If Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam have rising boy groups of their own, will the girls be left behind? When it comes to girl groups, these are the same four countries in Southeast Asia that can represent in the global idol scene.

In 2005, Yasushi Akimoto formed a girl group with “idols you can meet” concept and it became a phenomenon in Japan when it comes to record and concert ticket sales. Because of its success, Akimoto has expanded the AKB48 concept to 8 countries including four in Southeast Asia namely MNL48 of the Philippines, BNK48 of Thailand, JKT48 of Indonesia, and SGO48 of Vietnam. These four girl groups are currently making waves in their respective countries. Let’s meet each group.

BNK48, Thailand

BNK48 debuted on June 2, 2017 with the single “Yak Cha Dai Phop Thoe.” The group, which was named after the capital city of Bangkok, currently has 43 active members. Their biggest hit was “Koisuru Fortune Cookie” with 182,680,673 views on YouTube. They recently formed a sister group called CGM48 which represents the city of Chiang Mai.

BNK48, “Koisuru Fortune Cookie”

JKT48, Indonesia

JKT48 was formed in 2011 making it the first AKB48 sister group outside Japan. They released their first official single “River” on Sep 7, 2013. To date, this girl group has 38 individual team members, with one of them performing in two teams. It also has 35 Class A Academy members.

JKT48 – “River” MV

MNL48, Philippines

MNL48 is dubbed as the first-ever Filipino Idol group in the Philippines named after the capital city of Manila. Among the “48” girl groups in Asia, this is the only one that has the exact number of 48 members. MNL48 debuted on August 13, 2018 with the single “Aitakatta Gustong Makita.” Their biggest hit so far is “Pag-ibig Fortune Cookie” which got 2,101,980 views on YouTube as of this posting.

MNL48 – “Pag-ibig Fortune Cookie” MV

SGO48, Vietnam

SG048 debuted on December 22, 2018 with the single “Heavy Rotation.” The group, which was named after the city of Saigon (now known as Ho Chi Minh), currently has 26 active members. Their biggest hit was “Koisuru Fortune Cookie” with 3,813,724 views on YouTube as of this posting.

SGO48 – “Koisuru Fortune Cookie”

https://youtu.be/otBUFwB46K0

Now that you met the 4 rising girl groups in Southeast Asia, we are starting a poll on who do you think is the BEST GIRL GROUP in the region?

Here are the mechanics for this poll:

• You can choose only 1 from the nominees below when you cast your vote(s).
• You must complete the captcha challenge before you will be able to click “vote.” The captcha protection feature prevents the usage of bots and other artificial voting generator/apps.
• This is an unlimited poll. You will be allowed to vote again after you cast your vote(s).
• Simply refresh the browser and you will be allowed to vote again.
• This poll will be closed on April 30, 2020 at 12:00noon HKG/TPE time.
• The group with the highest number of votes will be the winner.

VOTE HERE: