BTS to hold their first live US concert since pandemic in November

The seven-member group will perform at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles

BTS will hold two live concerts at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles later this year. AP

South Korean boy band BTS plan to hold live concerts in Los Angeles in November for the first time since the coronavirus outbreak, which forced them to cancel global tours and resort to online performances.

The concerts, titled Permission to Dance on Stage, will take place in SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles on November 27 and 28, and December 1 and 2, Bighit Music said on Tuesday.

"Holding an in-person concert in the midst of Covid-19 is not easy," the management company posted on its online fan platform Weverse.

"We are able to hold the concert in the United States after taking the national and regional health regulations and circumstances into consideration."

The events will be the seven-member group's first live performances since they wrapped up their tour, which traversed North America, Europe and Asia, in April 2019.

The band had to call off what was meant to be their biggest international tour involving nearly 40 concerts as Covid-19 spread around the world.

BTS played virtual concerts instead, including one last October that garnered more than 990,000 viewers from 191 countries and about 50 billion won ($42.4 million) in ticket sales.

BTS said its members were fully vaccinated against the virus. Last week, they attended an event in person at the United Nations General Assembly, as the global body's special envoys for future generations and culture, to promote its agenda including combating poverty, inequality, injustice and climate change.

The group also released a collaboration with Coldplay, a new single titled My Universe. Sung in English and Korean and set to feature on Coldplay's coming album Music of the Spheres, the track has both artists rhapsodising on the endless possibilities of love.

"You are my universe and I just want to put you first," croons Coldplay frontman Chris Martin in the chorus. "And you are my universe, and you make my world light up inside."

Speaking about the collaboration on Apple Music 1, Martin remarked that Coldplay has always been fond of BTS.

"We love them and it’s been such a joy," he said. "It’s something you could look at so cynically, and we have at times, but anytime there’s actual communication or music between us, it just feels so good."

– Additional reporting by The National