USA
Billboard Report (excerpt)
'Choosin' Texas' slides down at No. 2
Tuesday, March 31, 2026
by Keith Caulfield & Gary Trust, Los Angeles

BTS' “Swim” makes the splashiest of starts, at No. 1, on the Billboard Hot 100. The song becomes the superstar South Korean pop group’s seventh career leader and first since 2021;

the following year, the septet announced a hiatus. “Swim” is from Arirang, BTS’ first studio album of new material since 2020. Released on BigHit Music / Geffen / Interscope Capitol, the song arrives as the Hot 100’s 1,190th No. 1 all-time, and the 89th to debut at the summit (making for a feat that 7% of all leaders have achieved). “Swim” drew 15.3 million official streams and 25.8 million radio airplay audience impressions and sold 154,000 (digital and physical singles combined) in the United States in the week ending March 26. It debuts at No. 2 on Streaming Songs, BTS’ best career rank on the chart; No. 18 on Radio Songs, the act’s highest entrance; and No. 1 on Digital Song Sales, where it’s BTS’ 13th leader, the most among groups. Ella Langley’s “Choosin’ Texas” drops to No. 2 on the Hot 100 following four weeks at No. 1 since mid-February — the most for a song by a woman that also hit No. 1 on Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart; it leads the latter list

for an 18th week. It also posts a fifth week atop Streaming Songs (23.7 million, up 9%). Olivia Dean’s first two Hot 100 top 10s remain in the region as “Man I Need” slips to No. 3 from its No. 2 high and “So Easy (To Fall in Love)” rises 9-7 for a new best. Bruno Mars’ “I Just Might” descends 3-4 after three weeks atop the Hot 100 in January to mid-March. It leads Radio Songs for a fifth week, with 80.9 million in audience (down 1%). Alex Warren’s “Ordinary” falls 4-5 on the Hot 100 after 10 weeks at No. 1 last June-August. It logs a 43rd week in the top five, tying The Weeknd’s “Blinding Lights” (2020-21) for the second-longest such run, after Shaboozey’s “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” (47 weeks, 2024-25). Huntr/x’s “Golden” backtracks 5-6 on the Hot 100 following eight weeks at No. 1 last August-October. PinkPantheress’ “Stateside,” with Zara Larsson, dips to No. 8 from its No. 6 Hot 100. Taylor Swift’s “The Fate of Ophelia” is down 8-9 on the Hot 100, after it began her career-best 10 weeks atop the chart upon its debut in October and led through January. Rounding out the Hot 100’s top 10, Kehlani’s “Folded” rises 13-10 after reaching No. 6. BTS' Arirang debuts at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 albums chart (dated April 4), scoring the reunited pop group their seventh leader. The set opens with 641,000 equivalent album units earned — the largest week for an album by a group since the chart began measuring by units in December 2014. Of that sum, 532,000 are in pure album sales (purchases of physical and digital albums), landing BTS the biggest sales week for an album by a group in more than a decade. Arirang follows BTS’ previous No. 1s Proof (2022), BE (2020), Map Of The Soul : 7 (2020), Map Of The Soul : Persona (2019), Love Yourself ‘Answer’ (2018) and Love Yourself ‘Tear’ (2018). Of ARIRANG’s 641,000 equivalent album units earned in the latest tracking week, pure album sales comprise 532,000 (the group’s biggest sales week ever; it debuts as BTS’ seventh No. 1 on Top Album Sales), SEA units comprise 95,000 (equaling 99.10 million on-demand official streams of the set’s songs, BTS’ biggest streaming week ever for an album; it debuts at No. 1 on Top Streaming Albums) and TEA units comprise the remainder. BTS claims the biggest week for an album by units earned since Taylor Swift’s The Life of a Showgirl debuted at No. 1 with an historic 4.002 million units on the Oct. 18, 2025-dated chart. BTS has the biggest week for any album by a group, by units, since the Billboard 200 began ranking by equivalent album units in December 2014. Luke Combs collects his seventh top 10-charted album on the Billboard 200, as The Way I Am arrives at No. 2 with 101,000 equivalent album units earned. Of that sum, SEA units comprise 76,000 (equaling 77.66 million on-demand official streams of the set’s songs; it debuts at No. 2 on Top Streaming Albums), album sales comprise 23,000 (it debuts at No. 2 on Top Album Sales) and TEA units comprise the rest. Morgan Wallen’s I’m the Problem falls 2-3 (76,000 equivalent album units earned, up 4%), Harry Styles’ Kiss All the Time. Disco, Occasionally. slips 1-4 in its third week (64,000, down 35%) and Don Toliver’s Octane rounds out the top five, rising 6-5 (55,000, down 2%). Dean’s The Art of Loving climbs 7-6 (54,000 equivalent album units, down 2%), Bad Bunny’s DeBÍ TiRAR MáS FOToS falls 5-7 (53,000, down 7%), Bruno Mars’ The Romantic is a non-mover at No. 8 (45,000, down 16%), Wallen’s One Thing at a Time rises 12-9 (38,000, up 7%) and the KPop Demon Hunters soundtrack is steady at No. 10 (36,000, down 4%).

Record Of The Month
'Fever Dream' by Alex Warren is his new smash and the first sign of a new album?

United Kingdom
Music Week Report (excerpt)
'Rein Me In' rules a fifth week
Monday, March 30, 2026
by Alan Jones, London
 
No.1 for the second week in a row, and fifth time in total, Rein Me In by Sam Fender & Olivia Dean racks up its highest weekly consumption since its release 57 weeks ago, increasing 1.57% week-on-week to 62,384 units (11 7-inch singles, 698 digital downloads and 61,675 sales-equivalent streams),

eclipsing the previous peak of 62,104 units it scaled three weeks ago. Racking up its 40th consecutive week in the Top 40 and topping the singles chart further into its initial chart run than any single in chart history, Rein Me In seems to have successfully fought off the challenge of Iloveitiloveitiloveit, which slips 2-3 (54,951 sales) with its consumption going into reverse after nine weeks of sustained growth for Bella Kay. Rein Me In reached another landmark in the week, achieving double platinum status, with to-date consumption rising to 1,234,210 units. Its elevation coincides with Olivia Dean’s solo leviathan Man I Need going triple platinum. Climbing 10-9 this week with ACR-adjusted consumption of 28,456 units, and unadjusted consumption of 56,143 units, Man I Need’s cume climbs to 1,830,878 units. Also still in the Top 10, Dean’s Easy (To Fall In Love) dips 5-6 (33,601 sales). It is the 13th week in a row she has had three songs in the Top 10

but that sequence will end next week, with So Easy (To Fall In Love) falling into ACR, alongside Stateside (4-5, 35,443 sales) by PinkPantheress. Also fancied to end the reign of ‘Rein’, Swim started well for BTS, bottomed out and then surged anew to debut at No.2 (56,843 sales) in the final snapshot. The lead single from Arirang – the South Korean boy band’s first new album since 2020 – it becomes their fifth Top 10 entry, and biggest hit, surpassing their triumvirate of No.3s: Dynamite (2020), Butter (2021) and Coldplay collaboration My Universe (also 2021). CD variants of Swim pulled in 4,866 sales, while ten digital iterations of the track secured 30,014 sales. The latter releases have the same audio, with a band sleeve; separate sleeves with portraits of BTS members RM, Suga, J-Hope, Jin, Jung Kook, V and Jimin; an instrumental version and the album track all making contributions. Arirang album tracks Body To Body (No.28, 14,327 sales) and Fya (No.39, 10,465 sales) also make their chart debuts, raising BTS’ tally of Top 40 hits to 12, and Top 75 hits to 24. A further 10 tracks from the set are ‘starred-out’ under primary artist rules. Swim’s overall pure sales tally of 34,880 is nearly 22 times as many as the week’s second most sold title, Where Is My Husband! by Raye, and only a little less than the 35,807 that the rest of the Top 200 titles in the pure sales chart achieved combined. All 14 songs on Arirang are in that list, with combined sales of 36,978. The rest of the Top 10: American Girls (3-4, 36,454 sales) by Harry Styles, Fever Dream (9-7, 30,417 sales) by Alex Warren, Homewrecker (7-8, 30,105 sales) by Sombr and Lush Life (8-10, 28,226 sales) by Zara Larsson. Overall singles consumption is up 0.98% week-on-week to 32,480,416 units, 5.75% above same week 2025 sales of 30,713,708 units. Paid-for sales are up 18.28% week-on-week at 289,520, 14.99% above same week 2025 sales of 251,787. Bringing to an end the run of 12 weeks in a row in which British acts have topped the album chart, South Korean septet BTS’ eagerly-awaited Arirang – their first new studio album since they went on hiatus in 2022 to complete their compulsory military service – makes an emphatic debut at No.1. Their 11th Top 75, sixth Top 10 and third No.1 album, the 14-song pop/hip-hop set secured consumption of 41,551 units (18,010 CDs, 8,009 vinyl albums, 2,297 digital downloads and 13,235 sales-equivalent streams) on debut, surpassing their previous personal best of 37,978 units set by Map Of The Soul: 7 when it became their second No.1 album in 2020. Their first No.1 – the EP, Map Of The Soul: Persona - achieved consumption of 26,498 units when it debuted at No.1 in 2019. BTS were the first South Korean act to have a No.1 album, although they have since been joined by Blackpink, whose 2022 set Born Pink also topped the chart. The only other acts born in Asia to top the UK album chart are Anglo-Indians Cliff Richard and Engelbert Humperdinck, and Filipina-born UK singer/songwriter Beabadoobee, who topped the list with her most recent album, This Is How Tomorrow Moves, in 2024. Arirang is set to debut at No.1 in many territories, most impressively in the USA, where it is projected to achieve first week consumption in excess of 600,000, including more than half a million pure sales. It will be their seventh No.1 there, trailing compatriots Stray Kids, who have racked up eight since 2022 – outpacing even Taylor Swift. K-pop is a bigger deal in America, with the genre landing 24 titles atop the Top 200 albums chart since BTS set the ball rolling with Love Yourself: Tear in 2018. Aside from BTS and Stray Kids, the tally includes two albums by Ateez, one apiece by SuperM, Blackpink, Tomorrow X, Together, New Jeans and Twice as well as the K-Pop Demon Hunters soundtrack – which is, of course, exiled to the compilation chart here, where it remains at No.1 this week – topping the chart for the 38th time in 40 weeks on consumption of 6,184 units (297 Yoto cards, 65 digital downloads and 5,822 sales-equivalent streams). It is the first time K-Pop albums have topped both album charts simultaneously. The most prolific new country act of the last decade, Luke Combs’ sixth album in less than nine years, The Way I Am becomes his fifth Top 30, third Top 10 and highest-charting album yet, debuting at No.4 (13,641 sales). The only album by Combs to fall short of the Top 75 is his 2017 debut, This One’s For You, which is nevertheless his most-consumed (and only platinum) album, with a to-date tally of 318,090 units. Country artists rarely make the Top 10, but Combs is the second to do so in the first quarter of 2026, emulating Zach Bryan, who debuted at No.3 with his latest album, With Heaven On Top in January. Said album rockets 98-48 (2,704 sales) this week, following its physical debut, with 316 CDs and 578 vinyl albums facilitating its fillip. Catapulted to fame in 1998 in the BBC documentary series The Cruise – following the cruise liner The Galaxy on its maiden voyage, and her role as its resident singer – Jane McDonald topped the chart with her eponymous debut album later that year. Now 63, McDonald returns to the chart with Living The Dream, which becomes her 11th Top 75 entry and fifth Top 10 album, debuting at No.10 (5,993 sales). The first release on her own Jeanie Productions label, it was recorded in Nashville and – like the Combs and Bryan albums - is regarded as country by OCC, earning a No.2 debut on the rolling two-week country chart, sandwiched between the Combs and Bryan titles. After two weeks at No.1, Kiss All The Time. Disco, Occasionally dips to No.2 (16,777 sales) for Harry Styles, ending the run of five consecutive weeks as runner-up for The Art Of Loving, which now dips to No.3 (14,938 sales) for Olivia Dean. The Art Of Loving has spent all of its first 25 weeks in the Top 5, while achieving consumption in excess of half a million units (502,184, to be precise). The rest of the Top 10: 50 Years: Don’t Stop (4-5, 8,279 sales) by Fleetwood Mac, The Highlights (7-6, 6,778 sales) by The Weeknd, The Essential (6-7, 6,628 sales) by Michael Jackson, +-=÷× Tour Collection (8-8, 6,461 sales) by Ed Sheeran and You’ll Be Alright, Kid (9-9, 6,078 sales) by Alex Warren. Overall album sales are down 0.01% (235 units) week-on-week at 2,553,091 units, 0.25% above same week 2025 sales of 2,546,811. Physical product accounts for 263,651 sales, 10.33% of the total.