One of YG’s more interesting artists today’s idol spotlight will be focused around the amazing brother and sister duo Akdong Musician or more famously known within the Korean music world as “AKMU”.
Known for their soft voices and use of great vocals and instrumentals the siblings would burst onto the scene winning the second season of SBS competition show K-pop Star choosing to sign with YG Entertainment with the other most notable participant of this season being runner-up Bang Ye-dam who would later debut as part of YG group Treasure.
They would then debut a month after on April 7th with their debut album “Play” and the lead song “Give Love” with the song being an instant hit and the music video currently sitting on over 84 million YouTube views. With the album placing second on the Billboard World Albums Chart. With the album being nominated for three separate 2014 Melon Music Awards, including Daesang for the Album of the year, Artist of the year and winning the Best Folk Award.
AKMU have since carried on in stride topping the major K-pop charts within hours of its release topping all nine of Korea’s charts with their song “Time and Fallen Leaves” released in the same year.
The duo would later be named in the Billboard top 10 albums in 2016 placing fourth with their album “Spring”, with the group releasing various singles in 2017 experimenting with a different style and genre with their song “Dinosaur”. Before the group would halt activities with member Chan-hyuk carrying out his military enlistment.
The group would comeback in 2019 with the album “Sailing” their third studio album which would feature the hit lead song “How can I love the heartbreak, you’re the one I love” an album inspired by Chan-hyuk’s experience in the naval military enlistment.
The group have gone from strength to strength collaborating with various artists in their second EP “Next Episode” where each of the seven songs would feature one of K-pop’s biggest stars such as female solo star IU, rapper and K-Hip-hop stars Zion.T and Beenzino.
Signing a new deal with YG entertainment last year until 2026 the future is only getting brighter for this brother/sister duo and are a perfect listen for any Korean music fan.
