Singer Lim Jae Hyun Responds To Accusations Of Chart Manipulation After Song Tops Melon

May 22, 2019

Rookie singer Lim Jae Hyun addressed a controversy surrounding his song “If There Was Practice in Love.”

While the track was released in September of last year, it rose to the top of the realtime chart of Korea’s largest music site Melon at midnight KST on May 21. It has maintained that ranking every hour since then. It also ranks high on other major music charts, including Mnet and Genie.

The song didn’t receive a great amount of attention when it was first released in September, but some have attributed its sudden success to covers being posted on YouTube by Monday Kiz’s Lee Jin Sung and a YouTuber who calls himself Cerebral Palsy Creator. As of the time of this article’s publication, Lee Jin Sung’s video has 435,900 views and Cerebral Palsy Creator’s video has 2.36 million views. Some people have written to share that they found out about the song through the YouTube cover videos.

At the same time, others have questioned the song’s sudden rise and expressed their suspicions of chart manipulation. For many, this is due to the fact that an artist such as Lim Jae Hyun, who is so new that his name does not even come up on portal sites, could take No. 1 just through the power of “word of mouth” via social media. People have expressed their suspicions about the song rising to first place during the night when idol fandoms usually dominate, and then maintaining a higher rank than currently popular tracks by idol groups such as BTS, TWICE, and WINNER, as well as digitally strong artists including Park Hyo Shin, Davichi, and Jannabi.

On May 22, Lim Jae Hyun posted on Instagram to address the controversy and deny any chart manipulation.

His statement is as follows:

Hello, this is Lim Jae Hyun.

I’m so grateful that you have shown interest and love for my song ‘If There Was Practice in Love.’

I wonder if I’m someone who deserves this love… I’m just in a daze and grateful. I was born in 1997, and I’m a student in my second year at the Seoul Institute of the Arts, majoring in vocals. For your reference, I’m currently not registered on Naver. The other singer Lim Jae Hyun who appears on Naver is not me.

I do not feel prideful or conceited at all about the love I’m receiving now. I’m grateful to everyone who has told me off or given me advice in terms of what I lack when it comes to music.

The recent controversy about my song is clearly false. My family, myself, and the people who love me are being severely hurt mentally by the spreading of rumors, thoughtless slander, defamation of character, and malicious comments. Since this can clearly become a criminal act, I earnestly ask you to stop these malicious actions.

I did not do anything at all that would betray the trust in me held by the people who like my music and who trust and support me. There is a lot that I want to say, and a lot that is unfair, but I’ll stop here and work hard so that I can present you with even better music.

I express my gratitude to the people who love me. I won’t forget my original intentions and will work tirelessly. Thank you.

https://www.instagram.com/p/Bxve_K-lNzd/

Listen to Lim Jae Hyun’s song below: