Best K-pop song 2025
Executive summary
The question "Best K-pop song 2025" has no single factual answer; critics and fans landed on different contenders across year-end lists, with Billboard and other outlets highlighting Jennie’s breakout solo single among many standout tracks, while mass fan polls elevated BTS member Jimin’s “Who” to the top spot [1] [2] [3]. Any defensible choice must weigh critical acclaim, chart longevity, cultural impact and fan voting—each produces a different "best."
1. Critical frontrunner: Jennie’s “Like JENNIE” as a critics’ consensus pick
Multiple major outlets and year-round critics praised Jennie’s solo single for its crossover appeal and chart longevity, noting its unusual success on mainstream U.S. pop radio despite substantial Korean-language content and its long run on the Pop Airplay chart — evidence critics cite when naming it among 2025’s top songs [1] [2]. Billboard’s midyear and staff lists framed the track as emblematic of 2025’s confidence and sonic ambition, placing it firmly in the conversation for the year’s best [1] [2].
2. The critics’ field: many acclaimed songs, not one unanimous winner
Beyond Jennie, critics’ lists from Billboard, Hollywood Reporter, Dazed, NME and Paste populated their “best of” picks with a wide array of songs — from SHINee’s moving solo work to rookie breakthroughs and genre-bending releases from groups like NMIXX, MEOVV, CORTIS, and more — demonstrating that critical taste favored variety rather than a single dominant track [1] [4] [5] [6] [7]. Publications emphasized different values — craft, nostalgia, experimentation — which produced divergent but overlapping shortlists rather than consensus on one definitive song [5] [7].
3. Fan verdicts tell a different story: Jimin’s “Who” and mass voting
A large fan-driven poll compiled by Only Hits shows Jimin’s “Who” winning an overwhelming fan vote and dominating a community-driven top-40, illustrating that popular fan preference can crown a different “best” than curated critic lists and that fandom mobilization remains decisive in K-pop measures of success [3]. This divergence highlights the difference between industry/critical appraisal and grassroots popularity metrics.
4. How to judge "best": metrics, biases and industry influence
Any claim about the single “best” song must declare its metric—critical acclaim, commercial charts, cultural resonance, or fan votes—because major labels’ promotional power, playlist placement, and critics’ editorial tastes skew results in predictable directions; Billboard and Hollywood Reporter are critics’ barometers while Only Hits reflects fan mobilization, and outlets like Dazed foreground cultural and experimental highlights, showing implicit agendas toward prestige, readership tastes, or subcultural validation [1] [4] [5] [3]. Transparency about which yardstick is used is essential.
5. Conclusion — a defensible answer and the caveats
If “best” is defined by mainstream critical acclaim and crossover chart durability, Jennie’s single is a defensible pick, repeatedly cited by major critics and noted for its unusual radio longevity in 2025 [1] [2]; if “best” means largest unified fan endorsement, Jimin’s “Who” is the top choice based on the Only Hits voting landslide [3]. Because reputable publications reached different conclusions and fan polling favored another artist, the most accurate answer is conditional: Jennie as critics’ standout, Jimin as fans’ choice, and a broader field of critic-endorsed tracks (NMIXX, SHINee, CORTIS, MEOVV, etc.) forming the competitive cohort for 2025’s best song [1] [4] [6] [5].