BTS Earns First Billboard Hot 100 Hit With ‘DNA’

As previously reported, BTS achieves the first-ever top 10 for a K-pop act on the Billboard 200 albums chart, as Love Yourself: Her debuts at No. 7 (on the chart dated Oct. 7), earning 31,000 equivalent album units in the week ending Sept. 21, according to Nielsen Music.

The seven-member South Korean boy band adds to its haul this week, earning its first entry on the Billboard Hot 100 songs chart: “DNA,” from the new album, debuts at No. 85, fueled by 5.3 million first-week U.S. streams and 14,000 downloads sold, the latter total also good for a No. 37 debut on the Digital Song Sales chart, where BTS also makes its first appearance. (The Hot 100 blends streaming, sales and radio airplay data.)

<iframe width=”560″ height=”315″ src=”https://www.youtube.com/embed/MBdVXkSdhwU” frameborder=”0″ allowfullscreen></iframe>

The trap-infused, almost-all Korean-language “DNA” makes BTS (which recently expanded its meaning to stand for Beyond the Scene) just the second K-pop act to chart a Korean-language song on the Hot 100, following South Korean rapper/singer PSY, whose smash “Gangnam Style” peaked at No. 2 for seven weeks in 2012 (marking his first of four Hot 100 visits to date).

Notably, K-pop acts Wonder Girls and CL have charted one and two Hot 100 entries, respectively, but not with predominantly Korean-language songs. Wonder Girls reached No. 76 with “Nobody” in 2009 (which they recorded both in English and Korean), while CL’s charted titles are her English single “Lifted” (No. 94, 2016) and PSY’s “Daddy,” on which she’s featured (No. 97, 2015), which is mostly in Korean, although CL’s vocals are all in English.

Before “DNA,” BTS had neared the Hot 100 with “Spring Day,” which hit No. 15 on the Hot 100’s Bubbling Under chart dated March 4. Until this week, the song stood as the closest that a Korean-language track had come to reaching the Hot 100 in 2017 until BLACKPINK‘s “As If It’s Your Last” peaked at No. 13 on the Bubbling Under chart dated July 15.

All Oct. 7-dated charts, including the Hot 100, led at No. 1 by Cardi B‘s “Bodak Yellow (Money Moves)” in its first week at the summit, and the Billboard 200, topped by Foo Fighters‘ No. 1-debuting Concrete and Gold, will update tomorrow (Sept. 26) on Billboard.com.