BTS became the first South Korean artiste to land at No.1 on Billboard's main singles chart in the United States on Monday (Aug 31).
"BTS achieves its first No.1 on the Billboard Hot 100 songs chart, as 'Dynamite' debuts at the summit," Billboard reported Monday, one day before its chart will be refreshed.
Previously, the highest-charting South Korean artiste ever on the Hot 100 was soloist PSY with his 2012 viral hit Gangnam Style, which peaked at the No.2 spot.
The only Asian to make it to the top of the Hot 100 in the past was Japanese singer Kyu Sakamoto with Sukiyaki in 1963.
BTS has topped Billboard's main album chart, the Billboard 200, four times since May 2018, starting with Love Yourself: Tear and following up with successive releases – Love Yourself: Answer, Map Of The Soul: Persona and Map Of The Soul: 7.
But on the Hot 100, the septet had managed to go as high as fourth place with ON, the lead track from 7 released in February. Boy With Luv, featuring American singer Halsey, peaked at No.8 in April of 2019.
With 265,000 downloads sold (among its overall first-week total of 300,000, which includes its vinyl and cassette physical versions), Dynamite debuts with the biggest digital sales week since Sept 16, 2017, when Taylor Swift's Look What You Made Me Do launched with 353,000, Billboard reported.
BTS celebrated the victory through social media in South Korea, where it was early Tuesday when the news broke. It also happened to be the birthday of BTS singer Junggook.
"Congratulations on the Billboard No.1 fellow members, I'm happy because of you guys," BTS singer J-Hope wrote on the group's official Twitter account.
J-Hope added, "And ARMY! You know that we love and thank you more than anyone. You deserve to be congratulated, too," referring to the band's global fans base referred to as ARMY. – The Korea Herald/Asia News Network
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