BTS’ ‘Love Yourself: Tear’ vs. Post Malone’s ‘Beerbongs & Bentleys’ For No. 1 on Billboard 200 Albums Chart
Korean boy band BTS and hip-hop star Post Malone both have their sights set on the No. 1 slot on the Billboard 200 chart.
Korean boy band BTS and hip-hop star Post Malone both have their sights set on the No. 1 slot on the Billboard 200 chart. The former’s Love Yourself: Tear and the latter’s beerbongs & bentleys could each earn over 120,000 equivalent album units in the week ending May 24, according to industry forecasters.
Love Yourself: Tear, which was released on May 18 via BigHit Entertainment and is primarily sung in the Korean language, will see its first week mostly powered by traditional album sales. Post Malone’s beerbongs & bentleys, which has been No. 1 for the past three weeks, may lock up a fourth frame atop the tally, off the strength of streams.
If BTS does come out on top, it will mark the first No. 1 album for the K-pop genre, and — as Love Yourself: Tear is performed mostly in the Korean language — the first primarily foreign-language chart-topper since 2006. That year, another boy band (of sorts), the classical crossover vocal quartet Il Divo, topped the list with Ancora. The album blended songs performed in Spanish, Italian and French, along with a track sung partially in English.
The Billboard 200 chart ranks the most popular albums of the week based on multi-metric consumption, which includes traditional album sales, track equivalent albums (TEA) and streaming equivalent albums (SEA). The top 10 of the June 2-dated Billboard 200 chart (where BTS’ Love Yourself: Tear will debut) is scheduled to be revealed on Billboard’s websites on Sunday, May 27.
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