BTS on course to achieve first UK No 1 single with new song ‘Dynamite’

K-Pop stars will perform the track live for the first time at the MTV VMAs this week

BTS look likely to achieve their first ever No 1 UK single with their hit song, “Dynamite”.

The English-language, funk-inspired track was released last week and has already broken records, including the most views on YouTube in a single day.

In just 24 hours, the music video for “Dynamite” had attracted 101.1 million views. It also set a record for the biggest music video premiere in YouTube’s history, with three million peak concurrent viewers tuning in to watch for the first time.

“Dynamite” is currently at the top of the iTunes charts in 104 regions and, for the first time for a Korean act, on top of Spotify’s “Global Top 50”. At the time of writing, the music video had more than 175 million views.

The band are now aiming for their debut No 1 on the Official UK Singles Charts.

K-pop boy band BTS visit the SiriusXM Studios, New York City on February 21, 2020 (Getty Images for SiriusXM)

BTS first teased the video in July, explaining that they are currently preparing an album for the second half of the year.

“[We] decided to first release a single because we wanted to reach our fans as soon as possible. Due to Covid-19, people around the world have been going through tough times and we wanted to share some positive energy with our fans,” they said.

In a more recent interview with Apple Music, RM said that “Dynamite” is made of “positive vibes, energy, hope, love, the purity, everything”.

“Recording this song was really fun, and like Jin said, we’re going through difficult times so we tried to have more fun working on this song,” he added.

“We made this song in hopes of giving energy to the listeners. We’re glad this song turned out great and hope a lot of our fans can listen to it to receive the positive energy we tried to incorporate in the song.”

BTS will make their performance debut at the MTV VMAs on 30 August, where “Dynamite” will be performed live for the first time.