No K-pop group had a better, busier year than ITZY. Within the first week of 2022 the quintet issued a hard-hitting hype song for the popular Street Dance Girls Fighter. By March, the group made their Japanese debut with "Voltage", an immediately-accessible, powerful dance cut sung entirely in that language. In the spring, the group held their first fan meeting, the very first chance for MIDZY everywhere to finally see live performances of the songs Yeji, Lia, Ryujin, Chaeryeong, and Yuna had released while opressed by COVID.

 

Summer found K-pop's best dance team continuing to assert their dominance with CHECKMATE, lead by the title track "SNEAKERS", a summer smash singalong as energetic as it is fun. This fifth mini-album is perhaps their most unique to date, fulfilling the minimalistic production and a hip-hop, quirky sound the group only started to hint at in 2021.

 

Not content with just South Korea and Japan, ITZY took aim at the West with their first English single in October with the absolutely remarkable, Halloween-themed "Boys Like You"; the group also doubled down in Japan with the excellent Blah Blah Blah single album that same month. With more than few local concerts in Seoul under their belts, ITZY finally brought their music to life in the United States with a coast-to-coast tour.

 

While most groups would conclude such a busy year preparing for special year-end stages, the JYPE team flipped the script and delivered one final release in 2022, their sixth mini album, CHESHIRE, and used what is frequently a victory lap -- the 2022 MAMA Awards -- to debut yet another brand new title track, itself one of the group's most fascinating and unique songs to date.

 

In what is undoubtedly the best year of K-pop in it's multi-decade history, it is absolutely fitting that the group that ends each of their music videos wearing choreographed crowns sits alone on the throne:

 

ITZY is the best K-pop group of 2022.