Only 10 Non-English Albums Have Reached #1 On Billboard In U.S. History… And Most Are By BTS
Most people know by now that BTS has been dominating music charts, both in their home country and countries around the world, including the United States. Their latest album, Map of the Soul: 7, has only continued to show their record-breaking capabilities in the music industry, with several of the songs hitting the top ten songs in all kinds of categories, from iTunes biggest hits to Billboard‘s charts and a variety of others.
It’s unusual for a foreign artist to make such monumental breakthroughs in the United States’ music industry. A lot of people are comparing BTS to the Beatles, with how much the international group is making waves in the U.S., just like the British group did back in its day.
In fact, according to Billboard, only 10 non-English albums have hit the #1 spot on their Top 200 chart in history. This chart ranks albums based on the most consumed LPs every week in the United States. And BTS has reached this spot with their albums… Not once, but four times.
They’re also the only non-English speaking group to have placed #1 on this chart more than once. They first met this mark in 2018, first with Love Yourself: Tear, and then again the same year with Love Yourself: Answer. Last year they reached it again with Map of the Soul: Persona, and then once more this year with their latest album.
The first non-English album to reach the #1 spot on the Billboard 200 was The Singing Nun‘s self-titled album, which reached the spot in 1963. This was monumental for her time, and it wasn’t until decades later that another foreign speaking album made the same accomplishment. Selena finally did it again in 1995 with Dreaming of You, with the majority of the album’s songs in Spanish.
Then, about a decade later, Josh Groban reached the #1 spot with Closer, sung in Italian, French, Spanish, and a little English. Soon after an album in similar languages, Ancora by Il Divo, reached the top of the charts, and then two years ago it was accomplished by Andrea Bocelli with Si. And finally, last year, fellow K-Pop group SuperM also became the second Korean pop album to reach #1!
So for the time being, BTS has made their place as the group with the most non-English albums on this coveted list, and it’s likely that they will keep that record for a very long time!
