V is making a comeback with a beautiful single, FRI(END)S! Set in a Victorian-ish contemporary era, here’s Taehyung’s massive digital single, FRI(END)S amazing 1st week achievements 🥳🎉👏🙌 Kim Taehyung is once again the most consumed Asian act across all digital platforms around the world.
FRI(END)S has now earned 98 #1s so far on iTunes 🥳🎉👏🙌 It is also the first song to achieve 80 #1s, not to mention 98 #1s, on iTunes in 2024. FRI(END)S has also remained at #1 on worldwide iTunes for 4 consecutive days.
It’s amazing how Taehyung’s exclusive digital single is now gearing up for another 100 #1s in iTunes in just a few days, a record that V has already achieved with Sweet Night, Christmas Tree, Inner Child, and Wherever U R (with UMI), and soon with Layover singles and B-sides, Slow Dancing, which is currently earning 98 #1s, Rainy Days, which has 86 #1s, and Love Me Again, which has 70 #1s 🥳🎉👏🙌
V’s exclusive digital single and EP also bagged two Top 5 hits and four Top 10 hits on iTunes all at once, with the main single, FRI(END)S, taking the 2nd spot on US iTunes in its first day, the instrumental at #5, the slowed down version at #6, and the sped up version at #8 🥳🎉👏🙌
Kim Taehyung has once again topped all the eight major markets on iTunes around the world, a record he consistently achieved with the release of all his officially released singles 🥳🎉👏🙌 V has also gained 20 #1s for FRI(END)S EP on the platform 🥳🎉👏🙌
Congratulations to FRI(END)S, too, on debuting at #1 on iTunes Europe and Worldwide, earning V 6 songs to reach #1 in both charts 🥳🎉👏🙌 Our Taehyung has now extended his record as the Korean solo artist with the most #1 hits on Japan iTunes Singles Chart 🥳🎉👏🙌
FRI(END)S is now V’s highest-charting solo single on UK Official Singles Chart at #6, which is previously held by BTS’s massive hit Boy With Luv in 2019 🥳🎉👏🙌 What’s more, FRI(END)S has debuted at #13 on UK Top 100 🥳🎉👏🙌
Taehyung is now eligible, once again, for another UK Chart Specialist Award with FRI(END)S topping on UK’s Best-Selling Download this week 🥳🎉👏🙌 His single debuted at #3 on the Official UK Big Top 40 🥳🎉👏🙌 With just 2 days of tracking, FRI(END)S has still become the third biggest debut for a Korean act in the chart’s history.
V’s debut album, Layover singles and B-sides, also entered the Top 10 at #6 for Rainy Days and #9 for Love Me Again on both the UK Official Singles Sales Chart and the Official Singles Downloads Chart. His debut album, Layover, has also been the first album by a Korean act to spend 4 consecutive weeks on the UK Official Album Downloads chart. Moreover, V’s Rainy Days back then also charted at #29 on UK Big Top 40 Record Chart with just 2 days of tracking, making V eligible for a Specialist Award. V’s impact did all of this even with just his first solo album and without proper promotion in UK, or the US (but rather with lots of sabotage instead!).
Like what real real and popular artists do, our Taehyung has made amazing impact with his many projects and activities with or without a brand promoting each other all these years. Awesome, Taehyung-ah. Keep the positive momentum!
Congratulations to our Taehyung, too, on earning the biggest 1st week album debut by a Korean act on Spotify so far this year with 45.2M streams 🥳🎉👏🙌 Your FRI(END)S single has also garnered 9M streams in its first day on Spotify and 15M streams on Spotify in its debut week (March 15-17). FRI(END)S has the biggest debut by a male act worldwide on Spotify Global Chart in 2024 🥳🎉👏🙌 It has also been the #1 Top Songs debut on Global Spotify with the instrumental debuting at #9.
FRI(END)S has occupied the entire Top 4 best-sellers on Amazon, with your main single at #1, the instrumental at #2, the sped up version at #3, and the slowed down version at #4. It has also occupied the entire Top 4 Hot New Releases on Amazon, too.
Wonderfully, FRI(END)S won this week’s Mcountdown 🥳🎉👏🙌 V has also debuted at #1 on Korean R&B chart in Genius Korea, becoming your 4th #1 on the chart after Love Me Again, Slow Dancing, and For Us.
On YouTube, FRI(END)S debuted at #1 on YouTube Global Daily Top Music Video chart with FRI(END)S. Apparently, YouTube has been continuously messing up V’s works, ultimately leading to his generated channel, V – Topic, being easily hacked by opportunistic hackers, deleting his channel’s over 2M subscribers and transferring all his songs to a hacker-created channel. Read more about my take on this in my greetings post. In the first week, FRI(END)S Official MV garnered 18M views on YouTube.
Talking about momentum, it’s also really admirable that V keeps giving us amazing content every month while he’s doing the most challenging training – the SDT – in the military since December. At the start of this year, V has graced the cover of Harper’s Bazaar Korea, delightful video ads with Compose Coffee, and his superb main lead role in IU’s song, Love Wins. By February, V had given us a Valentine update with photoshoots from W Korea, and just at the beginning of this month, V has released his brilliant video ad for SimInvest with Jackie Chan and his fully digital FRI(END)S single and EP, with awesome promotions from W Korea (luxury live performance), Compose Coffee (song posts), V’s celebrity friends’ cute reactions to his MV, and his own updates on Instagram and YouTube coming right after.
We’re super looking forward to Taehyung’s amazing projects, and I’m sure he’s got really massive ones lining up after his military discharge next year. Personally, I really want Taehyung to star with IU on a K-drama. They look perfect together, and it’s no surprise all the fans are super looking forward to see this sweet couple together and giving us the sweetest moments we idealize. Sojou manga, everyone? Our V also looks so perfect with Jennie (here’s wishing they’ll bravely confirm the rumors and we can finally support them openly). A proud moment for us to see our sweet Taehyung being paired up with amazing, beautiful, and impactful ladies, too, and promote each other’s name, brand, or projects.
Congratulations to Tae for wonderfully growing his career as a soloist step by step. That’s great, Taehyung-ah, because it’s truly yours.
Check out Tae Stars for more Taehyung updates.