Suga Becomes Highest-Charting K-Pop Soloist Alongside Bandmate Jimin

Courtesy of BigHit Music

Suga, a member of the popular K-Pop group BTS, has reached new heights of success with his first full-length solo album "D-Day" debuting at No. 2 on the Billboard 200 chart. The rapper tied with his bandmate Jimin, who achieved the same position last month with his solo release "Face", making them the highest-charting K-Pop soloists to date.

According to a Billboard preview of this week's chart released on Monday, "D-Day" earned 140,000 equivalent album units, including 122,000 physical album sales. American singer Morgan Wallen's "One Thing at a Time" secured its eighth consecutive week at No. 1. The Billboard 200 chart ranks the most popular albums of the week in the United States, based on equivalent album units comprising physical album sales and other digital sales records.

Billboard noted that "D-Day" was released in various collectible CD packages, including a standard set of items and randomized elements, and was available as a standard digital download album, as well as three alternative cover digital download variants that were sold exclusively through the artist's official webstore. Of the album's first-week sales, 90 percent were CDs, while the remaining 10 percent were digital album downloads.

Suga's solo success makes him the third BTS member to score a top 10 solo album on the Billboard 200, following RM who reached No. 3 with "Indigo" in 2020 and Jimin.

"D-Day" marks Suga's first solo project in three years since "D-2" in 2020, which was an unofficial mixtape. The album consists of 10 tracks, including "Haegeum", "People Pt. 2 (Feat. IU)", "D-Day", "Huh?! (Feat. J-Hope)", "Amygdala", "SDL", "Interlude: Dawn", and "Snooze (Feat. Ryuichi Sakamoto, Kim Woo-sung of The Rose)".

In addition, Billboard announced on social media that the lead track from "D-Day", titled "Haegeum", debuted at No. 58 on the Hot 100 main songs chart for the week. The song's title has a dual meaning, referring to a traditional Korean string instrument and a Korean noun that signifies lifting restrictions. The track features the haegeum instrument and highlights the theme of freedom for those who face various limitations and constraints in their daily lives and in society.

This is not the first time Suga has made it onto the Hot 100 chart. He previously ranked No. 76 with "Daechwita", No. 29 with "Girl Of My Dreams" from the album "Fighting Demons" by the late Juice WRLD, and No. 80 with "That That", a collaboration single with Korean rapper-singer Psy.

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BlueYIM, yimyoungseo1010@naver.com