Has your favorite k-pop artist won a glorious #1 award on a music show? This award might be handed out weekly, but for many artists and fans, it’s definitely a special moment. With the scope of k-pop becoming more prominent and broader, it has become even more challenging to achieve a #1 award on a music show.
Today, we’ll look at each year since 2011 and see which song earned the most #1’s from the three main music shows – KBS’ Music Bank, MBC Show!’s Music Core, and SBS’ Inkigayo. Though there are other music shows such as THE SHOW, Show! Champion and M! Countdown, Korea has traditionally counted the three shows from KBS, MBC, and SBS to count as the “mainstream” music shows.
So let’s see which song took the most love and got the most #1’s combined!
2011: Girls’ Generation – The Boys (14 wins)
2012: PSY – Gangnam Style (22 wins)
2013: EXO – Growl (8 wins)
2014: A PINK – LUV (14 wins)
2015: Girls’ Generation – Lion Heart (9 wins)
2016: TWICE – TT (9 wins)
2017: TWICE – Signal (8 wins)
2018: BTS – Fake Love (9 wins)
2019: BTS – Boy with Luv (19 wins)
2020: BTS – Dynamite (29 wins)
2021: BTS Butter (10 wins)
2022: IVE After LIKE (9 wins)
It looks like BTS, TWICE, and Girls’ Generation have topped the lists with popular songs throughout the past decade! And a huge congrats to IVE for getting the most amount of wins on these three shows in 2022 despite being a rookie! We’re excited to see who will top the 2023 list, but you can already tell the song by each year gets you in the memories and vibes.
What are your thoughts on this list? Do you have a favorite song from the list? Also — do you think that they should count THE SHOW, Show Champion, and M! Countdown wins as well? Make sure to let us know in the comments below!
