"Aliens" hit number one on iTunes in 78 countries at once, including the United States, a day after BTS announced they are skipping the next Grammy Awards entirely. The song itself is not new. It came out in March on BTS's album Arirang, the group's first release since all seven members finished South Korea's mandatory military service. Nothing about the song changed between March and now. What changed was the news right before it charted again. BTS posted the same statement to each member's Instagram: they will not submit any music for the 2027 Grammy ceremony. They said they hope their music gets judged on its own terms, not split up by region or language. The move is widely seen as a response to a new Grammy category, Best Asian Pop Music Performance, one of five categories the Recording Academy (the group behind the Grammys) added in June. To qualify, a song needs meaningful use of an Asian language. BTS's own recent hit "SWIM" hit number one on the Billboard Hot 100, the main US singles chart, in English. That means it would not have even qualified for the category built to spotlight artists like them. Grammys CEO Harvey Mason Jr. said he was "saddened" by the decision but respected it. BTS has five Grammy nominations and has never won. Within a day, fans organized a buying push under hashtags like #WeStandWithBTS#, sending a months-old song back to number one on iTunes in dozens of countries. iTunes ranks songs by real-time purchases, a much smaller pool than the streaming and radio airplay that decides the Hot 100. That is part of why a mobilized fanbase can move it this fast. The number one is real. What it is actually tracking is a fandom answering a Grammy snub with their wallets, not a new song catching fire on its own.