The ‘first K-pop song’ listened to 2 billion times worldwide.’ That honor definitely goes to BTS.

One of BTS‘s mega-hits, ‘Dynamite’, has become the first Korean artist to surpass 2 billion streams (cumulative plays) for a single song on the global popular music platform, ‘Spotify’. First released on August 21, 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic was at its peak, the song has become a source of comfort and hope for people around the world. This feat was achieved in just 4 years and 4 months on a single platform, Spotify.

‘Dynamite’ rose to No. 1 on Spotify’s Main Chart Daily Top Song Global on the day of its release, ‘the’ becoming the ‘first’ for a K-pop artist. In line with this, it was also recorded as the song with the most streams on the day of its release. ‘Dynamite’ is also the first K-pop song to reach 1 billion streams on Spotify.

BTS also rewrote the history of Korean popular music with the song.

They became the first K-pop artist to reach No. 1 on Billboard‘s main song chart, the ‘Hot 100’, which is the representative North American popular music ranking chart, and also became the group that stayed at the top of the chart for the longest period of time. In relation to this, they were the first Korean singers to be nominated for a Grammy Award, one of the four major music award ceremonies in the United States, establishing themselves as a true ‘global icon’.

‘Dynamite’, which takes on the format of a disco pop song, has been consistently loved even after four years since its release, rising from being a mega hit to a ‘masterpiece’. At the end of last year, it garnered attention by being named one of the ‘100 Best Hit Songs Of The Century So Far’ by North American entertainment media outlet UPROXX.

In addition, the music video for ‘Dynamite’ was the ‘first’ BTS song to surpass 1.9 billion cumulative views on YouTube last year.


Reporter Heo Min-nyeong mignon@donga.com