BTS - Map of the Soul: Persona

I. Introduction

Map of the Soul: Persona is the sixth mini album by BTS. It was released on April 12, 2019 with "Boy with Luv" serving as the album's title track. The album debuted at #1 on Billboard 200, becoming BTS's third #1 on that chart.

This album was the best-selling album of 2019 in South Korean history and third best-selling album of 2019 in the world. Persona is currently the second best-selling album in South Korea of all time, with Map of the Soul: 7 being number one.

As of 2021, the album has sold more than three million copies, almost four million.

II. Background and Release

BTS first announced Map of the Soul: Persona on March 11, 2019, pre-orders began on March 13. The EP marked a "new era" in the band's discography, after the completion of its Love Yourself series in 2018 with the release of the Love Yourself: Tear and Love Yourself: Answer albums. It was set for release before the band embarked on the stadium extension of its Love Yourself world tour, named Love Yourself: Speak Yourself.

On March 27, the group released the official "comeback trailer" for their album, named "Persona" which would later become the introduction to the extended play. The solo featured RM.

On April 7, the band released the first music video teaser, revealing that American singer Halsey would be on the track and that the name of the title track would be named "Boy With Luv." One day later, on April 8, the group released the tracklist and album cover of the album, unveiling the seven tracks of the EP.

III. Tracklist

^{IV. Spotify Playlist}

V. Videos

Trailer(s)

Teaser(s)

Official Video(s)

Live Performance(s)

Dance Practice(s)

VI. Concept Pictures

VII. Reception

Map of the Soul: Persona received generally favorable reviews from critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a weighted mean rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, Map of the Soul: Persona received an average score of 74 based on 11 reviews.

According to iriver Inc, the distributor for the Map of the Soul: Persona, stock preorders for the EP surpassed 2.68 million copies over the first five days of the preorder period. The number was later updated to 3.07 million on April 11, the day before the EP's release.

^{In South Korea, the EP recorded 2.13 million first-week sales, the highest number for an artist in the country since the Hanteo Chart began tracking weekly sales at its inception. Map of the Soul: Persona debuted at number one on the Gaon Album Chart with all tracks debuting on the Gaon Digital Chart, including the lead single "Boy With Luv", which debuted at 17 and reached number one the following week.}

^{Map of the Soul: Persona sold 3,229,032 copies in its first month the country, making it the highest-selling release on the Gaon Music Chart since its inception in 2011. The EP also became the best-selling album of all time in South Korea, surpassing Kim Gun-mo's 1995 album Wrongful Encounter.}

^{In the United States, Map of the Soul: Persona debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 with 230,000 album-equivalent units, including 196,000 pure album sales, becoming the band's biggest week in terms of units. It is BTS' third number-one album in roughly 11 months, making them the first band to achieve three number-ones in a year since the Beatles in 1995 through 1996. BTS also became the band with the second-fastest accumulation of three number-one albums since the Billboard 200's inception.The EP's lead single "Boy With Luv" debuted at number eight on the Billboard Hot 100 with 31,000 pure sales and 19.5 million streams.}

^{VIII. Awards}