(LEAD) BTS-Coldplay collaboration 'My Universe' debuts at No. 1 on Billboard Hot 100

All News 11:02 October 05, 2021

(ATTN: UPDATES with a quote from Billboard, more details in paras 2,4, 6-9)

SEOUL, Oct. 5 (Yonhap) -- K-pop supergroup BTS made another No. 1 debut on Billboard's main singles chart with a collaboration single with British rock band Coldplay, Billboard said.

"Coldplay and BTS rocket onto the Billboard Hot 100 songs chart at No. 1 with their collaborative new single 'My Universe'," Billboard said on its website Monday (U.S. time).

It marks BTS' sixth No. 1 debut and Coldplay's second on the Hot 100, one of the pop music industry's most influential music charts.

Billboard said "My Universe" drew 11.5 million U.S. streams and 5.5 million radio airplay audience impressions and sold 127,000 downloads and physical singles combined in its first week, ending Sept. 30.

This photo, captured from BTS' Twitter account on Sept. 23, 2021, shows the K-pop act and Coldplay in New York. (PHOTO NOT FOR SALE) (Yonhap)

BTS previously hit No. 1 on the chart 16 times with five songs, with "Butter" leading the list with 10 times, followed by "Dynamite" with three, and "Savage Love (Laxed - Siren Beat)," "Life Goes On" and "Permission to Dance" with one each.

The South Korean group has achieved its six Hot 100 chart-leaders over a span of a year and just over a month, the fastest since The Beatles scored six over a year and two weeks, in 1964-66 with "I Feel Fine," "Eight Days a Week," "Ticket to Ride," "Help!," "Yesterday" and "We Can Work It Out," Billboard said.

With "My Universe," Coldplay claimed its second Hot 100 No. 1 after "Viva La Vida" ruled the chart on June 27, 2008.

The new song also debuted atop the Billboard's Digital Song Sales chart, the BTS's ninth No. 1 and Coldplay's second.

An uplifting song about love transcending all divides, the track was co-written in Korean and English by the two acts and produced by hitmaker Max Martin.

Released Sept. 24, the song debuted at No. 3 on the British Official Singles Chart Top 100, on par with two previous highest rankings for the South Korean group, according to the rankings unveiled by the chart company Friday (local time).

The song will be included on Coldplay's ninth album, "Music of the Spheres," to be released Oct. 15.