Recently, Gallup Korea announced the results of the survey categories on the Korean entertainment industry conducted in July, September and November 2025. The survey surveyed 5,148 people nationwide (excluding Jeju Island), focusing on age-based music preferences.
In the "Most Outstanding Singer of the Year" category among surveyors aged 13-39, IU led with 20.1%, followed by Blackpink, aespa and IVE. Girl group NewJeans ranked 5th with 12% of the votes.
Previously, NewJeans had occupied the No. 1 position in the same category for 2 consecutive years (2023-2024). This year, despite being dropped to 5th place, this is still an astonishing result, as the girl group is almost inactive throughout 2025, due to a contract dispute with management company ADOR (under HYBE Group).
NewJeans held a unilateral press conference to announce the termination of their contract with ADOR in November 2024, after producer Min Hee Jin was dismissed from the position of CEO of ADOR and the conditions set by NewJeans were not met.
In response, ADOR filed a lawsuit against NewJeans, requesting confirmation of the validity of the exclusive contract.
During this time, NewJeans created new social media accounts ( Instagram, YouTube, X, Tiktok...) under the name NJZ.
However, in March 2025, the court approved ADOR's request for a temporary ban on NewJeans, making it impossible for the group to participate in commercial activities under the NJZ name without ADOR's consent. Therefore, 5 NewJeans members have announced a temporary hiatus.
After many unsuccessful hearings and mediations, in October 2025, the court declared ADOR a winner. The management contract between ADOR and NewJeans signed in April 2022 lasts until 2029, but is still valid.
All 5 members Haerin, Hyein, Minji, Danielle and Hanni have expressed their intention to return to ADOR after losing the lawsuit. But this company only accepted Haerin and Hyein's wishes, the remaining 3 members are still in the process of discussing. NewJeans' full comeback with the hinh team is uncertain.
Meanwhile, although NewJeans did not release a new song in 2025, did not appear at any event, or have a move on social media, the group's 2 songs "How Sweet" and "Hype Boy" still received more than 1.5% of the votes in the "Song of the Year" survey category.
This shows that NewJeans' old hits continue to be loved despite the group being involved in a lawsuit scandal.
According to the media, NewJeans's entry into the Top 5 of the Most Outstanding Singer survey in 2025 proves the lasting influence of NewJeans music and strong attachment from fandom (fan community).
Recently, Spotify announced that NewJeans' song "Super Shy" has surpassed 800 million streams on the platform. This is the group's 3rd song to reach this milestone, after "OMG" and "Ditto".
Currently, NewJeans has 15 songs that have reached more than 100 million streams. The total number of streams for all of the group's songs combined has exceeded 7 billion streams.
