BTS provide the song of an unusual summer with the banging single Dynamite

The video for the single, the group’s first all-English release, broke YouTube records with at least three million concurrent views

The K-pop superstars say they decided to release the song because it was fun and they wanted to share its energy with their fans

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BTS released their latest single Dynamite, which broke YouTube records and could be the song of the summer.

Published: 10:15pm, 24 Aug 2020Updated: 2:26am, 25 Aug 2020

It hasn’t felt like much of a summer, but BTS are determined to give us the song of the summer anyway.

Fans went wild when the K-pop boy band and international sensations dropped their newest song and music video, Dynamite, at the end of last week: the video smashed YouTube’s premiere record with at least three million concurrent viewers.

As BTS’ first song sung completely in English, the track is soaked in colour and nostalgia. It fuses the novelty of Old Town Road with the international flair of I Like It and Despacito and all the sunny hype of Can’t Stop the Feeling! In other words, all the ingredients for a summer success.

“We built this song to give strength to the people who listen to it,” band member Suga said at a press conference announcing the release. “Our goal is to have as many people as possible hear it and get a little bit of reassurance and healing from it.”

Although the single features all-English lyrics – frontman RM is fluent, but most of the other six band members are not – BTS have previously reached unprecedented heights on a global scale in their native Korean: three Billboard Hot 100 Top 10 hits, four No 1 albums and sold-out world tours.

Yet Suga said at the press conference that BTS would focus on “reach and impact” with this song, rather than charts and rankings.

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