BTS’s ‘Dynamite’ lands top spot on Billboard Hot 100, marking first for any Korean act

Boy group BTS. [BIG HIT ENTERTAINMENT]

BTS’s latest single “Dynamite” has landed at the top spot on the Billboard Hot 100 list, marking a first for not only the group, but for any Korean act ever.

The highest BTS had reached before was No. 4 with the song “On” on March 4, which is part of its fourth regular album “MAP OF THE SOUL." “Dynamite” is the seven-member group’s first song entirely in English.

Billboard checks the number of streams in the United States and radio airplay as well as sales to put together the Hot 100 list.

Data from Neilson Music/MRC Data revealed that “Dynamite” was streamed more than 33.9 million times, while 300,000 copies were sold since the release of the song on Aug. 21 until Aug. 27.

Prior to BTS’s success, Psy had reached No. 2 on the Hot 100 with “Gangnam Style” and remained in the spot for seven weeks.

The disco pop song “Dynatmite” is only the 43rd song ever to debut at the No. 1 spot on the Hot 100 list.

“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,” said Billboard.

The song has also seen massive popularity on many other music charts all across the world.

It landed at No. 1 on Spotify’s Global Top 50 list as well as iTunes’ Top Song chart in 104 countries as soon as the song was released.

The music video for “Dynamite” was streamed more than 100 million times within the first 24 hours of its release, the highest number seen in one day for a music video in YouTube’s history.

“It is truly amazing. It is a splendid feat that further raises pride in K-pop,” said Korean President Moon Jae-in. “The song “Dynamite” is all the more meaningful as it has been composed to give a message of comfort and hope to people around the world who are struggling with Covid-19.”

BY LEE SUN-MIN [summerlee@joongang.co.kr]