The K-pop megastars BTS kicked off their global tour on Thursday, fueled by the success of their latest album, topping the global charts, and a massive concert in the heart of Seoul marking their comeback.
The seven-member group, hailed as the biggest boy band in the world, returned to the stage for the first time last month after a hiatus of several years due to mandatory military service, following the release of their latest studio album, “ARIRANG.”
The concert, held at the gates of the historic Gyeongbokgung Palace, drew over 100,000 fans to the center of Seoul, according to the group’s record label, while its live broadcast on Netflix gathered around 18.4 million viewers worldwide, as reported by the streaming giant.
The city, located about fifteen kilometers north of the capital, was already bathed in purple, the group’s emblematic color, several hours before the concert.
This hue could be seen in the clothing of many fans waiting outside the stadium. Several of them spoke English, Spanish, Chinese, or Japanese, highlighting the group’s international reach.
“It was the hardest concert ticket I’ve ever had to get. Even with high-speed internet in Korea, I was 80,000th in line,” said 27-year-old Mexican fan Evelyn Soto Villarreal, who lives in Busan, to AFP.
As the show neared its end, temperatures dropped and the rain intensified, but the fans leaving the venue remained just as enthusiastic.
A 46-year-old English fan, who only gave her first name – Janine – struggled to articulate her emotions.
“So many things were special… I just can’t find the words,” she said. “It was simply fantastic.”
Abbas Manahil, a 27-year-old Pakistani physiotherapist, expressed fears of the stars slipping due to the heavy rain but added that the group members handled the situation perfectly.
“It was the first time I saw them so close,” she confided. “It brightened my day.”
– “A new chapter” –
With 85 concerts planned in 34 cities worldwide, this highly anticipated tour, which started in Goyang, the hometown of the boy band’s leader RM, could surpass the revenue of Taylor Swift’s recent “Eras Tour,” according to analysts.
They will perform in Asia, North America, Latin America, and Europe, including two nights in Paris in July.
“The most important thing for a singer is a concert,” said Jin, one of the BTS members in a statement released 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 the mandatory military service of all 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 considered the unofficial national anthem of South Korea.
With this album, the group aims to move beyond themes of teenage pain and internal conflicts to delve “into a realm where they delve deeper 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 a specialist 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 the group 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 topped several Spotify charts, including “Daily Top Songs Global” – the daily list of the 200 most streamed songs worldwide on the platform.
“This is extremely important for the future of K-culture and the Korean nation, as 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 power of ARMY, widely recognized as one of the most organized fan communities in the world.
“BTS has built its fan community through social networks and direct interaction with the public before the industry fully understood how to do so, especially with platforms like Twitter and SoundCloud,” noted Jeff Benjamin, a K-pop columnist for Billboard.
sjh-cdl/ial/lrb
