UPDATED: MusiCares is the Recording Academy’s charitable wing, and its annual concert during Grammy Week is its main source of fundraising virtually every year. The organization distributes money to music people — musicians, songwriters, producers, engineers, executives and more — in need, and in the past year they’ve distributed more than $22 million in COVID relief, in addition to their usual aid for medical and financial hardships for any music people who qualify, not just Academy members.
Of course, this year’s show was virtual, but H.E.R., Haim and of course BTS dedicated new performances for the show. BTS, dressed sharply in mostly matching suits, lit up their global hit “Dynamite” from the stage of a theater that, according to fans on social media, was the Kyunghee University Grand Peace Palace in Seoul, although reps declined to confirm the location. The performance was stately and light on dancing, but with no loss of energy — and Jungkook took a turn on drums.
The K-pop superstars have won so many accolades over the past year that it’s hard to know where to begin, but the most recent was from the global music trade International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI), which awards the group’s latest album,“Map of the Soul: 7,” winner of its first-ever Global Album All Format Chart, following a countdown of the top ten biggest albums globally, IFPI is the organization that represents the recorded music industry worldwide.
The chart, an addition to IFPI’s existing global awards, celebrates the best-selling albums of the year across all consumption formats, spanning physical sales, digital downloads, and streaming platforms.
After its February 2020 release, the fourth studio album from the K-pop superstarstopped the charts in the group’s home country of Korea, where the album broke the all-time sales record,as well as the world’s five largest music markets (USA, Japan, UK, Germany, France).
