It’s BTS’ world, and we’re all just living in it.
Need proof? On Friday morning, the South Korean boy band released the video for their song “Boy With Luv,” which features American pop star Halsey. By 5 a.m. on Saturday, the video had received an astounding 78 million plays, according to Variety. This number smashes the record for most plays within a 24-hour period that had been set last week by K-pop girl group BLACKPINK for the song “Kill This Love,” which garnered 56.7 million views in 24 hours after its release. (That video broke Ariana Grande’s record for the instantly viral, extremely meme-able “Thank U, Next” music video, if that gives you an idea of how impressive this accomplishment is.)
AdvertisementADVERTISEMENT
“Boy With Luv” is the lead single from the group’s new album, Map Of The Soul: Persona, which was also released in full (including a track written by Ed Sheeran) on Friday. The single is a reference to BTS’ 2014 song “Boy In Luv,” with a lighter, more joyous sound that is echoed in Halsey’s feature and the colorful, kaleidoscopic video. On Saturday, the song had reached about 85 million views and was #2 on YouTube’s trending list, just behind the new Star Wars trailer.
If you can’t get enough BTS — which seems to be the case for a whole lot of people — you can see them perform “Boy With Luv” on tonight’s Saturday Night Live, hosted by Emma Stone.