Group WINNER Releases 'Empty' And Enters iTunes 'Top 100' In 7 Countries

YG Entertainment's rookie group WINNER is making almost as strong a debut as Big Bang.

The idol group's debut track "EMPTY," which was released on August 12 along with their album "2014 S/S," entered the "Top 100" on the iTunes Top Singles Chart in seven different countries.

WINNER was spotted at No. 11 in Thailand, No. 16 in Malaysia, No. 19 in Singapore, No. 29 in Taiwan, No. 30 in Hong Kong, No. 34 in the Philippines and No. 53 in Indonesia.

The five-member boy group has topped major music charts in Korea as well, ranking in the top 10 on Mnet, Bugs, Soribada, Genie and Olleh. All the hard work is paying off for the boys who contributed heavily in writing and producing all 10 tracks on the album.

YG Entertainment's Yang Hyun-suk recently explained the concept that he was going for when he created WINNER. It seems like the boys are successfully embodying what Yang had planned for them from the beginning.

"Rather than a hip hop group, I wanted to make a slightly more emotional and lyrical group like WINNER. Their debut song is hip hop, but I deem it a more lyrical song that the public would like," explained Yang, according to the website SBS.com.

The accompanying music videos for the group's hit tracks "Empty" and "Coloring" have been getting a lot of attention from fans because the members were cast in both music videos.

Director Seo Hyun Seung, who directed G-Dragon's "Coup D'etat" and TOP's "DOOM DADA" directed the music video for "Empty" while director Yong Yi created the concept for "Coloring," according to Yahoo Entertainment Singapore.

WINNER will be making their official debut performance during the "AIA REAL LIFE: NOW FESTIVAL 2014," which will take place on August 15.

Long before their debut, WINNER has continuously been compared to their senior YG group, Big Bang, but the K-pop stars are working hard to make a name for themselves.

"Rather than saying there's one thing that's a whole lot better than our seniors, I'd like to say that Big Bang is a group that has hip hop as its foundation, but it also tried all genres and a variety of styles.  It's hard to find something we can hastily say is different [from them]," explained leader Kang Seung Yoon.

Kang added, "More than anything, in order to do music that suits our name as WINNER, we think we will be able to become WINNER if we show our honest and unique music rather than particularly thinking about trying to do things differently from Bigbang's music."