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K-Pop albums from popular groups such as 2NE1, BTS and Winner have been seen climbing the UAE iTunes Top Album charts last week. Now, another album has made its way to the charts, even taking the No 1 spot hours after its release.

Five years since he last dropped his solo EP, Let’s Talk About Love, BigBang’s Seungri came back on Friday with his first full-length Korean solo album, The Great Seungri, and it soared to the top of the iTunes album charts in both Saudi Arabia and the UAE.

The title of his album was inspired by F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel The Great Gatsby, and is a play on the artist’s stage name, which means ‘victory’ in Korean.

Fronted by dance pop-rock track 1, 2, 3!, his album is mainly composed and produced by the singer himself and features tracks by R’n’B singer Blue.D and EDM producer Dannic as well as his YG labelmates Winner’s Mino and iKON’s B.I.

The 27-year-old singer, who is widely known as the youngest member of high-profile K-pop group BigBang, said in an album release press conference that he works better as a member of the group but hoped to fill up his band’s hiatus in the K-Pop music scene with his new album. The rest of the band’s four members — G-Dragon, T.O.P, Daesung and Taeyang — are currently serving their mandatory military service in South Korea.

Seungri will hold his first solo concert on August 4 and 5 in Seoul and added extra tour dates in Daegu and Busan later in August, due to popular demand.