BTS’s first Korean-language number-one on the Billboard Hot 100 was “Life Goes On.”
Released on November 20, 2020, “Life Goes On” served as the lead single from BTS’s fifth Korean-language studio album, Be. The song reflected the disruption and uncertainty of the COVID-19 pandemic, pairing its message of endurance with a relatively restrained alternative hip-hop and synth-pop sound.
On the Billboard Hot 100 chart dated December 5, 2020, “Life Goes On” debuted at number one. It was BTS’s third Hot 100 leader, following “Dynamite” and the BTS remix of “Savage Love (Laxed – Siren Beat).” Its achievement was particularly notable because it was performed predominantly in Korean.
A frequent mix-up is “Dynamite,” which became BTS’s first overall Billboard Hot 100 number one in September 2020, but was sung in English. “Life Goes On” was the milestone that made BTS the first act to debut a primarily Korean-language song at the top of the chart.