Beyoncé’s album RENAISSANCE debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 chart for the week of August 13. And while the news wasn’t surprising, it was nonetheless noteworthy for being the first album by a woman to top the chart in seven months, the most recent before hers being Adele’s 30 during the week of January 8. It was the longest wait since Lady Gaga’s album Joanne took number one in 2016 and 31 weeks passed before Halsey’s Hopeless Fountain Kingdom did the same.

It might be seen as merely a question of timing: The Encanto soundtrack held the top spot on the chart for nine weeks this year, and there weren’t many contenders for number one from female artists in the meanwhile. Lizzo’s album Special was also pushed out by the year’s biggest smash hit, Bad Bunny’s Un Verano Sin Ti, which sat at number one for a long time. But according to Billboard’s own analysis, the situation looks roughly the same even going back over the past five years, during which time 105 different artists claimed the top spot on the 200 chart, only 17 of whom were individual or groups of women. It was refreshing, then, when Beyoncé, Lizzo and Nicki Minaj all passed the Hot 100 baton between one another in August. While Minaj has had three number ones, “Super Freaky Girl” was the first time she achieved the feat as the main artist, although “Anaconda” went to number two in 2014. Incredibly, it was the first time in 24 years that a song by a solo female rapper debuted at number one on the Hot 100 chart, the last time having been when Lauryn Hill did back in 1998.

Okay, so how are female K-pop artists performing on the Billboard charts, then? Let’s take a look at BLACKPINK’s “Pink Venom” first. As of the week of September 10, the song had topped both the Global 200 and Global Excl. US charts for two consecutive weeks; the two global charts combine streaming and sales figures from around 200 regions across the globe. The track represents the first time a Korean song has captured the top slot of both global charts for at least two weeks. “Pink Venom” also debuted at number 22 on the Hot 100 for the week of September 3, falling slightly to 55 the following week. The song was even number one on Billboard’s Hot Trending Songs chart, which reflects the most talked-about songs on Twitter, one week before its release, thanks to all the buzz online, and was consequently on top of the chart for three weeks by September 10. Less than a month earlier, during the week of August 20, LISA’s songs “LALISA” and “MONEY” were at number one and two on the chart, respectively, following a surge in interest after she was nominated for Best K-pop at the 2022 MTV Video Music Awards for “LALISA.” LISA was the first female artist to have a number one on the Hot Trending Songs chart since it launched last October, and the only other artist besides BTS to simultaneously occupy the top two positions.

TWICE reached number one on Billboard’s Artist 100 chart and third on the Billboard 200 for the week of September 10 with their 11th mini album, BETWEEN 1&2, and hit number six and number three on the latter with their releases last year. The group is only the fifth K-pop artist to reach number one on the Artist 100 chart, which draws data from the Hot 100, Billboard 200 and Social 50 to rank the popularity of performers; the others are BTS (who accomplished this 21 times), BLACKPINK, Stray Kids and SuperM (once each). Meanwhile, for the week of September 10, IVE’s song “After LIKE” and TWICE’s “Talk That Talk” ranked ninth and 10th on the Global Excl. US chart, respectively, marking the first time that three Korean groups have simultaneously appeared in the top 10 since the chart first began in September 2020. Now we have a better idea of how well women are doing on the charts. Perhaps we’ll see even more female K-pop artists on the Billboard charts in the near future.