BTS Sells 280,000 Copies in the First Week… Topmost Record as a Foreign Artist

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BTS. [BigHit Entertainment]

BTS and TWICE, the leaders of third generation K-pop idols, are reigniting the Korean wave in Japan.

BTS sets another amazing record!

According to Oricon, BTS’ Japanese album ‘FACE YOURSELF’ sold 282,000 copies within the first week of its release. This is a new record made in six years and five months; in 2011, KARA, the girl group which led the Korean wave in Japan at that time, sold 275,000 copies of the album ‘SUPER GIRL’.

“Sales of 282,000 copies on the week of release is a record beating Japanese rock band WANIMA’s cumulative sales of 205,000 copies. BTS will probably make the first place in the male artist sector during the first half of the year,” said Oricon. “Among all male and female artists, it is the first time for a foreign artist to sell over 250,000 copies in the first week of release since KARA’s ‘SUPER GIRL’.”

BTS performs onstage during the 2017 American Music Awards at Microsoft Theater on November 19, 2017 in Los Angeles, California. [Kevin Winter/AFP]

BTS is writing a new record with the Japanese album ‘FACE YOURSELF’. On April 15, the album made No. 43 on ‘Billboard 200’ which is Billboard’s main album chart. It is an unprecedented happening for an album in Japanese sang by a Korean artist to be ranked on an America’s main music chart.

Among Japanese albums, it is the third record following the record of No.14 by SAKAMOTO KYU’s ‘SUKIYAKI AND OTHER JAPANESE HITS’(1963) and No.39 by BABYMETAL’s ‘METAL RESISTANCE’(2016).

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TWICE’s popularity in Japan is no less. TWICE’s second single released in Japan last February, ‘CANDY POP’ was certified ‘Platinum’ by the RIAJ, or the Recording Industry Association of Japan.

It is their third platinum-certified album in a row since their Japanese debut album ‘#TWICE’ released June last year and their single ‘ONE MORE TIME’ released last October.

By Bongbong and Soohyoun Nam voomvoomk@gmail.com