HANRORO — “Landing in Love” · Official artist video thumbnail
Last verified: September 25, 2026 · Circle Chart midyear results and 2026 resurgence cases reviewed.
The most-streamed song in South Korea during the first half of 2026 was not a new 2026 release.
HANRORO’s “Landing in Love” was released in August 2023. Three years later, it ranked No. 1 on both the first-half digital and streaming charts reported by the organization behind Circle Chart.
Korean music fans have a useful word for this kind of late climb: 역주행, yeokjuhaeng.
In traffic, the word literally refers to moving against the proper direction. In music, it describes a song moving against the usual chart life cycle — rising long after its original release rather than peaking immediately and fading.
Yeokjuhaeng is not simply “an old song is popular”
An older song can return for many reasons.
A label can release a remaster. A singer can record a new version. A drama can introduce a remake to a new audience. Those do not necessarily describe the original recording itself climbing again.
The classic yeokjuhaeng pattern is different.
The existing recording is rediscovered, listening grows, and the track climbs charts later than the normal promotional window.
Yeokjuhaeng: a delayed chart resurgence in which an existing song becomes substantially more popular after its original release period.
English phrases such as “sleeper hit,” “chart resurgence” or “revival” come close, but none maps perfectly to every Korean use of 역주행.
HANRORO shows the slower version of a reverse run
Some famous Korean reverse runs look dramatic in hindsight.
One viral video appears, people rush to a song, and a track that had almost disappeared suddenly shoots upward.
HANRORO’s rise has been less dependent on one single moment.
“Landing in Love” spread through word of mouth, live performances and growing interest in HANRORO’s catalog. By late 2025 it was already holding strong positions on weekly digital and streaming charts, before becoming the most-streamed Korean song in the first half of 2026.
The resurgence did not stop with one song.
Listeners who discovered “Landing in Love” began moving into older HANRORO tracks as well.
“Ipchun” shows how a cover can push an older original
HANRORO released “Ipchun” in 2022.
In 2026 the song gained new momentum, and one particularly visible trigger came from singer Jung Seung-hwan.
On May 26, he performed the song for Young K’s YouTube project Project PRANK 2.
The original HANRORO recording had entered Melon’s daily chart at No. 95 on May 23. After the cover drew attention, it climbed from No. 94 on May 27 to No. 48 by June 6.
The cover did not replace the original.
It sent listeners back to it.
The 2026 cover associated with a sharp new rise in the original song’s Melon ranking.
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Season can give an older track another opening
“Ipchun” also has an advantage that has nothing to do with a comeback schedule.
Ipchun is the Korean seasonal marker associated with the beginning of spring.
That makes the song easier to rediscover when Korean listeners reach the same seasonal moment again.
Melon’s own data analysis found a large year-on-year rise in listening around the 2026 Ipchun period. Further television and online exposure then added another layer of discovery.
This is a useful reminder that a reverse run does not always begin with one explosive viral clip.
A song can accumulate several chances to return: season, live performance, television, cover videos and recommendations can arrive at different times.
Short-form exposure matters only if listeners continue to the song
Shorts, Reels and recommendation systems make it easier for an old track to appear in front of people who were not listening when it was released.
That is exposure, not automatically a chart resurgence.
For yeokjuhaeng to show up in music-chart data, people still have to move from the clip to the song and keep listening.
The distinction matters.
A 15-second sound can become a meme without producing months of full-track streaming. A cover can become popular because of the covering singer without materially changing the original.
In the HANRORO cases, the useful evidence is that attention was followed by measurable movement in the original recordings.
That is closer to the Korean idea of 역주행.
EXID and Brave Girls remain the classic reference points
Two older cases still appear constantly when Koreans explain the term.
EXID’s “Up & Down” was transformed by a fancam that spread months after the song’s original release.
Brave Girls’ “Rollin’,” released in 2017, surged years later after military-performance footage was rediscovered online in 2021.
Those cases made the mechanism easy to see:
old song → rediscovered video → new listeners → chart climb → renewed media exposure.
The 2026 HANRORO case is useful because the path looks more distributed.
Word of mouth, live performance, covers, seasonal relevance, broadcast exposure and online recommendation can reinforce each other over a longer period.
A reverse run can revive an artist’s catalog, not just one track
This may be the most useful difference between a short viral moment and a durable yeokjuhaeng.
When listeners like one rediscovered song enough to search the artist, older tracks begin receiving attention too.
HANRORO’s 2026 visibility did exactly that.
“Landing in Love” became the huge current signal, but “Ipchun” and “0+0” also gained new chart attention.
The listener is no longer responding only to one clip. The listener has started exploring the artist.
That makes the resurgence harder to explain as a single algorithmic accident.
Check the release year when a Korean song suddenly appears
A high chart position does not tell you whether the song is new.
That is why the release date is one of the quickest clues when following Korean music.
If a track was released years ago and is suddenly climbing Korean charts, search the Korean word 역주행 alongside the title.
You may find a current cover, fancam, television appearance, seasonal return or fan-community moment that explains why the song has been rediscovered now.
HANRORO’s first-half No. 1 is a particularly clear 2026 example: the recording did not need to be reissued to become one of Korea’s biggest songs years after release.
Two Korea Desserts
Official Netflix K-Content video with English subtitles, previewing Korean series, films and entertainment coming in 2026.
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