ITZY named top-selling rookie by Japan's Oricon

ITZY [JYP ENTERTAINMENT]

Girl group ITZY was named the top-selling rookie of the first half of the year by Japan's Oricon, according to JYP Entertainment Thursday.

According to Oricon, the girl group was the best-selling rookie artist in Japan’s music market from Dec. 17 to June 20. ITZY is only the second foreign artist to be named in the category.

“We’re very happy and grateful for all of the support,” ITZY said through the agency. “We’ll do our best to show better music and stages in the future.”

Oricon has released artists sales rankings annually since 2018, based on sales of digital and physical singles, albums, DVDs, Blu-ray discs and the number of streams.

ITZY’s debut in Japan through the compilation album “It’z ITZY” last December ranked No. 4 on the music operator’s weekly albums chart and its first Japanese single “Voltage” released in April helped the group gain popularity.

The group goes on its first world tour starting off with Seoul between Aug. 6 and 7, then moving on to visit eight cities in the United States — Los Angeles, Phoenix, Dallas, Houston, Atlanta, Chicago, Boston and New York. It also releases new EP “Checkmate” on July 15.

BY LEE JAE-LIM [lee.jaelim@joongang.co.kr]