“Annyeong Seoul. We’re back.” A drone soars over the South Korean capital, revealing 100,000 screaming fans filling the city’s historic Gwanghwamun Square.
With the palace gates behind them, RM, Jin, SUGA, j-hope, Jimin, V and Jung Kook stand swathed in leather, game-faces fixed, ready to perform as a group for the first time in four years. Streaming live via Netflix to 190 countries, this is a comeback of epic proportions – but BTS have always known how to put on a show.
The beat drops for swaggering new song Body to Body and the seven stars spring into action; one camera tracking the front row is knocked to the ground in the frenzy. “I need the whole stadium to jump,” RM commands, before revising his lyrics: “The whole city!”
Since their farewell concert in October 2022, which streamed to 50 million viewers, the group has completed compulsory military service – but also taken a much-needed breather from the limelight, after telling fans they wanted “time to think” about their musical identity.
The result is new album Arirang, which folds the melody and mythology of a 600-year-old folk song into an EDM call to the dancefloor. During Body to Body, the camera pans to pansori singers who lead the crowd through the historical ballad, while j-hope crows that “it feels like it’s brand new” on 2.0, a rap-forward assertion of strength for the group’s new era.
Tonight they showcase eight of 13 new tracks, all with cool confidence. Hooligan makes a provocative call for “better pop” over a beat that sounds like knives sharpening, while the revved-up, bass-heavy FYA promises to be an incendiary live favourite when their 82-date world tour rolls into London this summer.
Lead single Swim is mellow and sultry by comparison, with fluid choreography that underscores the song’s message of perseverance better than its stylish, perfume advert-adjacent music video. On record, Normal – a song about the pitfalls of fame – doesn’t reach the boil, but tonight the group give it real feeling, with vocalist Jin leaning into the song’s rockier edges.
Most importantly, neither the time spent apart nor the gravitas of the occasion has damaged the band’s chemistry. As they goof around during their mega-hit Butter, spinning RM on a swivel chair (he picked up an ankle injury in rehearsal), it barely feels like the eyes of the world are upon them.
Snapping back to business, Suga formally thanks the City of Seoul for permitting the gig, as well as assorted “stakeholders”: it’s perhaps not a coincidence that the evening’s only corporate-speak precedes the polished smile and feelgood disco cheese of Dynamite, the inescapable English-language single that rocketed them to a new stratosphere of fame in 2020.
After the final na-na-na-nas, the group turn to leave – but it’s a fake-out. “We can’t end it like this,” they laugh. Instead they finish on Mikrokosmos, a sentimental fan-favourite from 2019, which sparks a galaxy of purple lights stretching deep into the night. The seven hold hands, give a final bow, and pause for just a moment, facing the start of their second chapter.