BTS: Jin’s ‘The Astronaut’ breaks record for being fastest single by solo artist to sell million copies
Popular K-pop band BTS’ Kim-Seok Jin, famously known as Jin, is breaking records, one after the other, with his solo single ‘The Astronaut’. After topping various charts, the hit track has become the fastest single by a solo artist to sell a million copies.
On Friday, artist agency Big Hit Music announced that Jin’s first solo single’s sales have surpassed more than one million copies, which makes the pop sensation the third solo artist in K-pop history to sell over one million copies of an album.
According to Gaon Chart, an outstanding total of 1,024,382 copies of ‘The Astronaut’ have been sold so far. It was released on October 28, 2022.
Co-written by Jin, British rock band Coldplay, and Norwegian DJ Kygo, the single talks about Jin’s affection for his fans.
Previously, Chris Martin spoke about Coldplay’s first collaboration with BTS. The 45-year-old musician said, “I don’t think we’ll ever be able to match the BTS surprise. That was surprising even for us.”
“The journey from the first time it was mentioned – I was just like ‘how could that ever work?’ – to the song itself arriving and me thinking, ‘that could be for BTS’ – to now it feeling like the most natural collaboration in the world. It’s an amazing lesson for myself in keeping an open mind all the time, because you just never know what life or music is gonna throw you,” the singer added.
According to Hanteo, Jin made history by selling over 700,000 copies of the single in South Korea on its release day. It marked the highest first-day sales for a single by a soloist in Hanteo chart history, surpassing previous record-holder Lalisa, which sold over 330,000 copies on its opening day.
