Jimin of BTS has become the first South Korean soloist to lead the singles chart with “Like Crazy” off his debut solo album “Face,” which starts at No. 2 on Billboard’s albums chart.
The six-song EP, which incorporates songs in English and Korean, scored the second-biggest opening week for an album this year with the equivalent of 164,000 sales in the U.S., according to data by Luminate. It follows Morgan Wallen’s “One Thing at a Time,” which broke through with half a million units in mid-March and remains at the top of the Billboard 200 for a fourth week on the chart dated April 8.
“Face” debuts with 124,000 copies sold as a complete package and nearly 20 million streams. It was preceded by Jimin’s first top 40-charting song as a soloist on the songs list, “Set Me Free, Pt. 2″ (debuted at No. 30). Meanwhile, “Like Crazy” tops this week’s Hot 100 chart, sliding Miley Cyrus’s “Flowers” to a No. 2 slot.
The synth-heavy “Like Crazy” peaks at the summit powered by the undeniably strong pull of its sales. The song, which is available in a variety of remixes (Deep House, UK Garage and Instrumental) and has a version in both Korean and English, sold 254,000 copies as song downloads and CD singles combined and tallied 10 million streams.
“Face” also made a big splash in Jimin’s home country. It racked up over a million copies sold in South Korea, becoming the fastest-selling album by a South Korean soloist of all time, according to a report by Forbes.
Jimin is just the third member of the K-pop boyband to release an album on his own behind J-Hope and BTS leader RM, who shares songwriting credits on three of the six songs on “Face.” Jimin had previously topped the singles chart alongside BTS with “Savage Love (Laxed – Siren Beat),” “Life Goes On,” “Butter,” “My Universe,” and “Dynamite.”
The rest of the singles chart is made up of several former No. 1 holders: Wallen’s “Last Night” at No. 3; SZA’s “Kill Bill” at No. 4; Metro Boomin, the Weeknd and 21 Savage’s “Creepin’” at No. 5; the Weeknd and Ariana Grande’s “Die for You” is No. 6, and PinkPantheress and Ice Spice’s “Boy’s a Liar, Pt. 2” is at No. 7.
Rema and Selena Gomez’s “Calm Down” keeps at No. 8, while Taylor Swift’s “Anti-Hero” is at No. 9 and Coi Leray’s “Players” closes at No. 10.
As for the Billboard 200, Lana Del Rey’s “Did You Know That There’s a Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd” enters at No. 3 earning the equivalent of 115,000 units and 36 million on-demand official streams — marking Del Rey’s biggest streaming week ever.
Not only that, the set was made available in a variety of exclusive vinyl editions that racked in the biggest sales week for vinyl in 2023 (a career best across all of Del Rey’s vinyl releases). Vinyl sales comprised 67% of her first-week sales, though the album was also made available in nine CD variations and on cassette tape.
Elsewhere, Luke Combs earned his fifth top 10 charting effort with the No. 4 debut of “Gettin’ Old” (101,000 units); and Fall Out Boy’s “So Much (for) Stardust” debuts at No. 6 (64,000units). The new record is the group’s first new studio album since “Mania,” which debuted at No. 1 in 2018.
The rest of the albums chart’s top 10 sees Swift’s “Midnights” at No. 7 (59,000 units), Metro Boomin’s “Heroes & Villains” at No. 8 (45,000 units), Wallen’s “Dangerous: The Double Album” at No. 9 (43,000 units) and Karol G’s “Mañana Será Bonito” at No. 10.
