While WOODZ (Jo Seung-yeon) recently apologized regarding a controversy over unpaid staff recruitment, his self-composed track “Drowning” has proven his unshakable popularity by breaking an unprecedented record on the music charts.
“Drowning” has successfully stayed in the Top 10 of the Melon Top 100 chart for 70 consecutive weeks, setting the longest record in the chart’s history. This figure far exceeds the previous records held by NewJeans’ “Hype Boy” (49 weeks) and BTS’ “Dynamite” (36 weeks), demonstrating WOODZ’s incredible digital power.
Part of the 5th mini-album “OO-LI” released in April 2023, this song was written and composed by WOODZ, delicately and intensely capturing the complex emotions following a breakup. Initially praised as a “hidden gem” by listeners, it began a massive “reverse run” in October 2024. As a result, it proudly took 1st place on the 2025 annual charts released by Melon, Genie, and Circle Chart, and even topped SBS “Inkigayo” twice, continuing to hold a strong position at the top of the charts.
The hype isn’t just limited to the music. The live clip for “Drowning” released in 2023 has been in the YouTube Korea weekly popular music video chart for 81 consecutive weeks, continuing its record-breaking streak and ranking 3rd on the Top 100 chart as of the 14th. In particular, the performance video from the KBS2 “Immortal Songs” Armed Forces Day special, where he performed in military uniform, surpassed 30 million views late last month, showing explosive popularity.
Riding this momentum, WOODZ released his first full-length album “Archive. 1” in March and has been actively promoting. Starting with a show in Incheon, he is meeting global fans through a world tour of the same name, visiting major cities including Bangkok, Taipei, London, Paris, Sydney, and Mexico City.
However, during the tour, WOODZ became embroiled in a “passion pay” controversy after the local organizer for the German concert recruited unpaid staff despite requiring high qualifications, such as fluency in three languages. In response, his agency, EDAM Entertainment, issued an official apology on the 8th, stating, “We are sorry that we did not sufficiently review the local organizer’s operational plan in advance.”
