Company says sales figures of Kris Wu's new album are real

Chinese-Canadian singer-songwriter Kris Wu released a new album, Antares, on Nov 2, and dominated Apple's iTunes Store charts over the last weekend. Seven songs from the album (14 songs in total) were on the Top 10 of the US iTunes store as of Monday, including the song, November Rain, which was bought over 14 million times in less than 24 hours. Sales numbers were suspected of being boosted artificially.

Later, it was said that Wu's debut album was removed from the iTunes Store, which sparked controversy on Chinese social media. On Wednesday, Universal Music China denied that in an official notice, saying that Antares is still available on the iTunes Storees Store, which sparked controversy on Chinese social media. On s Store charts are real and effective.

In April, Wu signed an exclusive international recording contract with Universal Music Group. Wu's fans tried to defend their idol. In a statement from those fans posted on Twitter under the account for Meigeni Express (meigeni is the nickname for Wu's fans) on Monday, it says: "Kris Wu may be a newcomer in the American industry, however, he has always had a very large and established fan base all over the world…although you may not have heard of him in the mainstream media, it doesn't mean he does not have fans".

A former member of K-pop boy group, EXO, the 28-year-old singer, who was born and raised in Guangzhou, South China's Guangdong province, and moved to Vancouver at age 10 with his family, launched his solo career in 2014.

In the summer of 2017, he joined in the popular reality show, The Rap of China, as a member of one of the three groups of star coaches. A new season of the show, which has catapulted a new generation of Chinese rappers from underground performers to stardom, aired this summer. He also has expanded his career path into movies and fashion, successfully entering the English-speaking movie market, with roles in Daniel John Caruso's action blockbuster, XxX: Return of Xander Cage and Luc Besson's Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets. In February, Wu signed up as an ambassador for the NFL and became the first Chinese artist to perform his songs at Super Bowl Live.

On his birthday, Wu posted on his Sina Weibo account, which has over 44 million followers, saying, "I spent more than two years working on the album, Antares. I chose 14 songs for the album, which speak for me". He also wrote that "today is my birthday and this album is a special gift to me, which I want to share with my fans".