I.O.I Earns Fourth Music Show Win for 10th-Anniversary Single Suddenly

I.O.I’s 10th-anniversary reunion single “Suddenly” added another milestone on Sunday, July 12, as the group took first place on SBS’s Inkigayo. The win marked the song’s fourth music show trophy, extending a comeback run that has turned the project from a commemorative release into one of the more closely watched K-pop stories of the summer.

According to the broadcast results, I.O.I was nominated for first place alongside aespa’s “LEMONADE” and RESCENE’s “LOVE ATTACK”. I.O.I finished at No. 1 with 5,343 points, giving the group another televised victory for a track built around the emotional pull of its reunion and the long memory fans still hold for the project group’s original era.

The result carries extra weight because I.O.I’s return has not been treated simply as a nostalgia event. Music show wins remain one of the clearest public measures of a K-pop release’s active momentum, combining broadcast exposure, fan participation, sales-related metrics, and digital performance depending on the program’s scoring system. A fourth trophy suggests that “Suddenly” has continued to draw organized support beyond the initial excitement of the anniversary announcement.

A Reunion That Is Still Competing

I.O.I originally became one of K-pop’s defining project groups, and any anniversary release from the members was expected to attract attention. What makes the current run notable is that the group is competing in a crowded field rather than operating in a separate commemorative lane. On Inkigayo, “Suddenly” was placed directly against current releases from aespa and RESCENE, two acts representing different points on today’s girl group spectrum.

That context makes the fourth win a useful snapshot of how reunion projects can function in the modern idol market. They rely on memory, but they also need current engagement. Fans who followed I.O.I years ago have had to mobilize in the same fast-moving environment as newer fandoms, where weekly stages, short-form clips, digital chart movement, and broadcast voting all shape the conversation around a song.

Choi Yoojung, one of the I.O.I members, delivered the acceptance speech during the winner announcement. Her presence also connected the trophy moment to the rest of the episode, where she appeared as a performer with her own stage for “Perfect Target”. That overlap gave the broadcast a layered feeling for longtime viewers: a group achievement for I.O.I, alongside individual activity from a member who has continued to build her post-project career.

A Packed Inkigayo Episode

The July 12 episode was not short on major names. The lineup included i-dle with “Gimme Dat Love”, TXT’s Yeonjun with “Ice Cream”, BABYMONSTER with “I LIKE IT”, RESCENE with “Pretty Girl”, MONSTA X’s Kihyun with “So Good”, and Hearts2Hearts with “Lemon Tang”. The show also featured AHOF, EVAN (Heeseung), Baek A Yeon, IDID, VAYONN, Keyveatz, USPEER, Jang Haneum, UDTT, Loveholic’s Jisun, Lee YeJi, and HAENA.

That range matters because music show episodes are often read as a weekly temperature check for the industry. Established groups, solo debuts, rookie names, and returning vocalists all share the same broadcast space. In that setting, I.O.I’s win did more than reward one song; it placed the group back into the middle of an active promotion cycle where attention is divided across many fandoms and many release strategies.

For newer viewers, the episode may have been a reminder of how fluid K-pop’s timelines can be. A group associated with an earlier generation can still generate immediate competitive results, while younger acts continue building their own records in the same hour of television. The moment also underlines why anniversary projects are increasingly important to agencies and artists: when handled well, they can reconnect older audiences without stepping away from the present-day promotional machine.

For I.O.I fans, the fourth win for “Suddenly” is likely to be remembered less as an isolated trophy and more as proof that the reunion has reached beyond sentiment. The anniversary framing opened the door, but sustained music show recognition shows that listeners and fans are still willing to show up for the group in measurable ways. As the promotion continues, the question is whether “Suddenly” can keep turning nostalgia into fresh momentum.