[Chronicle] 1st half of "Only One" promotion

Since "Only One" promotion will end around the end of August, I think it'd be nice to summarize what BoA and SM have done and results of their efforts. ^^


SM sure has tried (moderately) hard this time. They gave BoA 1 hour comeback show. Having NAPPYTABS choreographing "Only One" must have cost a lot since they're famous? But maybe BoA's personal connection might help a bit? :P Having 2 versions of the MV is nice too. SM must have spent quite a bit on them although having BoA's brother directing them for free might compensate a bit for hiring Yoo AhIn? LOL

Having 2 versions of the physical CDs is nice too. The Limited Version is so huge, it'll draw eyes in music stores. The pictures this time are super nice too, compared to the weird flower headdress thing she did in "Hurricane Venus". >_<

Apart from the obvious performances on weekly music shows, some radio programs and sign events, SM also has buses carrying LED screen playing "Only One" running around Seoul. There's also a special site at NAVER giving fans an opportunity to win a chance to MEET&GREET with BoA. The deal with NAVER is also the reason "Only One" Drama Version was first premiered here along with other BTS vids instead of at Youtube like usual.

However the thing I'm most grateful of is how they decided to let dancing machine of each SM boy group collaborate with BoA during "Only One" couple dance. It's interesting how Yunho, Eunhyuk and Taemin gives off different feelings to the dance and it also makes waiting for each performance much more fun than, say, having BoA dance with the same back dancer every perf.

Things are bad with some of the hardcore fangirls of said idols though. They kept sending mean messages to BoA. >_< But this is nothing compared to what news articles in Korea did to BoA! Apparently they intentionally phrased their words to give BoA a bad image.

Before her comeback, BoA had an interview in which she expressed her worry about performing "Only One" live. Since the choreography is intense and there're parts where her dancers carry her rendering her unable to control her voice projection, so she can't sing live while dancing to this song because it's just impossible for humans and she's not a robot. She might have to divide perfs into lipsyncing ones showcasing the choreography and live ones showing her vocals. That's what she said. 

After her lipsync performances in the 4354 comeback show and inkigayo, news site, however, started publishing articles with headlines like "BoA said singing while dancing is impossible for human beings.", "BoA stated 'I'm not a robot! Just enjoy the performance!'", etc. The situation was so bad if you go to NAVER website and type in "BoA" as search keyword, the 3rd default keyword that comes up is "BoA lipsync". All SM artists comeback perfs are lipsynced anyway but it's news when it's BoA. Fans and every sensible person know this is nonsense. We know BoA can sing and she's got nothing left to prove already. Even singer Sung ShiKyung defended BoA in his radio show.

(hey! look closely and u'll see BoA Yunho and BoA Eunhyuk! No BoA Taemin! LOL)

Anyway, after that BoA performed live on music shows with full choreography! She killed it and haters could finally shut their mouths.

Let's talk about the result. 2 years ago, "Hurricane Venus" sold about 60K but now the Korean music market has shrunk even more. Hanteo Chart reports CD sales numbers from selected stores and Gaon Chart reports shipment sales. These 2 numbers are nowhere close to each other so I'm taking serious liberty in saying that I estimate "Only One" sold about 20K copies.

However, "Only One" has been doing very well on Digital Chart. On her first week, she's got more than 536k digital purchases(ranked in at No.1) and 267k more on the following week(ranked in at No.3). I suspect it could do even better than this if it had a CF tie in. Unfortunately, since "Only One" wasn't intended as the title song, they didnt have time to look for a matching merchandise after the switch, I guess? Instead, the former title song (?) "The Shadow" along with BoA herself were featured on Pantech's Vega Racer2 CF. (Look it up if you haven't already.)

The other songs out of the album are not that high up the chart though with "The Shadow" doing 2nd best and "Mayday Mayday" doing 3rd best in the digital chart. It's such a pity all the album songs are so good but not many are buying them because they don't even know of their existence! I find it very curious how Korean music industry's so stubborn in promoting only one song at a time. They should have known more people download individual songs instead of buying the whole physical album. What's the point in promoting the song people have already purchased? Wouldn't it make more sense for BoA to start singing different album songs in music shows? Maybe perform "Only One" 3 times and one other song only once in a week or something. People might go straight to download Square Wheel once they hear her sing it. :P

At least, BoA and her dancers must feel that "The Shadow" and "Not Over U" choreography is underused. Why don't they perform them more? Korea Music Association will kill them if they break the "must promote only title song on weekly music shows" rule? Or is there something I'm missing here? :P