Did BTS just drop the song of the summer?

EACH of BTS's new tracks sends Twitter into a frenzy. The band's latest release, "Permission to Dance," is no exception. The accompanying video has already scored millions of views on YouTube, potentially making the track the song of summer 2021.

After forming eight years ago, the K-pop band BTS keeps on scaling the dizzy heights of success. RM, Jin, Suga, J-hope, Jimin, V and Jungkook have now taken another step towards world domination with "Permission to Dance," their new song entirely in English. This track is the seven South Korean musicians' second collaboration with the English singer-songwriter, Ed Sheeran. It sees them abandon rap for the kind of dance-pop sound that has sealed the success of the "Shape of You" singer.

And this change of musical direction seems to please, since the official music video for "Permission to Dance" currently has over 41 million views on YouTube, just 10 hours after landing on the platform. While this isn't a record for the famous boy band, it's one of their best launches on the video hosting platform. Plus, there's every chance that the "Permission to Dance" music video (or MV, as the band's fans call it on social media) will continue to notch up even more views.

This summer's anthem?

Fans of the K-pop kings have taken to Twitter to comment on the wild west vibe of their idols' new video. In fact, they have already posted more than three million tweets about the video, sending the #Permissiontodance hashtag rocketing to the top of the social network's trending topics. And the release date of "Permission to Dance" is far from insignificant for BTS fans, more commonly known as the "ARMY." The track happens to have been released on the eighth anniversary of the creation of this fan community, and is seen by many of its members as a "gift" from RM and bandmates.

Only 32M views in 7 hours? Doesn't Bts deserves more views? They gave us this MV as a birthday gift, So should also Break the records as a gift for them. Wake up armies. LET'S SHOW OUR POWER RT to Spread @BTS_twt #PermissiontoDance #STREAMPERMISSIONTODANCE pic.twitter.com/PlyClOf8B4
— TaeZeem (@ZeemSamia) July 9, 2021

It also lands just in time to become the hit of the summer. With its English lyrics and catchy beat, "Permission to Dance" has everything it takes to compete with tracks like Olivia Rodrigo's "good 4 u," the Doja Cat and SZA song "Kiss Me More" or "Yonaguni" by Bad Bunny. But it also has to contend with another BTS track, "Butter," a self-love anthem that's already been in Billboard's prestigious "Hot 100" chart for six weeks, and is just as likely a candidate for getting vacationers dancing this summer.

But for the journalist Judy Berman, this summer's smash hit could be different from previous years' summer anthems because of the singular situation created by the covid-19 pandemic. "For music, after a 2020 that gave us one indelible banger ("WAP") and a lot of quieter, more niche stuff, that will probably mean a return to upbeat, crowd-pleasing, sing-along jams," she told TIME. "Whatever the song of the summer turns out to be, we're sure to hear a lot of it, because so much of our recreation is going to happen in public places." And that's already the case for "Permission to Dance," 10 hours after its release.