Los Angeles:
K-pop superband BTS member Jimin has become the first South Korean soloist to lead the singles chart with ‘Like Crazy’ off his debut solo album ‘Face’, which starts at No. 2 on Billboard’s albums chart.
The six-song EP, which incorporates songs in English and Korean, scored the second-biggest opening week for an album this year with the equivalent of 164,000 sales in the US, according to data by Luminate.
It follows Morgan Wallen’s ‘One Thing at a Time’, which broke through with half a million units in mid-March and remains at the top of the Billboard 200 for a fourth week on the chart dated April 8.
‘Face’ debuts with 124,000 copies sold as a complete package and nearly 20 million streams. It was preceded by Jimin’s first top 40-charting song as a soloist on the songs list, “Set Me Free, Pt. 2′ (debuted at No. 30). Meanwhile, ‘Like Crazy’ tops this week’s Hot 100 chart, sliding Miley Cyrus’ ‘Flowers’ to a No. 2 slot.
‘Like Crazy’ peaks at the summit powered by the undeniably strong pull of its sales. The song, which is available in a variety of remixes (Deep House, UK Garage and Instrumental) and has a version in both Korean and English, sold 254,000 copies as song downloads and CD singles combined and tallied 10 million streams.
‘Face’ also made a big splash in Jimin’s home country. The synthpop track racked up over a million copies sold in South Korea, becoming the fastest-selling album by a South Korean soloist of all time, according to a report.
Jimin is just the third member of the K-pop boyband to release an album on his own behind J-Hope and BTS leader RM, who shares songwriting credits on three of the six songs on ‘Face’. Jimin had previously topped the singles chart alongside BTS with ‘Savage Love (Laxed – Siren Beat)’, ‘Life Goes On’, ‘Butter’, ‘My Universe’, and ‘Dynamite’.
The rest of the singles chart is made up of several former No. 1 holders: Wallen’s ‘Last Night’ at No. 3; SZA’s ‘Kill Bill’ at No. 4; Metro Boomin, the Weeknd and 21 Savage’s ‘Creepin’ at No. 5; the Weeknd and Ariana Grande’s ‘Die for You’ is No. 6, and PinkPantheress and Ice Spice’s ‘Boy’s a Liar, Pt. 2’ is at No. 7.
Rema and Selena Gomez’s ‘Calm Down’ keeps at No. 8, while Taylor Swift’s ‘Anti-Hero’ is at No. 9 and Coi Leray’s ‘Players’ closes at No. 10.
As for the Billboard 200, Lana Del Rey’s ‘Did You Know That There’s a Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd’ enters at No. 3 earning the equivalent of 115,000 units and 36 million on-demand official streams – marking Del Rey’s biggest streaming week ever. IANS