KUALA LUMPUR: South Korean super group BTS has soared ahead of British songstress Adele in chart popularity, courtesy of solid support from its worldwide fans, known as Army.
Entertainment portal Somag News reported yesterday that one of its members Kim Tae-Hyung or V had just broken a new record on iTunes with his latest single Sweet Night, the theme song from popular South Korean drama series Itaewon Class.
Sweet Night, which is also composed by V, made it to No. 1 in the iTunes Top Charts of 77 countries as soon as it was released on March 13.
On May 25, the number of countries increased to 88 and yesterday, it topped the iTunes Top Charts in 105 countries.
Sweet Night's success has made 24-year-old V the most popular South Korean solo artiste, beating among others Psy (Park Jae-Sang) of Oppa Gangnam Style fame.
But most significantly, V erased the record of Adele, whose hit song Hello topped the charts of 102 countries five years ago.
The seven-member BTS recently outdid Adele with its song Black Swan, which topped the iTunes Top Charts in 104 countries.
Before V's victory, pop group Exo's member Baekhyun was South Korea's top-selling solo singer. His second mini album Delight which was launched on May 25 has sold 1,018,746 units, a first for a solo artiste in 19 years.