Story highlights NEW: South Korea's president congratulates group (CNN) — South Korean boy band BTS has become the first K-pop group to top the US Billboard 200 chart, with the debut of their new album, “Love Yourself: Tear.” The album was released on May 18 and sold 135,000 total copies in its first week, including 100,000 traditional album sales. That makes this debut the second-biggest of 2018, just behind Migos’ “Culture II”, which sold 199,000 copies in its first week. It’s also the first foreign-language album to top the Billboard 200 in over 12 years – since Il Divo’s 2006 album “Ancora.” This marks the second time BTS has appeared in the Billboard Top Ten, the first being their previous album ‘Love Yourself: Her,’ which opened at No. 7 in 2017. No other K-pop release has ever broken into the top 10, let alone the No. 1 spot. Popular K-pop groups like BTS have long had devout fan bases in South Korea and across Asia, but only began breaking into the American market recently. “Love Yourself: Tear” pushed Post Malone’s album “Beerbongs and Bentleys,” which had been No. 1 for three straight weeks, to No. 2. BTS also beat out artists like Cardi B, J. Cole, and Playboi Carti. Some of the group’s members took to Twitter to thank fans. 빌보드 200 1위.. 일어나자마자 이런 좋은 소식 접하게 해줘서 너무 고마워요 신기하기도하고 되게 얼떨떨하네요ㅠㅠ 저희 노래 들어주신 모든 분들께 감사드립니다! 앞으로도 열심히 할게요! pic.twitter.com/9MvRkqV3a3 — 방탄소년단 (@BTS_twt) May 28, 2018 “No. 1 on the Billboard 200.. Thank you so much for letting us see such a good news as soon as we woke up,” wrote Kim Seok-jin, better known as Jin, on the BTS Twitter account. “It’s amazing and so surreal. Thank you to all who have listened to our music! We will continue to work hard!” “What a good news from the start of the morning!!! Thank you very much, everyone,” tweeted fellow BTS member Jung Ho-seok, known as J-Hope. Presidential congratulations South Korea’s President Moon Jae-in also congratulated the band on Monday. In a statement, Moon said, “The songs, dance, dreams and enthusiasm of BTS energized and gave strength to young people around the world.” “Their melody and lyrics transcend regional borders, language, culture, and institutions.” Moon finished by thanking BTS for “spreading joy across Korea and the world with your great performances.” K-pop emerged in South Korea in the early 1990s, and labels such as JYP, DSP and YG, built the nation’s pop industry from the ground up by creating training schemes that churned out pop stars for music, soap operas and movies. This accolade is the latest step in BTS’ whirlwind rise to success, following their performance at the Billboard Music Awards, where they also won the Top Social Artist award. The Billboard 200 chart ranks each week’s most popular albums in the US. The full list will be posted on Billboard’s website on Wednesday, May 30. CNN’s Sophie Jeong in Seoul contributed to this report.<doc-sep>Now, BTS, the seven-member group also known as the Bangtan Boys, has made history again as the first K-pop band to have an album debut at No. 1 on the U.S. Billboard Top 200 chart. “Love Yourself: Tear,” the group’s third album, was released May 18 and in its first week had the equivalent of 135,000 sales in the United States, of which 100,000 were traditional album sales, according to Nielsen Music. The rest were made up of streams and individual track downloads, Billboard reported. “Love Yourself: Tear,” sung mostly in Korean, is also the first primarily foreign-language album to take the top spot since a classical crossover vocal quartet released “Ancora” in 2006, according to the music site.<doc-sep>It’s the first K-pop album to top the chart. Korean boy band BTS debuts at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 albums chart with its latest effort, Love Yourself: Tear. It’s the first No. 1 for the seven-member group, and the first K-pop album to lead the tally. The set, which was released through BitHit Entertainment on May 18, launches with 135,000 equivalent album units earned in the U.S. in the week ending May 24, according to Nielsen Music. Of that sum, 100,000 were in traditional album sales. The Billboard 200 chart ranks the most popular albums of the week in the U.S. based on multi-metric consumption , which includes traditional album sales, track equivalent albums (TEA) and streaming equivalent albums (SEA). The new June 2-dated chart (where BTS bows at No. 1) will be posted in full on Billboard's websites on Wednesday, May 30 (one day later than normal, owed to the May 29 Memorial Day holiday in the U.S.). Love Yourself: Tear’s first-week sum is a bit bigger than expected. On May 21, some industry forecasters predicted the album would bow with over 100,000 units. By May 24, that forecast grew to over 120,000.<doc-sep>The group spends its first week on top, powered by new album 'Love Yourself: Tear.' BTS bumps from No. 4 to No. 1 on the Billboard Artist 100 chart (dated June 2) to become the top musical act in the U.S. for the first time, fueled by the arrival of the group's new album, Love Yourself: Tear. BTS previously peaked at No. 2 on the April 14-dated Artist 100. The seven-member South Korean boy band is the first K-pop act -- and first act that records primarily in a language other than English -- to lead the list since the chart's July 2014 inception.<doc-sep>
The Billboard 200 chart ranks the most popular albums of the week in the U.S. based on multi-metric consumption , which includes traditional album sales, track equivalent albums (TEA) and streaming equivalent albums (SEA). Here’s a look at some of the chart achievements BTS has earned with the arrival of Love Yourself: Tear: First No. 1 Album for K-Pop: Love Yourself: Tear is the first K-pop album to lead the Billboard 200. It’s also only the second top 10 for the K-pop genre, following BTS’ own Love Yourself: Her, which peaked at No. 7 in 2017. Biggest Unit & Sales Week Ever for K-Pop: Love Yourself: Tear also logs the biggest week yet for K-pop, both in overall units and traditional album sales. The previous high-water mark was earned by BTS, as well, with Love Yourself: Her, when it debuted and peaked at No. 7 on the Oct. 7, 2017-dated list with 31,000 units in its opening frame and 18,000 of those in traditional album sales. First Foreign Language No. 1 Album Since 2006: Notably, as Love Yourself: Tear is performed mostly in the Korean language, it’s the first primarily foreign-language No. 1 album in over 12 years. In 2006 classical crossover vocal quartet Il Divo topped the list with Ancora (on the chart dated Feb. 11, 2006), which blends songs performed in Spanish, Italian and French, along with a track sung partially in English. First World Music Album at No. 1 on Billboard 200: For genre-classification purposes, K-pop is considered world music, and titles within the K-pop genre also chart on the World Albums chart. Love Yourself: Tear also starts at No. 1 on the World Albums chart, and marks the group’s sixth No. 1 on the tally. (World albums can include titles that feature Hawaiian, Cuban, Celtic, European, Asian, Middle-Eastern, African, and South American music, in addition to any other music style that is native to lands outside of the contiguous United States.) BTS’ Love Yourself: Tear is the first Billboard 200 No. 1 also to chart on the World Albums tally. Second-Biggest Week for a Group in 2018: With 135,000 units earned, Love Yourself: Tear logs the second-biggest week for an album by a group in 2018, trailing only the No. 1 debut of Migos’ Culture II (199,000 units; Feb. 10).