IU's Celebrity, BTS' 'Butter, and More: Genie Releases 'Song of the Year' List for 2021

On Dec. 15, Genie Music released its "Song of the Year" list for 2021, and tunes from IU, BTS, aespa and Heize are among the K-pop releases included.

The rankings of the 10 songs were determined by analyzing big data according to individual usage patterns. This list shows the songs, albums, artists and genres that were loved by Genie Music users throughout the year.

IU's 'Celebrity' Included in Genie's 'Song of the Year' List for 2021

Sitting at No. 2 on the list is IU's "Celebrity." This electronic pop-genre song is the pre-release track for the female idol's fifth full album "LILAC." IU wrote the lyrics and co-composed it with Chloe Latimer, Ryan S. Jhun and more.

IU Celebrity
(Photo : Facebook: IU) IU Celebrity

On the day of its release on Jan. 27, "Celebrity" immediately climbed up to the top spot of Korea's major real-time charts including Genie. It also attained a certified all-kill and later on a perfect all-kill.

ALSO READ: IU's 'Celebrity' Selected as 'Best Song' by Billboard Korea, 'LILAC' Chosen as the 'Best Album'

A certified all-kill is given to songs that rank first on MelOn's daily and 24Hits charts, Bugs' and Genie's real-time and daily charts, VIBE's daily chart and FLO's and iChart's real-time charts. Meanwhile, the perfect all-kill includes taking first place on iChart's weekly chart as well.

IU Celebrity
(Photo : Instagram: @dlwlrma) IU Celebrity

On Genie, IU's "Celebrity" recorded a total of 67 roof-hit. It is the most number of roof-hits among K-pop songs released this year. A roof-hit occurs when a song reaches the maximum score of streams and downloads on the platform.

Furthermore, "Celebrity" is the song with the most days at No. 1 on Genie in 2021, spending 34 days atop the chart.

BTS' 'Butter' Lands on Genie's 'Song of the Year' List for 2021

BTS' latest English hit "Butter" also made it to the list, grabbing third place. It is one of the only three English-language songs in the rankings.

READ MORE: BTS' 'Butter' Named as 'Song of the Year' by Consequence Magazine

BTS Butter
(Photo : Twitter: @bts_bighit)

On May 23, two days after its release, "Butter" attained a certified all-kill. It went on to score a perfect all-kill one day later.  The song also had a total of three roof-hits on Genie. Additionally, "Butter" has become the septet's eighth song to surpass 52 million streams on Genie.

Apart from being a song of the year, Genie Music also chose BTS' "Butter" as one of three ideal songs people can dance to.

aespa's 'Next Level' is the Only Girl Group Track on Genie's 'Song of the Year' List for 2021

Out of the 10 songs, only one of them was released by a girl group and that is aespa's "Next Level." It follows BTS' "Butter" at No. 4.

After its release on May 17, "Next Level" rose to the No. 1 spot of Genie as well as Bugs. And, in 40 days and 17 hours, it exceeded 1.1 million unique listeners, the first song by aespa to achieve the feat.

YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE: BTS and aespa's Music Releases Listed in NME's 'The 50 Best Songs of 2021' 

aespa Next Level
(Photo : Twitter: @aespa_official)

Besides that, aespa's "Next Level" entered the Top 5 list of longest-running girl group songs on Genie's real-time chart Top 5 in history. It spent 1,340 hours as of July 24.

Notably, "Next Level" is the first song by a girl group released in 2020-21 to spend 1,000 hours inside the Top 5 of Genie's real-time chart.

Here are the "Songs of the Year" (2021) on Genie:

  1. Lim Young Woong "My Starry Love"
  2. IU "Celebrity"
  3. BTS "Butter"
  4. aespa "Next Level"
  5. Justin Bieber "Peaches"
  6. IU "LILAC"
  7. Lee Mu Jin "Traffic Light"
  8. MSG Wannabe "Foolish Love"
  9. BTS "Permission to Dance"
  10. Heize "HAPPEN"

For more K-Pop news and updates, keep your tabs open here at KpopStarz.

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Written by Mhaliya Scott

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