CORTIS's 'REDRED' Named Top K-Pop Song of Summer 2026
TikTok crowned "REDRED" the No. 1 song of the summer in South Korea on Wednesday, and picked CORTIS as the face of its global "K-Pop Summer" campaign. The Big Hit Music quintet was also named Boyband of the Summer at the platform's Summer Honours 2026.
The rankings, released as part of TikTok's "Songs of the Summer, Vol. 2026" campaign, sorted music and video trends by country and by global theme. In South Korea, "REDRED" topped a 10-song list that also included M.Sasuke's "GG EZ," HALCALI's "Otsukare SUMMER" and SUPERBEE's "Shark In a Pool," alongside older catalog hits like iKON's "Love Scenario" that resurfaced through TikTok trends. Globally, TikTok paired CORTIS with two non-Korean acts to define the season: Katy Perry's 2011 single "The One That Got Away" for a "Nostalgia Revival" theme, and Zara Larsson's "Midnight Sun" for "Pop Girl Summer."
CORTIS responded to the honor through Big Hit Music: "We are deeply honored and pleased to be chosen as TikTok's Song of the Summer," the group said, adding that watching fans worldwide "discover our song and enjoy it in their own creative ways was also a special experience." They also thanked COER, the group's official fandom.
"REDRED" is the pre-release track from CORTIS's second EP, "GreenGreen," which came out in May and entered the Billboard 200 at No. 3 while topping South Korea's Circle Chart. The song has generated more than 200,000 user-made videos on TikTok since its April release, ranging from dance covers to the platform's signature "bottle challenge" clips.
TikTok's Tracy Gardner, the platform's global head of music business development, said the 2026 list shows "how our community embraces music in all its forms, from emerging artists finding a global audience to much-loved catalog tracks being discovered by a whole new generation for the first time." Elsewhere on the "Songs of the Summer, Vol. 2026" campaign, TikTok named pop singer Slayyyter its Emerging Artist of the Summer.
The recognition lands less than 13 months after CORTIS debuted in August 2025 as Big Hit Music's first new boy group since Tomorrow X Together. Formed around a "creator crew" concept that puts members directly in the songwriting and choreography process, the group is led by Martin, a Korean Canadian who became the first non-Korean-passport holder to front a HYBE-affiliated act. The other members are James, Juhoon, Seonghyeon and Keonho.
The TikTok honor arrives two days before CORTIS closes out its debut world tour, "Put Your Phone Down," with three nights at Pia Arena MM in Yokohama starting Friday - the same run that took the group through Incheon, Seoul and six North American theater dates earlier this year. Demand for the Yokohama shows has pushed resale prices well above the ¥14,000 face value, with the tour drawing an estimated 36,000 fans across its three-day close in Japan.
