BTS score hat-trick of number ones as Jane McDonald tops independent album chart

K-pop boyband BTS have secured a hat-trick of number one albums with their first release in four years while singer-songwriter Jane McDonald has topped the independent albums chart, the Official Charts Company has confirmed.

The 14-track record, titled Arirang, was released on Friday and has already shot to the top of the album chart while their latest single Swim is at number two on the singles chart.

It comes after the group – RM, Jin, Suga, J-hope, Jimin, V and Jung Kook – went on hiatus in 2022, during which they completed mandatory military service in their home country.

Arirang marks BTS’s third number one album, after Map Of The Soul: Persona and Map Of The Soul: 7 bagged the group number one records in 2019 and 2020, respectively.

The album has also topped the UK vinyl albums chart for the most physical records sold.

BTS’s album beat out competition from former One Direction star Harry Styles’s Kiss All The Time, Disco Occasionally (two), Olivia Dean’s The Art Of Loving (three), Luke Combs’s The Way I Am (four) and Fleetwood Mac compilation 50 Years – Don’t Stop (five) in the album charts.

Elsewhere on the albums chart, Wakefield-born TV presenter McDonald – known for her travel programmes – snagged the number 10 spot with her latest release, Living The Dream.

The 62-year-old’s record has also peaked on the independent albums chart, and has topped the official record store chart for selling the most records in the UK’s independent record shops.

It marks McDonald’s first release under her record label, Jeanie Productions, and the singer said she is “beyond thrilled” to have scored her latest number one.

Over on the UK singles chart, BTS landed the second place spot with Swim, which the Official Charts Company confirmed is their best performing track in the UK to date.

Two new songs from the group’s chart-topping album have also made their way into the top 40 this week, with Body To Body at number 28 and Fya at number 39.

Elsewhere on the singles chart, Grammy-winner Dean’s single with Sam Fender, titled Rein Me In, has returned to the summit for the fifth week.

The rest of the top five is made up of Bella Kay at three with her TikTok viral song ILoveItILoveItILoveIt, Styles at number four with his single American Girls and PinkPantheress at five with Stateside.