BTS’ RM leaps to record-setting No. 3 position on Billboard 200 with solo album
SEOUL – RM, the leader of K-pop sensation BTS, has hit the No. 3 spot on the Billboard 200 chart, setting a record for a K-pop solo musician.
His first solo album Indigo debuted at No. 15 on the chart dated Dec 17 and slipped out of it on the following week. But sales of the physical album pushed it back onto the chart.
The 28-year-old is the first member of BTS to earn a solo top 10 album on the Billboard 200, and the second to reach the chart in 2022 with a solo project, following the No. 17 debut and peak of J-Hope’s debut solo album Jack In The Box in July, according to Billboard.
BTS have had seven top 10s, six of which reached No. 1.
RM’s Indigo re-entered the Billboard 200 at No. 3 with 83,000 equivalent album units earned (up 1,290 per cent) following its CD release on Dec 16.
“It’s a new high for the set, and RM’s first top 10 album as a soloist,” noted Billboard.
According to Yonhap News Agency, it was also the highest ranking on the chart by a South Korean artiste.
K-pop girl group Twice’s Nayeon held the previous record set in July when she ranked seventh on the chart with her solo debut EP, Im Nayeon.
Indigo was rolled out on Dec 2 and topped iTunes top songs chart in 87 regions. It also made Time Magazine’s list of the best K-pop songs and albums of 2022.
The album is like a diary that conveys the artiste’s concerns and thoughts, and demonstrates his range with collaborations with a gamut of musicians.
RM, 28, had previously put out two mixtapes: RM in March 2015 and Mono in October 2018.
The former was listed as The 50 Best Hip-Hop Albums of 2015 by Spin, an American music magazine. The latter ranked No. 26 on Billboard 200. - THE KOREA HERALD/ASIA NEWS NETWORK
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