“A Hot 100 nomination and a Grammy nomination are our goals,” he continued. “But it’s just goals – we don’t want to change our identities or genuineness to become number one. If we suddenly sing in full English and change all these other things, it’s not BTS. We’re going to do anything, we will try. But if we couldn’t get number one or number five, that’s fine. “
OKAY? May be. Unlikely? Certainly.
“We don’t just have to consider ourselves better [than other K-pop acts]but the best, “RM told The Hollywood Reporter when the band hit the cover in October 2019.” When we are on this stage, we are there to conquer. We think we are the ones. “
With the popularity of K-pop, the number of girls in the US only continues to rise BLACKPINK achieved its own premiere with a Coachella set from 2019 and an album Map of the Soul: 7 With more than 3 million pre-orders within the first week announced in January 2020, the sky seemed the limit for the group at the forefront of this latest leg of Hallyu, or the Korean wave.
So a hot 100 # 1? It was just a matter of time.
And when the group dropped “Dynamite” – a standalone single before their last album Be and their first album sung entirely in English – in August, they got their wish. The track debuted at # 1 on the Hot 100, where it stayed for a total of three weeks, making it the first South Korean to top the table.
When Be debuted as their fifth No. 1 album in November and gave them another No. 1 hit single (“Life Goes On”), BTS removed another hit from their list as “Dynamite” for Best Pop -Duo nominated / group performance at the 2021 Grammys. The nod made them the first Korean pop act to be recognized by the Recording Academy.
As RM said in an interview with Esquire published the day before the nominations were announced, “I think the Grammys are the last part, like the last part of the entire American journey.”
With all your eyes on the March 14th ceremony to see if they emerge victorious, there is no denying that they have been winners many times already. We can’t wait to find out where they’re going next.
(This story was originally published on April 12, 2019 at 3 a.m.)
