I. Introduction
"Stay Gold" is the first Japanese digital single by BTS. It was released on June 19, 2020, as a pre-release for their fourth Japanese album, Map of the Soul: 7 ~ The Journey ~.
II. Background & Release
On March 26, Billboard Japan reported that a new BTS song called "Stay Gold" had been selected as the theme for then upcoming Japanese television drama, Spiral Labyrinth–DNA Forensic Investigation (Rasen no Meikyū–DNA Kagaku Sōsa)—it would be the band's first Japanese drama theme song in two years since "Don't Leave Me" for Fuji TV's 2018 series Signal. Originally slated to air on TV Tokyo in April, filming for the drama was halted due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Japan, and the song's release was delayed.
In May, Big Hit Entertainment officially announced that the release of BTS' fourth Japanese studio album was set for July—"Stay Gold" was included on the finalized track list as the lead single and would digitally precede the album's drop roughly one month in advance. The first teaser of the song was revealed on May 14 through a promotional music spot video for the album uploaded to Universal Music Japan's YouTube channel. The 15-second long clip included a brief snippet of the song's official music video at the end, in which BTS member Jungkook could be heard singing the words "stay gold" with "kimi sae ireba" as the responding refrain. The clip garnered over 880,000 views within a week of release. A second music spot video was uploaded on July 12.
The single was simultaneously released across various digital platforms worldwide on June 19. Yunika Vision ran a 30-minute long special feature of seven BTS music videos including "Stay Gold" on its screens in front of Seibu-Shinjuku Station from July 6–12; the feature was also accessible for mobile viewing with high-quality sound via the "VISION α" app. The complex later ran a Billboard Japan Hot 100 airplay feature of the music video from July 28–August 4, during which it was shown five times a day.
III. Spotify Playlist
IV. Videos
Official MV
V. Reception
In Japan, "Stay Gold" entered the Billboard Japan Hot 100 at number 18. It rose six places the following day and peaked at number 12. On Oricon, the song debuted at number two on the Daily Digital Single chart where it remained for two consecutive days. With only three days of tracking, as it was released just before the end of the charting week, the song entered the Weekly Digital Single chart for the period June 15–21 at number six with 10,880 sales. It also landed on the Total Weekly Singles aggregate chart at number 17. It continued to chart on the daily digital ranking, rising to number six on its fourth day and staying there for two consecutive days before leaving the top ten. The song sold a further 6,824 copies for the period June 22–28 to rank at number 10 on the weekly digital chart. It left the top 20 the following week, but achieved a new peak on the aggregate chart for the same period at number 12, and continued to rank there for five successive weeks. Upon the album's release, the song made a brief return to the daily digital chart dated July 14 at number six, and the weekly digital chart for the period July 13–19 at number 15, selling an additional 6,947 copies.
In the United States, "Stay Gold" debuted at number one on the World Digital Song Sales chart. This marked the band's 20th number-one entry on the World chart and their 89th top-10 ranking overall. The track was the sixth best-selling digital song of the week in the US with just over 10,000 sales, garnering the band its sixteenth top-10 entry on Billboard's all-genre Digital Song Sales chart. It is the highest charting Japanese song by a Korean artist on the chart. The song also landed on Billboard's Bubbling Under Hot 100 chart at number nine. It did not enter South Korea's Gaon Digital Chart, but peaked at number 52 on the component Download Chart. The song additionally charted at number three in Hungary.
Globally, "Stay Gold" set a new record as the first Japanese single to top iTunes charts in 82 countries within 24 hours of release, including the US, the United Kingdom, Japan, France, Brazil, and India. It surpassed previous record holder, the band's 2019 single "Lights", which charted at number one in 43 territories. The record was subsequently broken in July, by album-mate "Your Eyes Tell", which topped iTunes charts in 92 territories in its first 24 hours.
According to Billboard Japan, "Stay Gold" was the 46th most-streamed song of 2020 in the country. It ranked at number 56 on the Japan Hot 100 Year End chart, the second-highest entry of four BTS songs to make it on the hundred-song ranking, behind only "Dynamite" at number 18. In March 2021, "Stay Gold" became BTS' first Japanese song—second song overall after "Dynamite"—to surpass 100 million on-demand streams in Japan. BTS is the first foreign artist in the chart's history to have two songs achieve this.
