The January 5th, 2024 episode of the long-running South Korean music program Music Bank aired earlier in the day on Korean TV with, as always, a slew of some of the best performers giving audiences their money’s worth, as well as a couple of artists vying for the best-performing single trophy.
On Friday night, those performers were ONE PACT, TVXQ, THE BOYZ’s Sunwoo and Eric, Geenius, Kim Jonghyeon, KyoungSeo, Jeong Sewoon, 8TURN, NTX, BXB, YEAHSHINE, RIIZE and 2Z.
But only one act could hit the #1 spot on the chart, and go on to be the first act of 2024 to be given the first-place trophy for their single.
That first place was between NCT 127 ‘Be There for Me‘ and EXO’s ‘First Snow‘, with NCT 127 ultimately being awarded the #1 spot.
It is the first music show trophy the sub-unit of the Korean boy band NCT has won so, as you can imagine, the boys were thrilled and thus had a “thank you” post up on Instagram just minutes after they won.
NCT 127’s ‘Be There for Me‘ won the first-place trophy on Music Bank with a total of 7,392 points versus EXO’s 3,573 points.
It is a single that shot to the #1 spot on the Circle Digital Chart in South Korea soon after release on December 22nd, 2023, and has been mentioned many times on social media since.
The song is also rapidly heading towards 3 million streams on Spotify, with almost 4 million plays earned for its official music video on YouTube.
Watch the official announcement of the NCT 127 versus EXO Music Bank win via one of the show’s presenters, actor Lee Chae Min (Crash Course in Romance), and special presenter singer and actor Kwon Eunbi below.
You can also listen to NCT 127’s ‘Be There for Me‘ on the song’s official music video, and via their Spotify account below.