New HYBE group LE SSERAFIM sell over 300,000 copies of debut EP in a week
Rookie HYBE girl group LE SSERAFIM have set a new first-week sales record with their debut mini-album ‘Fearless’.
Today (May 9), Source Music announced that the six member group – comprising Kim Chae-won, Miyawaki Sakura, Huh Yun-jin, Kazuha, Kim Ga-ram and Hong Eun-chae – sold 307,450 copies of their debut record ‘Fearless’ in its first week.
LE SSERAFIM are now sixth girl group to ever surpass 300,000 album sales within a week of release, a feat previously achieved by acts such as BLACKPINK, Red Velvet and IZ*ONE. According to the agency, this also makes ‘Fearless’ the highest-selling debut release of by a South Korean girl group of all time.
‘Fearless’, which arrived last week, is led by the single of the same title. The mini-album also features four more songs, ‘The World Is My Oyster’, ‘Blue Flame’, ‘The Great Mermaid’ and ‘Sour Grapes’. In a three-star review of the record, NME’s Rhian Daly praised the project’s title track for “not taking the en vogue route of in-your-face girl crush bangers”.
Notably, LE SSERAFIM members Chae-won and Sakura had previously been bandmates in the temporary Korean-Japanese group IZ*ONE. In a recent interview, the former revealed that the pair had not been particularly close during their time in the group.
“There were a lot of members, plus we didn’t have a lot of time together. It was amazing the way I got to know [Sakura] better only after coming here,” Kim explained. “I never could have imagined I would be working with her again.”