Friday, May 22, 2026

Taylor Swift Will Hold Jung Kook at Bay with New “1989” Set to Best BTS Singer’s Album

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The sales numbers are shaping up for albums this week. Guess who will be number 1?

Hitsdailydouble says Taylor Swift — who last week sold 1.5 million copies of “1989 (Taylor’s Version)” — will be back on top. Swifties are picking up another 225,000 copies.

This means that BTS star Jung Kook, despite a ton of hype and stuffing of the ballot box, will finish at number 2. “Golden” will come in with just 160,000 copies sold.

This is certainly a loss for Scooter Braun, who now runs BTS business in the US but became Public Enemy Number 1 for buying and then selling off Swift’s masters without permission.

Jung Kook’s single, “Standing Next to You,” is currently holding positions 1-4 on iTunes. But that is suspect, and part of a pattern with BTS singles on iTunes. Fans swamp the site with purchases, but when it’s over, the numbers are always lower than expected.

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Roger Friedman
Roger Friedmanhttps://www.showbiz411.com
Roger Friedman is the founder and editor-in-chief of Showbiz411. He wrote the FOX411 column on FoxNews.com from 1999 to 2009 and previously edited Fame magazine and wrote the "Intelligencer" column at New York magazine. His bylines have appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, the New York Daily News, the New York Post, Vogue, Details, and the Miami Herald. He is a voting member of the Critics Choice Awards (Film and Television branches), and his movie reviews are tracked by Rotten Tomatoes. is articles have appeared in dozens of publications over the years including New York Magazine, where he wrote the Intelligencer column in the mid 90s and covered the OJ Simpson trial, and Fox News (when it wasn't so crazy) where he covered Michael Jackson. With D.A. Pennebaker and Chris Hegedus, he co-produced the 2002 documentary "Only the Strong Survive," which screened at Directors' Fortnight at the Cannes Film Festival.

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