BTS targets No. 1 on Billboard Hot 100 with latest release

Having already set a litany of new records for the K-pop industry, BTS is now aiming higher: grabbing the top spot on the Billboard 200 albums chart and ultimately on the highly competitive Billboard Hot 100 songs chart, the septet said Thursday.
BTS poses for a photo session during a press conference on May 24, 2018. (Yonhap)
BTS poses for a photo session during a press conference on May 24, 2018. (Yonhap)

"Numbers are not so important," team leader RM said initially after being asked to give BTS' numerical goals for the latest album, "Love Yourself: Tear," in a press conference at a hotel in central Seoul.

"(But) with the latest album, our goal is, our members have sometime discussed off the record, the top spot on the Billboard 200 albums chart," RM said.

"As with the Billboard Hot 100 chart, we are aiming to enter the top spot, since our 'Mic Drop' previously landed in the 28th spot there," he said. "First we will aim to enter the top ten, which is known to be concrete, and then we will dream about becoming the No. 1," RM said. "Becoming the No. 1 at the Hot 100 is our goal."

Within only one week after the album's release last Friday, the boy band has renewed its own records set for the K-pop scene.

On Sunday in the United States, BTS scooped up its second Billboard Music Award in the Top Artist category and staged its first live performance of the album's main track "Fake Love" at the U.S. award event.

The members were "thrilled" by their Billboard victory, as well as the roaring response, shown by their fans at the performance.

"We couldn't imagine at all that we could perform on the Billboard stage," member Jin said. "It was a very thrilling moment. We were really encouraged by the presence of so many Armies," he said, referring to BTS fans.

"We have often been asked why we are so loved," RM said. "The causes may be our attempt to reach out through social media as idols and entertainers, as well as the new media that translated our Korean (content) to many different national (languages) that were again spread through YouTube," he noted.

BTS members also "has stuck to our initial thinking that we started with the music we love, and we are a performance group," according to the team leader.

By Yonhap.

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