The world's biggest K-pop group is giving fans more reasons to celebrate their meteoric rise to global stardom.
On Sunday and Monday, BTS will host two virtual fan events, which will include performances and live interactions, to mark the eighth anniversary of their debut.
While the event, called BTS 2021 Muster Sowoozoo, was announced by the record-breaking group in May, the hashtag #BTS8thAnniversary began trending on Twitter over the weekend as their fans, known as the Army, shared their excitement about the impending shows.
“We’ll have a chance to meet Army through online streaming,” the group said in a video announcing the event. “We’re working hard to prepare a great performance.”
The Sunday show will feature most of their Korean hits while the Monday show is intended to be a "World Tour Version", in which the group will showcase some of their foreign language songs, having released a number of albums in Japanese.
BTS also have two English songs to their credit. The first one, Dynamite, was released in August 2020 and became a global success, debuting at No 1 on the Billboard Top 100 chart. They also made history by becoming the first South Korean pop group to be nominated for a Grammy.
They followed it up with Butter, which was released on May 21, and again went straight to the top of the Billboard Top 100 chart. They also broke their own YouTube record of 108.2 million views within 24 hours. Dynamite received 101 million views in the same period, which means BTS now holds the No 1 and No 2 spots when it comes to the most-viewed music videos on YouTube in 24 hours.
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The seven-member BTS, short for Bangtan Boys, released their first single, 2 Cool 4 Skool, in 2013. Their debut Korean album Dark & Wild was released in 2014 along with a Japanese album Wake Up.
But it was their 2018 album Love Yourself: Tear, which topped the US Billboard 200, that helped them find worldwide stardom. The album became the first Korean album to top the US chart, making BTS the first Asian act to do so. A compilation album, called Love Yourself: Answer, released the same year, also became the first K-pop album to spend an entire year in the Billboard 200 charts in 2019.
In 2020, Time magazine named them Entertainer of the Year.
BTS members – Jin, Suga, J-Hope, RM, Jimin, V and Jungkook – are as beloved for their smooth moves as they are for their willingness to tackle sensitive issues including mental health and racism through their lyrics and platforms.
In June 2020, the group donated $1 million to the Black Lives Matter movement, which was matched by their fans within 24 hours. The same month, BTS also donated $1 million to Live Nation's Crew Nation campaign to support live music personnel during the Covid-19 pandemic.
“This is one of the largest artist donations that has been raised for the Crew Nation fund since its conception," Live Nation said.
Big Hit Entertainment, the band’s label said the BTS 2021 Muster Sowoozoo shows will “allow BTS members to perform and talk to their global fans in real-time as if they are at an outdoor music concert".
“The focus will be on presenting a sense of realism so that the fans feel like they are actually at a music festival,” it said.
Tickets to the virtual concert start at $46.10 for a single-day pass and $83.70 for both days.
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