On March 30 (local time), Billboard announced that the title track "Swim" in BTS's 5th studio album "Arirang" topped the latest Hot 100 chart. "Swim" surpassed prominent songs such as Ella Langley's "Choosin Texas" and Olivia Dean's "Man i need" to directly win the championship.
Billboard Hot 100 is the weekly chart of the most popular songs in the US, calculated based on a compilation of online listen data, radio broadcast points, and sales.
In this scoring period, "Swim" recorded 15.3 million streams, 15.3 million radio broadcasts and total sales (digital + physical singles) reached 154,000 copies.
After this announcement, RM - the leader of BTS - shared a screenshot confirming the number 1 position of "Swim" on his Instagram account.
In the photo, RM added a message below: "To my love and gratitude" with a blue heart, expressing his respect to fans around the globe.
RM is credited as leading the lyrics of the song "Swim", conveying a sincere message of constantly moving forward, even amidst the storms of life. His message of gratitude once again highlights the group's persistent strength and immortal love for fans.
Swim" is BTS's 7th song to reach the top 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, after "Dynamite", "Savage love", "Life goes on", "Butter", "Permission to dance" and "My Universe".
With this achievement, BTS became the 5th band in history to hold the most songs at the top of the Billboard Hot 100 chart, after The Beatles (20 songs), The Supremes (12 songs), Bee Gees and The Rolling Stones (8 songs).
Among Korean artists, only BTS and two members Jimin and Jungkook of BTS have songs that once reached number 1 on the Billboard Hot 100. In the Kpop wave, the song "Golden" - the soundtrack of "Kpop demon hunters" - also topped the Billboard Hot 100 last year.
At the same time, "Swim" also topped Billboard's global charts including Billboard Global 200 and Billboard Global Excl. US (global excluding the US).
Previously, the album "Arirang" was announced to win No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart, marking a historical milestone when BTS simultaneously conquered both the single and album charts, affirming the group's top Kpop position.
Through the management company BigHit Music, BTS shared: "After 3 years and 9 months of long waiting, we are very honored that the new album can reach number 1 on Billboard.
We sincerely thank ARMY (official fandom name) for always giving us love and constant support, as well as all those who have listened and sympathized with our music.
In the process of preparing the album, we thought a lot to convey universal emotions that many people can empathize with. The title track "Swim" represents that, is a song about still moving forward despite difficulties.
We hope this song can cross national boundaries to bring a little courage and comfort to many people. Thank you for the unchanging faith and support over the past time, and we will continue to reciprocate with sincere music.
