BTS holds two online concerts after suspending ‘Map of the soul’ world tour
Seoul, Oct 11 (efe-epa).- The K-pop boyband BTS performed two concerts on Saturday and Sunday that were streamed online to their fans who logged on in their hundreds of thousands from around the world.
The seven-member group streamed their performances after the suspension of their highly anticipated ‘Map of the Soul’ world tour due to the coronavirus pandemic.
“The BTS, you all know, we are strong,” the band said to their fans during the virtual show held on Saturday. “We’ll find a way. We always have. If there’s no way, let’s draw the whole map again. So no worries. We’re still connected.”
The South Korean band initially planned to perform these two concerts for a small number of spectators in Seoul and broadcast them live. However, at the end of September, their representative company, Big Hit Entertainment, decided to carry them out without fans present after the city recorded a spike in coronavirus cases.
The performances, named ‘Map of the soul ON: E’, were broadcasted live at 7pm local time on Saturday and 4pm on Sunday for those who had paid a ticket for the virtual concert.
BTS performed songs from their latest studio album, ‘Map of the Soul: 7’, released in February, as well as their single ‘Dynamite’ along with several songs from their new album, which the band plans to release before the end of the year.
At the beginning of this year, the boyband announced a 38-concert global tour that was expected to start in April but which was suspended indefinitely due to the coronavirus pandemic.
The last BTS live pubic-in person show was the one that closed the ‘Love yourself: Speak yourself’ tour on October 29, 2019, at the Olympic stadium in the South Korean capital. In June, the boy band offered the online concert ‘Bang Bang Con: The Live’.
The online concerts took place a week before Big Hit Entertainment begins its long-awaited initial public offering process (IPO), which is believed to become the year’s biggest IPO in Seoul.
The septet, consisting of RM, Jin, Suga, J Hope, Jimin, V and Jungkook has become the first South Korean band to reach a global audience beyond K-Pop’s traditional audiences.
BTS has already achieved important career milestones, such as becoming the first artist to top the US Billboard Chart without singing in English. EFE-EPA
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