BTS’s Jung Kook Beats Taylor Swift, Ed Sheeran And Kanye West On Spotify With His New Solo Single

A little more than a week ago, BTS member Jung Kook finally made his new single “Stay Alive” widely available, meaning fans everywhere could buy it on sites like Amazon and iTunes and stream it on platforms such as Apple Music, Pandora, Tidal and Spotify. On the latter option, the tune scores an impressive debut, beating some of the biggest names in the music industry, who also had just-dropped titles vying for a high starting point on the site’s charts.

Jung Kook’s “Stay Alive” is the top debut of the week on Spotify’s Top Song Global chart, which ranks the tunes that rack up the most plays from users in every nation in the world. The cut arrives at No. 10 with just over 18.8 million streams racked up in the first seven days it was available.

That sum would be an impressive start for any track by any musician, but the fact that Jung Kook was able to beat so many other well-known stars shows that he can succeed not only with the band that brought him worldwide fame and fortune, but also all on his own. This week, “Stay Alive” outperforms debuting singles like Becky G and Karol G’s “Mamiii” (No. 12, nearly 18.3 millon streams), Ed Sheeran and Taylor Swift’s “The Joker and the Queen” (No. 20, almost 15 million), Dove Cameron’s “Boyfriend” (No. 21, 14.87 million), Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg’s “Still D.R.E.” (No. 32, 12 million) and even Kanye West, Alicia Keys and Fivio Foreign’s “City of Gods” (No. 57, 9.8 million).

“Stay Alive” is Jung Kook’s first major single released under his own name. He has doled out solo tunes in the past, but none have reached the same audience or stirred up quite as much discussion as this latest win. The track was produced and co-written by fellow BTS bandmate Suga, who isn’t officially credited as an artist on the cut, but whose name is still attached in the title. 

All the streams “Stay Alive” has racked up should help it perform well on the Billboard charts very soon. The company should begin announcing where songs rank on tallies like the Hot 100 tomorrow (February 22), a day late due to the President’s Day holiday. The track was not a huge streaming success when looking solely at the U.S. audience, as it was only played 1.3 million times, but Jung Kook still appears to be headed for his first solo placement on the most important singles ranking in America.

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