아일릿 It's Me 컴백 정리 — 모카 39일 복귀부터 음악중심 1위까지

Even after wrapping up five weeks of official promotions, ILLIT still claimed the No.1 spot with 'It's Me' on MBC's 'Music Core' on June 6, 2026. It defied the usual assumption that the charts cool down once promotions end. This piece is a chronological record of ILLIT's five-week comeback, from MOKA's return to a music-show No.1.

Promotions Over, Yet No.1 Again — The June 6 Music Core Win That Showed 'It's Me' Has Legs

For ILLIT, a group with 4.56 million subscribers, a music-show win usually arrives during the promotion window. The pattern is to peak on streaming, album, and social scores within two or three weeks of a comeback, and collect a trophy somewhere in between. 'It's Me' broke from that formula.

According to news reports, the five-week run of official 'It's Me' promotions wrapped up last month. Yet on June 6, after promotions had already ended, 'It's Me' — the title track from the fourth mini-album 'MAMIHLAPINATAPAI' — took the No.1 spot again on Music Core. Multiple outlets framed the moment with headlines like "No.1 again even though promotions are over" and "a long run that makes the wrap-up look beside the point." The next day, June 7, 'It's Me' was also named a No.1 candidate on SBS's 'Inkigayo.'

The table below sums up the core facts of the comeback covered in this piece.

The fact that the trophy came after promotions had ended amplified the meaning of this win. It signaled that the song's lifespan outlasted the promotion calendar.

What Kind of Comeback Was 'It's Me' — The April 30 Mini-Album and the Title Track

'It's Me' is ILLIT's second song to surpass 100 million cumulative streams, following 'Magnetic.' For readers hearing 'It's Me' for the first time, it helps to start with what kind of moment this comeback was.

ILLIT returned on April 30, 2026 with their fourth mini-album, 'MAMIHLAPINATAPAI.' The album title is known to describe a state in which two people both want something but neither speaks up first. The title track 'It's Me' centers on a narrator who is honest about her feelings and actively expresses affection. One new-release review blog interpreted it this way: where the debut single 'Magnetic' built a dreamy "magical girl" image, 'It's Me' portrays a protagonist who has woken from that spell.

Musically, the consensus was that it did not stay on a familiar path. A bouncy intro blended with techno textures, which split opinion, but the very choice to take a new direction generated buzz. The fact that reviews highlighting the song's hooks and lyric breakdowns went up in droves right after release also reflects the heat around this comeback.

MOKA's Five-Week Absence and Her Return After 39 Days — The Story Left by the Four-Member Promotion

The scene that set this comeback apart from others most of all was the empty spot left by one member. You can gauge its weight from the fact that the welcome short announcing MOKA's return surpassed 8.66 million views.

Member Moka halted activities due to a health issue just before the comeback. As a result, ILLIT ran the 'It's Me' comeback promotions for about five weeks as a four-member lineup of Yunah, Minju, Wonhee, and Iroha, without Moka. In an official statement on May 29, the agency BELIFT LAB said Moka had been focusing on recovery while balancing treatment and rest, and was resuming activities within a manageable range.

Moka's return stage was KBS2's 'Music Bank,' the final music show of the 'It's Me' run. It was a return 39 days after she paused activities. One outlet described this return — joining in the final week of music-show promotions — as a scene of closing out the run together. Concerns about her health resurfaced when Moka was seen in tears on her return stage. Member Yunah shared her reflections on the five weeks of activity through the fan-communication platform Weverse.

The arc of starting with an empty spot and reuniting all five on the final stage became the emotional backdrop for fans holding onto the song even after promotions ended.

Tracing It Back — A Timeline From 'R U Next?' to Magnetic on Billboard

The post-promotion No.1 was not a result that came out of nowhere. Retracing the momentum built up since debut shows what 'It's Me''s long run is leaning on.

ILLIT was formed through JTBC's 2023 audition program 'R U Next?' and made its formal debut the following year, in March 2024, with the mini-album 'SUPER REAL ME.' The debut single 'Magnetic' entered domestic and overseas music charts as well as the Billboard Hot 100, racked up more than 100 million streams, and sparked a rookie-girl-group sensation. In Japan, too, it surpassed 100 million cumulative streams on Oricon's weekly streaming chart.

'It's Me' carried that momentum forward. According to one Japanese chart report, 'It's Me' reached No.6 on Billboard Japan's 'Streaming Songs,' No.8 on the 'Hot 100,' and the top 10 on Oricon's weekly chart, becoming ILLIT's second song to top 100 million streams after 'Magnetic.' The table below places the two songs' Japanese chart results side by side.

Building a global foothold with the debut single and stepping back onto that foothold with the new song is the foundation of 'It's Me''s long run.

How the 'It's_Me' Challenge Lifted the Comeback — The Way Shorts Expanded Reach

The way the channel is run also played a part in keeping the song in conversation even after promotions ended. ILLIT's recent channel content reveals the mechanism.

ILLIT's shorts are not simple clips spliced from music videos. They are independently produced short-form pieces in the form of cross-promotional 'It's_Me' challenges featuring other artists — Lee Young-ji, LE SSERAFIM, KATSEYE, BABYMONSTER, ENHYPEN, and more. This analysis takes that as its premise. The most-viewed short is the 'It's_Me' challenge featuring Lee Young-ji, which surpassed 15 million views.

Per Dhesy data, the channel uploaded 173 shorts and 27 longform videos over the past 90 days. The average view count for shorts is about 2.52 million, close to 2.5 times the longform average of roughly 1.02 million. That means the weight of the reach that drove the comeback's buzz leaned heavily toward short-form.

The table below lays out reach by format over the same period in numbers. The category average includes, for reference, the baseline from music and trends-analysis pieces published on Dhesy.

The short announcing MOKA's return was the same format. Titled 'It's #MOKA,' the return-welcome short spread the story fast.

Even after the promotion period ends, challenge shorts keep getting played and shared. Unlike music shows bound by a calendar, short-form served as an engine that generates reach even beyond the finish line of promotions.

The Plagiarism Dispute That Still Trails Along — Just the Facts

Behind the word "long run" sits a controversy that has trailed the group since right after debut. Reserving judgment, this section lays out only the facts.

ILLIT faced allegations of plagiarizing NewJeans from the moment it debuted. The dispute spread in tandem with the April 2024 flare-up of conflict between HYBE and former ADOR CEO Min Hee-jin. A related damages lawsuit has gone back to court and is an ongoing matter. Separately, there was a ruling report that HYBE won in part against a cyber-wrecker operator that had posted some 30 false videos over roughly six months under titles such as "ILLIT controversy." The court was reported to have pointed out that the videos were posted without verifying the facts.

There were also views questioning whether Moka's return was a reckless decision made before her health had recovered enough. The achievement of a No.1 after promotions ended, and the concerns sitting alongside it, are two facets of the same comeback.

Promotions Are Over, but the Charts Aren't — The Next Phase of the Long Run

The promotion calendar has closed, but the charts have not. 'It's Me' is a song that remained in the top 10 on Billboard Japan and Oricon and surpassed 100 million cumulative streams.

'It's Me' added a music-show No.1 even after promotions ended and set a second 100-million-stream record. The song's lifespan, in effect, outlasted the promotion period. The channel's reach pattern points in the same direction. As long as challenge shorts keep getting played beyond the finish line of promotions, global momentum may well continue until the next comeback.

A group that keeps drawing music-show trophies and Japanese chart results even after promotions have ended — that is exactly why it's worth watching while we wait for the next round of activity.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Q. What has the public reaction to ILLIT's 'It's Me' been like?

Right after release, plenty of reviews highlighting the song's hooks and lyric breakdowns went up. Some assessments noted that opting for techno textures over a familiar path split opinion, but the No.1 on Music Core on June 6 and the No.1 candidacy on Inkigayo on June 7 — both after promotions ended — show the song's staying power.

Q. What are the titles of ILLIT's songs?

Signature tracks include the debut single 'Magnetic,' the fourth mini-album's title track 'It's Me,' and 'NOT CUTE ANYMORE' and 'Lucky Girl Syndrome,' among others. The fourth mini-album is titled 'MAMIHLAPINATAPAI.'

Q. Why did ILLIT's MOKA pause activities and then return?

Moka halted activities due to a health issue just before the 'It's Me' comeback, and promotions ran for about five weeks with the remaining four members. In a May 29 statement, the agency BELIFT LAB said she was resuming activities within a manageable range after treatment and rest, and she returned to the stage on KBS's 'Music Bank' 39 days after pausing.

Q. Who are the members of ILLIT?

ILLIT is a girl group made up of five members: Yunah, Minju, Moka, Wonhee, and Iroha. It was formed through JTBC's 2023 audition program 'R U Next?' and debuted in March 2024 with 'SUPER REAL ME.'

Q. What kind of videos does the ILLIT channel mostly post?

Per Dhesy data, the channel uploaded 173 shorts and 27 longform videos over the past 90 days, with shorts averaging more views (about 2.52 million) than longform (about 1.02 million). Most of the shorts are independently produced short-form pieces in the 'It's_Me' challenge format featuring other artists.

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Analysis methodology: Based on data from 5,549 brands and 9,521 creator channels on the Dhesy platform. Channel reach statistics are based on Dhesy-collected data for the ILLIT channel over the past 90 days (2026-03-09–2026-06-07), and are figures limited to the collection scope. External facts such as chart results and the return schedule are cited from Naver news coverage. Analysis date: 2026-06-08 (KST).

Data source: Dhesy External source: Naver entertainment news (ILLIT music-show No.1, Japanese charts, MOKA return coverage) Last updated: 2026-06-08