SEOUL — South Korean megaband BTS said on Friday it was renewing its quest to win a Grammy Award with its new single “Butter,” building on its success last year, when it became the first Korean pop group to win a Grammy nomination.

And as soon as the song launched, the group’s fans, known as the Army, started showing their appreciation for the song. Twitter announced that BTS fans had Tweeted about “Butter” over 31 million times on launch day, and had made more than 300 million Tweets in the month leading up to the single’s release.

“Butter” was released on May 21, followed by a world premiere performance on May 23 at the 2021 Billboard Music Awards. During the three hours of the awards show, fans worldwide sent over 14.4 million Tweets related to BTS, Twitter said in a statement.

BTS won the Top Duo/Group, Top Selling Song, and Top Song Sales Artist awards at the Billboard Music Awards. It also won the Top Social Artist award for the fifth year in a row.

In a breakthrough year in the United States in 2020, the seven-member boy band was nominated but did not win an award, and instead performed its hit song “Dynamite” at the Grammy ceremony.

“Of course we would like to win a Grammy. That’s still valid and we are aiming to work for it once again with ‘Butter,’ and hoping for good results,” songwriter and rapper Suga told a news conference in Seoul.

He said “Butter,” the group’s second English-language single following “Dynamite,” was a funky summer track.

Vocalist Jimin said he regretted BTS could not meet fans for the eighth anniversary of the group’s debut next month, which will be celebrated virtually rather through a live concert because of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. “I’ve felt somewhat isolated being unable to see fans due to the current situation, but we continue to think hard about how we can show our different aspects and satisfy them,” he said.

Leader and rapper RM said: “For us, the biggest topic is what function BTS can serve, why we exist and which values we should pursue under this new normal era and for the industry.” — Reuters

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