For the first time this year, the three most streamed songs on Circle Chart’s Global K-pop chart for the first week of March (March 3 – March 9) were songs all released in 2024.

LE SSERAFIM’s latest title track “EASY,” released on Feb. 19, kept its first place position in the chart for three consecutive weeks, while BIBI’s “Bam Yang Gang,” released on Feb. 13, also remained in second place.

The chart this week also saw LE SSERAFIM’s B-side track “Smart” rise to No. 3, a step higher from the previous chart.

LE SSERAFIM’s third EP “EASY” is an album where the girl group “frankly talks about the worries and uneasiness that lie behind the confident side of LE SSERAFIM,” in the words of its leader, Chaewon.

The album includes five songs: “Good Bones,” “Swan Song,” “Smart,” “We got so much” and the title track, which blends R&B with trap, while the dance is rooted in old-school hip-hop — all of which are somewhat distant from the group's previous releases.

BIBI’s “Bam Yang Gang” saw surprisingly good scores in Korea, topping Melon’s daily, weekly and Top 100 real-time charts and earning PAK status as of Feb. 26, making it the singer’s first song to reach such status. PAK, which stands for “perfect all-kill,” is awarded to songs that have topped Korea’s major daily and real-time streaming charts, which include Melon’s Daily and Top 100, Genie’s Top 100 (Daily) and Top 100 (Realtime) and more. “Bam Yang Gang” was produced by singer-songwriter Chang Ki-ha.

Jung Kook’s “Standing Next to You” (2023), which topped the chart for many months, came in fourth place, followed by rookie boy band TWS’s debut song “plot twist” in fifth place.

The weekly chart also saw three songs released last year holding fast among the top 10. LE SSERAFIM’s English single “Perfect Night,” released in collaboration with Blizzard Entertainment’s online multiplayer shooter game Overwatch 2, clocked in sixth place, while Jung Kook’s explicit version of “Seven (feat. Latto)” landed seventh, followed by aespa’s “Drama” (2023) in eighth.

IU’s prereleased single “Love wins all”, released this year, came ninth, two steps higher than the previous week and Jimin’s “Like Crazy”, released last year, landed back on No. 10, three steps higher than the week before.

BY CHO YONG-JUN [cho.yongjun1@joongang.co.kr]