2PM top-selling foreign artist in Thailand

Boy band 2PM sold the most albums amongst foreign artists in Thailand this year, according to a survey released on Friday.

According to statistics compiled by Thailand's International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) from January to September in 2009, 2PM sold more albums in Thailand than worldwide artists including Lady Gaga, Black Eyed Peas, Madonna and Mariah Carey to sell the most copies of their albums in the country.

The band, who in late June had released a "Thailand Special Edition" album containing their first two single albums "Hottest Time of the Day" and "2:00PM Time for Change" and a bonus DVD of their music video, was awarded Thailand Sony Music's platinum album award.

The special edition album also topped album sales charts of major Thai music charts including BS2, Gram and Mangpong as well as several tracks listed in the album entering the top ranks of TV and radio charts.

"Their song 'Again & Again' in particular was extremely popular, remaining atop several charts such as Thailand's MTV, Channel V, Shaker Screen for two to three weeks and for over a couple weeks on the radio," an official at Thailand's Sony Music was quoted as saying.

2PM's Thai-American member Nichkhun is known to be the most popular amongst Thai fans, shooting television commercials in the country ahead of the group's debut there.

The formerly seven-member band, back to the Korean music scene without member Jae-beom who quit the group in early September over controversial comments he made about Korea on his MySpace account before his debut, released their first full-length album last week.

Their much-awaited comeback has been received well by fans, with several tracks from their album "01:59PM" listing within the top 10 of major music websites.

Jessica Kim jesskim@asiae.co.kr