Through their voting service, Ten Asia conducted a global vote in various categories, such as K-POP BOY BRAND, K-POP GIRL BRAND, and HOT GENRE BRAND, to wrap up 2023. This vote was based on 100% votes from global fans so the idols’ global popularity can be confirmed.
As a result, Secret Number achieved first place in the K-POP GIRL BRAND category. This multinational girl group released their 7th single album “STARLIGHT” in August last year. This song conveys the message that everyone dreams of beautiful things from somewhere far away, however, our surroundings are also full of beautiful things.
NewJeans took second place. According to reports, NewJeans’s second EP “Get Up” has sold 332,000 copies in the US and ranked fifth place in the Top CD Album Sales In the US. This is the highest rank for K-pop female artists and it was right only behind Taylor Swift’s “1989” in the rankings for female artists worldwide. In addition, NewJeans also became the first K-pop girl group to perform at BBMAs, one of the Top 3 music award ceremonies in the US, and even won Top Global K-pop Artist.
Who Are Secret Number?
SECRET NUMBER (시크릿넘버) is a six-member girl group under Vine Entertainment. Originally as five, they debuted on May 19, 2020 with the single “Who Dis?”.
They were originally set to debut on March 26, 2020, but it was postponed due to the worldwide outbreak of COVID-19.
History
2019: Pre-debut
On December 17, 2019, the agency posted a photo on their Instagram account, announcing that there is 100 days until the debut of their new girl group, meaning that they are set to debut on March 26, 2020. However, on March 12, 2020, it was announced that the debut was postponed in order to insure the health and safety of the members after the worldwide outbreak of the Coronavirus disease (COVID-19).
2020: Debut with “Who Dis?”, first comeback with “Got That Boom”
On April 28, 2020 the agency released a mysterious teaser image for something to which would come next, and on the 29th, they announced the group name to be “SECRET NUMBER” with another teaser image, the opening of group’s SNS and a dance cover of “Medicine” by Jennifer Lopez. On May 6, it was revealed in an article on Naver that the group will be making their official debut on May 19 with a single titled “Who Dis?”.
On May 19, the group officially debuted with their first single album “Who Dis?”. The album included, in addition to the title track of the same name, an additional titled “Holiday”.
On October 21, it was confirmed that the group would be making their first comeback on November 4 with a new single. On this day, the group released their second single album “Got That Boom” and its title track of the same name.
2021: Fandom name, “Fire Saturday”, and new members
On January 8, the group’s fandom name was revealed to be “LOCKEY” which means “people who become KEYs that open the locked appeal of SECRET NUMBER”.
On September 30, Vine Entertainment announced that Denise would not be participating in their upcoming album promotions and future activities due to contract issues.
On October 5, a teaser was released for the group’s upcoming third single album, which teases two additional members. It was later revealed that their third single album “Fire Saturday” will be released on October 27. The first new member, Zuu, was officially revealed on October 15. The second new member, Minji, was officially revealed on October 18.
2022: Denise’s departure, “Doomchita”, “Tap”
On February 5, Denise announced on her Instagram that her contract with Vine Entertainment had concluded on February 1 and she had left the company and group.
On May 9, Vine Entertainment posted a “Coming Soon” photo on SECRET NUMBER’s SNS accounts, announcing they will have a comeback on June 8th. The following Wednesday, a spoiler video was released, alluding that the comeback will be another single album. The name of the single album was revealed on May 24 to be, “Doomchita”.
On November 6, Vine Entertainment posted a spoiler video for their upcoming comeback. The name of the single album was revealed to be “Tap”, set to be released on November 16.
2023: Japanese debut, “Doxa”, “Starlight”
On February 21, the group announced their plans to make their Japanese debut with their first single, “Like It Like It”, which was released on April 5.
On May 9, Vine Entertainment posted a spoiler video for their upcoming comeback. The name of the single album was revealed to be “Doxa”, set to be released on May 24.
On August 16, the group announced their seventh single album titled, “Starlight”, set to release on August 24.
