KUALA LUMPUR: K-Pop kings BTS have chalked up the most Number One hits on the Billboard Hot 100 this decade, with a total of six songs topping the US singles chart.
The Korea Herald reported today that Billboard recently shared a new ranking on its social media account that featured the list of global acts that have earned the most Number One records on the competitive chart over a decade.
Some of the other big names on the list are Canadian hip-hop star Drake, who has five songs on the chart, American singer-songwriters Ariana Grande and Taylor Swift who have four songs each, and Canadian singer Justin Bieber and American hip-hop star Nicki Minaj who have three songs each.
BTS earned their first Billboard Hot 100 hit with DNA in 2017. In 2020, three more tracks followed — Dynamite, Savage Love and Life Goes On.
Dynamite, their first English track, became the first song by a South Korean act to debut at the top of the Hot 100. It broke new records by topping Billboard's Global and Digital Song Sales charts.
BTS then came up with its version of American singer Jason Derulo's Savage Love.
Members Suga and J-Hope added their lyrics to the music, and the remix version landed at Number One and spent over half a year on the Hot 100.
The pandemic anthem Life Goes On, co-written by RM, Suga and J-Hope and featured on the group's Be album, also became the chart's first Number One sung mainly in Korean.
BTS continued their success in the United States in 2021, with three more chart-toppers — Butter, Permission To Dance and My Universe.
Butter became the 40th song in the chart's history to spend 10 weeks atop the Hot 100. Its music video made the biggest YouTube debut of all time.
Permission To Dance, co-written by British singer-songwriter Ed Sheeran, spent seven weeks on the chart.
My Universe, a collaboration track between BTS and Coldplay, debuted atop the Hot 100, marking BTS' sixth and the British rock band's second Number One on the chart.
BTS is also the first K-Pop act to have entered the Billboard 200 album chart at Number One. Love Yourself: Tear (2018) was the first foreign-language album in 12 years to achieve that feat.
Meanwhile, K-Pop girl groups Le Sserafim and (G)I-dle have each entered the Billboard 200 album chart for the first time.
Le Sserafim's second EP Antifragile, released on Oct 17, ranked Number 14.
The six-month old group's agency Source Music said in a statement that it had become the fastest K-Pop female act to win a place on the chart.
(G)I-dle also recorded its first Billboard 200 entry with its fifth EP I Love, released on Oct 17. The album landed at Number 71.