girl is sitting on my playlist, is does have moments that sound far too childlike for me, and hurts the song overall as a whole, a group can act it’s younger age without sounding like they’re singing nursery rhymes, there’s a great example of that later in this list.
6. Cignature (Scores: 6,2,6 | Average: 4.7)
I was pretty high on Cignature at debut, Nun Nu Nan Na is a fun happy song, and has a strange energy about it that I can’t really explain, but as that song wore off for me I found myself pretty uninterested by it, and when Assa came out, it wasn’t to my taste at all. Hilariously, Chelsea felt the opposite, disliking Nun NuNan Na, but liked Assa from the off. Meanwhile, Celina just never really cared for Cignature from day one, which makes it funny that we somehow ended up with them in the same slot. I do like that they are experimenting, but I do fear that we won’t see them for long, which is a shame because many of these girls had already been in the fairly group Good Day.
5. Redsquare (Scores: 3,6,4 | Average: 4.3)
Speaking of former Good Day members, the ones that aren’t in Cignature, are in Redsquare, with the exception of one Good Day member who I’m guessing has decided to leave the industry. I have the same fear here that I do with Cignature, low sales leading to a disbandment, which may have already happened as they haven’t put any content out for more than half a year now. I still listen to Colorfull to this day, and it gives me these slight Girl’s Generation vibes for some reason, but in a really good way. They also have a really good stage energy, ChaeA in particular has been the most attention grabbing member, and also one of the only people to pull off the blond just in the front look, which I would typically say looks kinds silly.
4. Secret Number (Scores: 7,3,2 | Average: 4.0)
Our fourth place got a 4, very appropriate. Secret Number has been making waves, at least among the Western audience, getting a great amount of Youtube views already. They’ve also sold almost as well as Cignature, although they have potentially already seen a decline in sales, which is a worrying trend. The highlight for most fans of Secret Number, as far as I can tell, was their debut Who Dis? which has a great energy that is easy to fall into. That said, Got That Boom is also a fun dance song, and, speaking of Cignature, seems to have the same blocky stairs that Nun Nu Nan Na has, so potentially filmed at the same location.
3. Lunarsolar (Scores: 4,1,5 | Average: 3.3)
When you see who Lunarsolar lost the tiebreaker for second to, you’ll be surprised they were tied at all, but Lunarsolar is really great and deserves all the credit. Oh Ya Ya Ya is a fun and cute song, with a really catchy hook and dance to go with it, they even did a little collaboration with Oh My Girl’s Yooa to do a dance challenge for Tiktok, which was fun. The highlight of the song to me is the Boom Boom section which is really oddly dark in tonality, which makes it super interesting in the otherwise fun dance song, and it works fantastically. I’m really hoping we get more fun music from this group in the future, because they have done it really well to start.
2. Aespa (Scores: 2,7,1 | Average: 3.3)
SM’s new girl group is shaping up to be another great, which is good considering how long rumors of their debut had been swirling around for. This group was hyped up as having this virtual avatar counterparts, and to be honest, I was and am very dubious of this concept, which is why I am so happy that they seem to have left it on the backburner more or less immediately. Their debut song is strong and cool, but the whole group seems to have pretty light and bubbly personalities behind the scenes. It is early to tell but this group definitely has a lot of potential, and maybe the best company behind them, at least in terms of generating successful groups. I’ll add on a personal note that Karina has come out of nowhere to be one of my favorite idols this year, with great stage presence, and a talent for the all important thing for kpop idols, charades.
1. Weeekly (Scores: 1,4,3 | Average 2.7)
So when I mentioned groups doing age appropriate music without doing childlike nursery rhymes, the great example of that is Weeekly. Their brand of youthful fun music, and their choreographies that use a bunch of props in unique and interesting ways, even if I’m not always sold on them, reminds me a lot of Seventeen’s early years. Even the outfits give me a sort of early Seventeen vibe, and that’s a great sign, because Seventeen is battling with EXO now for the spot of second biggest kpop group in the entire world behind BTS. Weekly is more than deserving of the Manely for 2020 Female Rookie of the Year, but more than that, I’m really excited to see what Apink’s little sister group has in store for us in the future as they have already started carving out their own great niche, and are picking up impressive sales for a rookie girl group too. Congrats Weeekly, your name should change to daily because that’s how often I listen to your music.