Back in August, one of SM Entertainment’s K-pop idol girl groups, f(x), went through a bit of a rough patch. According to reports by Korean news outlets, one of the group’s members, Sulli , officially withdrew from them to concentrate on her acting career . To many in the K-pop community, it came off as a surprise. However, for those who follow f(x) diligently, Sulli leaving was kind of expected. During her hiatus from the Korean entertainment industry back in 2014, Sulli was seen out and about with Choiza (of Dynamic Duo). This irked many in the K-pop industry because her being on hiatus caused f(x) to cease promotions for their album at the time, Red Light . Ergo, Sulli received a lot of negativity among the K-pop community, which in turn was a contributing factor on her leaving f(x).
With Sulli’s withdrawal, f(x) was now in the same situation Girls’ Generation and EXO were when they lost Jessica Jung and Kris Wu respectively. Their next comeback album would truly test if they could function with the remaining four members, Victoria, Amber, Luna, and Krystal. Apparently, they can because their song “4 Walls” is doing so well, it won the first place trophy on a recent airing of M! Countdown . What should be noted is said trophy is actually their fifth first place trophy, proving f(x) is doing a-okay without Sulli.
f(x) won their fifth first place trophy on the Thursday, November 19, 2015, episode of M! Countdown , as reported by Soompi . Prior to winning this first place trophy, they won four other times, too. Their first place trophy win was also on M! Countdown on November 5, 2015. They would follow up with a first place trophy win on the Korean Broadcasting System (KBS) music competition show Music Bank . Afterwards, they would win a first place trophy on Seoul Broadcasting System (SBS) and MTV music competition show The Show followed with another win on Music Bank . Altogether, f(x) accumulated a total of five first place trophies just for “4 Walls,” an accomplishment given the fact that promotions for the song (which is the title track of the album) have already ended.
Krystal Jung (known simply as Krystal), the Maknae (youngest member) of f(x), accepted the first place trophy for the group in a video message. She provided the following statement for fans, expressing gratitude and appreciation for their love and support pertaining to the song “4 Walls.”
“Two weeks ago when we got first place, we cried a lot. Thank you for giving us first place again. We’ll repay you with better performances in the future. Thank you!”
Now to be fair, this recent first place trophy win for f(x) would have been their sixth one if it weren’t for M! Countdown taking a break last week for internal reorganization. Still, five first place trophies is an accomplishment.
On a side note pertaining to the November 19, 2015 episode of M! Countdown , they did not show any new performances for this week. Instead, they showed performance clips of K-pop artists nominated for awards at the upcoming 2015 Mnet Asian Music Awards , also known as the 2015 MAMA Awards. Also, M! Countdown revealed the top ten for this week too. TWICE was in second place, Brown Eyed Girls was in third, VIXX was in fourth, iKON was in fifth, Joo was in sixth, December was in seventh, 10cm was in eighth, Homme was in ninth, and finally, Oh My Girl was in 10th.
f(x)’s latest album 4 Walls was released on October 27, 2015. It was pivotal in f(x)’s career because it would be the first album the K-pop idol group performed as a quartet. Its title track “4 Walls” is so far their most popular track on the album.
[Photo by Chung Sung-Jun/Getty Images]