BTS Are The First K-Pop Group With A Top 10 Song
Superstar Korean boy band BTS’ “Fake Love” launches at No. 10 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart (dated 6/2), marking the first Hot 100 top 10 ever for a K-pop group.
As previously reported, parent album Love Yourself: Tear debuts as BTS’ first No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart, where it’s also the first No. 1 for an album in the K-pop genre.
BTS breaks its own record for the highest-charting Hot 100 hit for a K-pop group, passing its “MIC Drop” (featuring Desiigner), which reached No. 28 in December.
Only one K-pop act other than BTS has charted top 10s on the Hot 100: South Korean rapper/singer PSY, whose smash “Gangnam Style” peaked at No. 2 for seven weeks in 2012 and whose “Gentleman” hit No. 5 in 2013.
Further, “Fake Love” is the first K-pop song to debut in the Hot 100’s top 10, besting PSY’s “Gentleman,” which started at No. 12.
“Fake Love,” which BTS performed on the Billboard Music Awards May 20, is likewise BTS’ first No. 1 on the Digital Song Sales chart, where it opens with 29,000 downloads sold in the week ending May 24, according to Nielsen Music. It’s the first No. 1 on the chart for a K-pop group and the second leader for any K-pop act: PSY’s “Gangnam Style” spent six weeks atop Digital Song Sales in 2012. BTS earns its second Digital Song Sales top 10, after “MIC Drop,” which hit No. 4.
(Notably, “Fake Love” leads with the lowest sales total for a Digital Song Sales No. 1 since Jan. 1, 2005, when Green Day’s “Boulevard of Broken Dreams” reigned with 21,000. As previously reported, download sales continue to drop, as streaming surges.)
On Streaming Songs, “Fake Love” starts at No. 7 with 27.4 million U.S. streams in the week ending May 24, arriving as the group’s first top 10 on the tally. The act hit a prior No. 37 high with “DNA” last October.
“Fake Love” is also making inroads at pop radio, as it’s bubbling under the mainstream top 40-based Pop Songs airplay chart. KJYO Oklahoma City leads all reporters to the survey with 62 plays for the song through May 27, followed by KROI Houston (36) and WEZB New Orleans (22).
Atop the Hot 100, Drake’s “Nice for What” returns to No. 1 for a fifth total week on top.
This article originally appeared on Billboard.