2026's rookie K-pop race, part 1: 3 groups that defined the first half

The K-pop rookie race is entering a new phase as the second half of the year gets underway.

Several breakout acts have emerged, but the competition for the spotlight is only starting to heat up as a new wave of debut acts prepares to pull focus.

In the first of a two-part series, The Korea Herald highlights three rookie groups that emerged as the biggest success stories of the first half of 2026. Part two will turn to four more promising newcomers expected to shine in the second half.

Few rookies enter the K-pop scene with momentum comparable to Cortis.

After making one of K-pop’s biggest debuts of 2025 with “Color Outside the Lines,” the five-member boy group proved its success was no one-off with its second EP “Greengreen,” further cementing the artistic identity it established at its debut.

The album has spent seven consecutive weeks on the Billboard 200 as of July 1 — the longest run for a single album by a K-pop boy group that debuted within the past five years — while lead track “Redred” remained on Billboard’s global song charts for nine weeks.

The group’s debut EP has also had remarkable staying power, surpassing 600 million Spotify streams in just nine months and continuing to chart alongside its follow-up release.

The momentum shows few signs of slowing. Cortis is set to launch its first world tour in July, alongside appearances at Lollapalooza Chicago, the Rock in Japan Festival and the Formula 1 Singapore Grand Prix.

When Hearts2Hearts debuted in February 2025, the eight-member group declared Girls’ Generation as its role model and said it hoped to become “the future” of SM Entertainment.

Although its debut single “The Chase” sold more than 400,000 copies in its first week and earned the group multiple rookie awards, it was its release of “Rude!” in February 2026 that transformed the group’s trajectory.

The house-inspired single became Hearts2Hearts’ breakthrough hit, reaching the upper ranks of domestic music charts while topping Spotify Korea, Apple Music Korea and multiple QQ Music charts in China. Hearts2Hearts also made its Billboard debut with “Rude!” ranking No. 57 and No. 36 on the Billboard Global 200 and Billboard Global Excl. US charts. Its sharp group choreography and highly shareable short-form content also helped propel the group into the mainstream conversation, with the related TikTok videos surpassing hundreds of millions of views.

The momentum is continuing with its second EP, “Lemon Tang,” which recently became the group’s first half-million seller.

Perhaps no group has benefited more from the unpredictable nature of social media than Rescene this year.

Nearly two years after its release, the girl group’s 2024 single “Love Attack” unexpectedly surged back up Korean music charts after leader Woni’s YouTube channel became a viral sensation. Videos featuring the members’ unscripted humor, regional dialects and playful character skits introduced the group to a much wider audience, encouraging listeners to explore the rest of Rescene’s discography and turning “Love Attack” into one of K-pop’s biggest reverse-charting success stories in recent years.

The song has since climbed to No. 5 on Melon’s Top 100 chart, while Woni’s YouTube channel surpassed one million subscribers in just four months. The renewed popularity has also led to ambassador appointments for multiple Korean cities — including Woni, Zena and Liv’s hometowns of Geoje, Gyeongju and Suwon — highlighting how viral online personalities can increasingly translate into mainstream recognition.

Rescene is set to continue its momentum with a remake of Kara’s “Pretty Girl” on July 8.