Singer Sungri is experiencing a remarkable rise in the trot music market.
On October 13, the Asia Brand Research Institute announced that in the September 2026 K-Brand Index for trot artists, Sungri ranked third, following Lim Young-woong in first place and Lee Chan-won in second.
This survey analyzed over 1 billion online big data entries from the top 30 search terms on portal sites between September 1 and 30.
Sungri, who was ranked fourth in August, climbed one spot in just a month. During the same period, Park Ji-hyun dropped from third to fourth. Young-tak rose from seventh to fifth, while Park Seo-jin and Kim Yong-bin maintained their positions at sixth and seventh, respectively.
Sungri achieved his victory in the MBN trot competition program 'Nameless Legend - The Ranking War of Trot Men' on May 13, scoring 4,784 points out of a possible 5,000, surpassing second-place Ha Ru (3,542.3 points) and third-place Jang Han-byeol (3,513.82 points).
This achievement came 14 years after he began his singing career in 2012. After a long period of being relatively unknown, Sungri has been expanding his opportunities to showcase his name and music since winning 'Nameless Legend.'
The song 'Tonight' that he performed on the competition program has also seen success on music broadcasts. In August, Sungri secured his first music show win on MBC ON's 'Trot Champion' with 'Tonight.' He continued his winning streak by topping the charts again in September and achieving first place in the October monthly champion competition aired on October 8.
With this, Sungri has been crowned monthly champion for three consecutive months, earning a spot in the program's Hall of Fame. 'Trot Champion' inducts songs that have achieved three cumulative first-place rankings in the monthly charts into its Hall of Fame.
Ryu Won-seon, head of the research center at the Asia Brand Research Institute, analyzed that the results reflect the influence of artists' activity ranges, fan engagement, and content consumption on online responses.
* This article has been translated by AI.
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