South Korean boy band BTS has become the first K-pop group to top the US Billboard 200 chart following the release of their new album, Love Yourself: Tear.
The album, which was released May 18 and sold 135,000 copies in its first week, marks the second-biggest debut of the year trailing just behind Migos’ Culture II, and is also the first foreign-language album to top the Billboard 200 in over 12 years.
In 2017, BTS cracked the Billboard Top Ten with their previous album Love Yourself: Her. Now, not only has the group bumped Post Malone’s Beerbongs and Bentleys from the No. 1 spot, they’ve beat out artists like Cardi B, J. Cole, and Playboi Carti too.
Though K-pop only began to cross-over into the North American market in recent years, the genre first emerged in South Korea in the early 1990s and has since developed a devout following across Asia and throughout the world.
In a statement posted to the group’s Twitter account, BTS member Kim Seok-jin said: “No. 1 on the Billboard 200.. Thank you so much for letting us see such a good news as soon as we woke up. It’s amazing and so surreal. Thank you to all who have listened to our music! We will continue to work hard!”
photo: 뉴스인스타 (NewsInStar) (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HYJ7u0jLYUg) [CC BY 3.0], via Wikimedia Commons
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