Monsta X Is The Rare Korean Band To Chart A Top 40 Hit On U.S. Pop Radio

As she gets ready to release her new album Future Nostalgia (two weeks earlier than expected, as the singer moved it up due to the coronavirus outbreak), Dua Lipa rules Billboard’s Pop Songs chart once again with her smash “Don’t Start Now,” which has held onto the highest spot on the tally for five turns now. Further down the ranking—at the very bottom, actually—a new single debuts on the list, and it comes from an unlikely source.

Monsta X finally send their new single “You Can’t Hold My Heart” to No. 40 this time around, certifying it as a proper hit on pop radio, at least a minor, momentary one. Billboard’s Pop Songs chart ranks the most-played tracks labeled as pop on top 40 stations across the country, and landing on the ranking means a tune has really started to pick up steam on some of the most influential radio stations in the country.

“You Can’t Hold My Heart” is the type of song that one might expect to hear on a top 40/pop station, but it comes from a musical act still introducing themselves to America, let alone radio programmers. Monsta X are a Korean vocal group who got their start performing in Korean, but after signing with an American label, they’ve switched things up and taken to writing and singing in English. 

Monsta X’s new offering is now one of fewer than 10 songs pushed by Korean acts, performing in any language, to reach the Pop Songs chart, so this is obviously very special for the group. They join K-pop heavyweights Psy and BTS in this accomplishment, and they have shown that while releasing English-language music was certainly a risk, it is paying off for the band, at least it’s starting to.

Impressively, “You Can’t Hold My Heart” is the only debut on this week’s Pop Songs chart in what has turned out to be a fairly quiet frame for pop radio in this country. Unlike many other Billboard rankings, the radio-focused lists don’t turn over nearly as frequently, but there is usually more movement than is visible this time around, and Monsta X surely beat out a number of newly-released cuts that have been attempting to rack up enough plays to find their way to the top 40 on this specific list.

Gallery: The World’s 30 Top-Earning Musicians 2018

33 images