To quote RM, “I need the whole stadium to jump. Put your phone down, let’s get all the fun.” Or the maybe not the whole stadium, but the whole gathered crowd at Seoul landmark Gwanghwamun, which has been outfitted for the grand return of the groundbreaking K-pop group, BTS.
Fresh off the release of their fifth studio album, Arirang, the seven members of BTS — RM, Jin, Suga, J-hope, Jimin, V and Jungkook — kicked off their first group live performance in over three years, BTS The Comeback Live | Arirang, Saturday night in Seoul. The concert special, being broadcast live around the world on Netflix, has been highly anticipated.
Starting with a sweeping shot of Seoul’s Joseon-era Gyeongbokgung Palace, the live stream kicked off eventually revealed the seven men of BTS standing in front of the palace. “Hello, Seoul,” the group’s leader RM told the crowd. “We’re back.”
The show kicked right into “Body to Body,” which ended with a group of performers in traditional Korean hanbok, playing the Korean folk song “Arirang.” They then jumped into new songs “Hooligan” and “2.0.” BTS then introduced themselves to the gathered crowd. “We are finally here, and we are seeing you again,” Jimin, 30, told the crowd. “The fact that I’m speaking here, I am so moved.”
BTS continued through the show playing some non-Arirang hits like “Butter” and “MIC Drop” before singing “Aliens,” “FYA,” their new single “Swim,” “Like Animals” and “Normal.”
“BTS 2.0 is just getting started,” J-hope, 32, told the crowd after singing “Normal.” His group member Jin, the eldest at 33, added, “Thank you for waiting, ARMY.”
While the entire group is performing, RM, is limited in his participation due to an ankle injury he suffered during rehearsals for the show, the band’s label BigHit Music announced Friday. The label said RM suffered a serious-sounding ankle injury while practicing with his bandmates on Thursday. He has still been up plenty throughout the show but is using a stool at the front of the stage as his home base for the performance.
“Although there will be limitations to his performance, RM will participate on stage to the extent possible and hopes to connect with ARMY and the audience,” a statement reads. “As many have waited a long time for this performance, he will do his utmost to deliver his best.”
Arirang, the group’s first album in nearly four years, served as the official return to the global stage for the boy group, who spent their years away releasing solo music and completing their mandatory military service in their home country of South Korea. Fans of the group, collectively known as ARMY, have been waiting in anticipation as each member was discharged over the last year.
BTS, a trailblazer in the globalization of K-pop, has seemingly taken over their home city of Seoul to celebrate their return. The choice to stage the first performance of the album in front of Gwanghwamun, the main gate and historic entryway to Seoul’s Joseon-era Gyeongbokgung Palace, is no coincidence — the album is a reflection on the group’s identity.
The album’s name, Arirang, pays tribute the folk song of the same name, which is the first Korean song recorded by Korean men with American ethnologist Alice Fletcher in the U.S. in 1896. Motifs from “Arirang” can be heard in the first track of the album, “Body to Body.” One of the most striking tracks on the album is “No. 29,” a minute-and-38-second recording of resonant tolling of the Divine Bell of King Seongdeok, which has been designated as South Korea’s National Treasure No. 29. Arirang sends a clear message — BTS is proud of their roots. They are, and always will be, a Korean band, even if their audience has expanded to the entire world.
No pop concert has previously been held in Gwanghwamun Square, because of the site’s deep historical and political significance. Netflix and Hybe raffled off 22,000 tickets for a cordoned seating area surrounding the stage, but the streamer and label were expecting at least 260,000 people to pour into the square and its surrounding streets.
BTS The Comeback Live | Arirang marks the first-ever live stream of a standalone concert for Netflix. The production is using a jaw dropping 23 camera setup to capture the live experience for fans around the world. “It was very clear from the start that this opportunity was one we could not pass up,” Netflix’s vice president of nonfiction sports and series Brandon Riegg told press at a briefing ahead of the show.
“We view these live events as an opportunity to reach fans and members around the world in a way that is becoming increasingly tough to find: singular events that really pull people together,” Reigg continued, noting it “just doesn’t get any bigger than BTS” when speaking about the live stream. “I would venture to guess this might be the biggest thing this year that we see on Netflix in terms of our live ambition.”
Saturday’s live stream concert is being directed by live television performance pro Hamish Hamilton, known for directing several Super Bowl halftime shows, including this year’s with another global icon, Bad Bunny. “BTS is the greatest band in the world, so it’s a huge honor to be asked to direct this live show in such an iconic location,” Hamilton told press at the briefing.
“Every decision we have made in terms of camera approach, stage design and production has been built around one question: how do we make the person watching at home feel like they are standing in that square?” Hamilton said. “There are big sweeping moments that convey the full scale of what is happening in Seoul, and then there are moments of real intimacy where you are right there with the band. The millions watching around the world are every bit as much a part of this night as the people on the ground in Seoul.”
With the whole arena-style gig taking place in a busy public square, staging the concert was more like a military takeover than a typical arena show, suggested Jonathan Mussman, the streamer’s vice president of production for nonfiction and live programming.
“When you do this in a stadium, you can completely control the environment and you can take your time setting up,” Mussman said during a press walkthrough of the venue the day before the gig. “We’re really pushing the boundaries of what’s possible in the live concert broadcast world.”
Whereas a typical arena rock show — like Harry Styles’ recent Netflix concert — requires a few hundred crew, Netflix and Hybe employed over 1,000 local and international production pros — not including security — to pull off Saturday night’s show.
“It really takes an army of production veterans — plus BTS Army, of course — to make this happen,” Mussman added.
The city of Seoul also threw its full support behind the return of its national pop heroes. Gwanghwamun Square is encircled by enormous, skyscraper-sized video billboards. In almost any other city, it would be impossible to get control of those privately held screens, but Mussman said Hybe and city officials were able to arrange for the huge LED panels to be used as part of the concert experience (among the production’s many astounding stats: 50.6 million pixels worth of LED screens will be lit up with original content during the show).
“If we were in Times Square, that’s totally impossible,” Mussman said. “We’ve been secretly testing the billboards late at night with tears coming into our eyes, because of how unique and impressive it is.”
BTS will make perform for the first time in U.S. in nearly four years this coming week. The group is slated to perform at a Spotify event Monday and the members will make their return to U.S. television later in the week, appearing on two nights of The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon.
This story will be updated throughout the performance. More details to come.
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