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| K-pop girl group aespa / Courtesy of SM Entertainment |
By Dong Sun-hwa
K-pop girl group aespa has grabbed the No. 3 spot on Billboard's main albums chart with its second mini-album, "Girls," the U.S. magazine said Sunday (local time).
This is the second-highest rank among all K-pop girl groups, after BLACKPINK ranked second on the same chart with its 2020 release, "The Album."
This is the first time that aespa has made it into the chart's top 10. "Girls," which came out on July 8, earned 56,000 equivalent album units in the United States this week, Billboard added.
"Girls" also sold more than 1.42 million copies during the first week of its release ― the highest for any K-pop girl group ― according to album tracker Circle Chart.
Leading the nine-track album is the title track, "Girls," a dance song peppered with a powerful wobble bass and synth sound. Through their lyrics, aespa members and their digital avatars show how they have grown up after fighting against "Black Mamba," a great evil force. The album also offers the quartet's first English-language single, "Life's Too Short," which came out on June 24.
Aespa, consisting of Karina, Winter, Giselle and Ningning, is known as the first metaverse girl group. After debuting in 2021, it has put out a string of hits including "Black Mamba" (2021) and "Next Level" (2021).
