Here is this week's Luminate Data Market Watch report which features Canadian music stats for the current week and YTD with comparisons to last year. This chart is published every Tuesday.
By External Source
Here is this week's Luminate Data Market Watch report which features Canadian music stats for the current week and YTD with comparisons to last year. This chart is published every Tuesday. The abbreviation "TEA" is a term used to describe the sale of music downloads or singles. A track equivalent album is equal to 10 tracks, or 10 songs.
L-R: J-Hope, Usher and RM
The K-pop stars attended the R&B superstars' second night at Rogers Stadium before meeting with them backstage and posing for several photos together. BTS returns to the Canadian stage next week with two nights at Rogers Stadium on Aug. 22-23.
BTS are already enjoying Toronto's massive concert scene.
J-Hope and RM, two members of the globally successful K-pop group, enjoyed a night out on Wednesday night (Aug. 12), attending a blockbuster summer concert in Toronto: Chris Brown and Usher's second and final night at Rogers Stadium as part of their R&B Tour: Raymond & Brown.
The K-pop singers were seen dancing along and getting hyped to many of the iconic tracks that make up the R&B legends' hit-filled setlist, including Usher's 2000s classic "Yeah" and Brown's "Look At Me Now," to which J-Hope posted a story of the pair lip syncing. They also met Brown and Usher backstage, who both shared photos with the BTS members on Instagram.
The visit has caused split reactions among BTS fans, many of whom are criticizing the members for attending the shows given Brown's history of legal issues, notably his infamous 2008 felony arrest for assaulting Rihanna. "That's disappointing," reads one comment with over 7,000 likes, while another user voiced their disbelief that J-Hope and RM attended the show, garnering over 3,000 likes.
Recently, the R&B Tour was almost in jeopardy after Brown was arrested in London, England in May in connection to a 2023 bottle throwing incident. While he was initially denied bail until his June 13 hearing, he was released early in May and later pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of affray in July. Brown has also recently tried to stop a bid to prevent his former housekeeper Maria Avila from using the revenue from this current tour to settle a $13 million judgement that she won after being violently attacked by the singer's dog. On Friday, Brown filed a new notice asking for the case to be retried, arguing that a mention of his 2008 felony unfairly influenced the "excessive" $13 million verdict.
After getting a quick taste of Toronto's energy, BTS are gearing up to make their grand return to the Canadian stage for the first time in almost a decade, playing two nights at Rogers Stadium on Aug. 22-23. It's their first time playing a stadium in Canada and returning to the country following their inaugural Canadian shows in Hamilton in 2018, easily making for already one of the most anticipated concerts coming to Canada in 2026.
The two shows follow a major comeback year for the group, which saw them treat their Army with their new album Arirang, which topped the Billboard Canadian Albums chart after their four-year hiatus. Its massive sales helped South Korea rise as the third top music exporter worldwide this year, while also driving a rise in physical album sales and a unique spike in CD sales, per Luminate's mid-year report.
Toronto city council approved a temporary motion to rename the stretch of Yonge Street that runs from North York Boulevard to Finch Avenue to BTS Boulevard for a month, starting on Aug. 21, the eve of the first concert. Toronto will host its Korean Festival at Mel Lastman Square, the largest Korean cultural event in the country, on the same weekend as BTS' two shows.
"It's a great opportunity to amplify the Korean culture that is being celebrated and we are hoping to invite BTS Army to come to the Korean festival since they're going to be in town," says councillor Lily Cheng, who proposed the motion.
