BTS earned praise from South Korean president Moon Jae-in for the band’s Billboard success.
Billboard officially confirmed that BTS’ latest release, “Love Yourself: Answer,” had reached No. 1 on its top 200 albums chart Monday -- a phenomenal achievement, yet one that many expected. The band had already come atop the albums chart in May with “Love Yourself: Tear.”
BTS earns praise from the Blue House. (Big Hit Entertainment)
What was unexpected was the congratulatory tweet that came from the president of the band’s home country.
“Huge congratulations to (BTS) on topping the Billboard 200 for a second time,” read the post on the Blue House’s official English Twitter account. The tweet, posted Monday with the hashtag “ARMY” in reference to a collective epithet for the band’s fans, earned more than 114,000 likes and 61,000 retweets as of Wednesday.
This isn’t the first time BTS has received a presidential congratulations, however.
On May 28, Moon congratulated the K-pop phenomenon for topping the Billboard 200 for the first time, just two days after his surprise summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.
The Blue House commended BTS` recent Billboard feat on Twitter.
“BTS gave strength to young people around the world,” the president’s first tweet read, which was also written in English -- perhaps in consideration of the group's international fan base.
BTS responded by retweeting the commendation from the Blue House -- the Twitter way of expressing appreciation.
The seven-piece act is spending the latter half of 2018 on a concert tour, with five North American cities on the schedule for September.
By Kim Arin (arin@heraldcorp.com)
