The K-pop megastars BTS began their world tour on Thursday, fueled by the success of their latest album, topping global charts, and a massive concert in the heart of Seoul marking their return.
The seven-member group, hailed as the biggest boy band in the world, hit the stage for the first time last month after a break of several years due to mandatory military service, following the release of their latest studio album, “ARIRANG.”
The concert, held near the historic Gyeongbokgung Palace, drew over 100,000 fans to downtown Seoul, according to the group’s record label, while its live broadcast on Netflix gathered around 18.4 million viewers worldwide, according to the streaming giant.
The city, located about fifteen kilometers north of the capital, was already blanketed in violet, the group’s iconic color, several hours before the concert.
This hue was reflected in the clothing of many fans waiting outside the stadium. Some of them were heard speaking English, Spanish, Chinese, or Japanese, showcasing the group’s international reach.
“It was the hardest ticket to get for me. Even being in Korea with high-speed internet, I was 80,000th in line,” said Evelyn Soto Villarreal, a 27-year-old Mexican fan living in Busan, to AFP.
As the show neared its end, temperatures dropped and the rain intensified, but the departing fans remained enthusiastic.
A 46-year-old English fan named Janine struggled to express her emotions: “So many things were special…I can’t find the words. It was simply fantastic.”
Abbas Manahil, a 27-year-old Pakistani physiotherapist, feared the stars would slip due to the heavy rain but added that the group members handled the situation perfectly.
“It was the first time I saw them up close,” she revealed. “It brightened my day.”
– “A new chapter” –
With 85 concerts planned in 34 cities worldwide, this highly anticipated tour, starting in Goyang, the hometown of BTS’s leader RM, could potentially surpass the revenue of Taylor Swift’s recent “Eras Tour,” analysts suggest.
They will visit Asia, North America, Latin America, and Europe, including two nights in Paris in July.
“The most important thing for a singer is a concert,” BTS member Jin stated in a press release hours before the concert. “As this is our first world tour in a long time, we want to directly experience the culture and atmosphere of concerts in each region,” he added.
BTS reunited last month on stage in full force for the first time after a hiatus of over four years due to mandatory military service for its seven members.
“ARIRANG” is presented as a reflection of the Korean identity of the boy band: it takes its name from a traditional Korean folk song evoking nostalgia and separation, often seen as the unofficial national anthem of South Korea.
With this album, the group aimed to move beyond themes of adolescent pain and inner conflicts to delve “more deeply into themselves,” noted Kim Jeong-seob, author of “The Universe of BTS,” a book available only in Korean.
Describing the tour as the start of a “new chapter,” Kim Jeong-seob, also an expert in Korean entertainment culture at Sungshin University in Seoul, believes that current global issues, such as wars or ethnic and religious conflicts, could be reflected in their work.
– K-culture and soft power –
In this highly competitive industry, many K-pop groups have had to end their careers after their military service, a situation that BTS managed to avoid.
BTS became the first K-pop group to top the American Billboard 200 weekly chart for two consecutive weeks with this new album, while their tracks also secured top spots on various Spotify charts, including “Daily Top Songs Global” – the daily ranking of the 200 most-streamed songs worldwide on the platform.
“This is extremely important for the future of K-culture and the Korean nation because it means that this unprecedented growth of its +soft power+ will continue,” said American sociologist Sam Richards, a professor at Penn State University.
Behind BTS’s continued dominance lies the strength of ARMY, widely recognized as one of the most organized fan communities in the world.
“BTS built their fan community through social media and direct interaction with the audience before the industry fully understood how to do it, especially with platforms like Twitter and SoundCloud,” noted Jeff Benjamin, a K-pop columnist for Billboard.
