Burn the Stage – the series and the movie

When “Burn the Stage: the Movie” - a documentary about the seven-member South Korean group BTS and their Wings tour in 2017 - opened in cinemas around the world on November 15^th, 2018, it reached the number 10 box office spot in the USA making it the country’s highest-grossing event-cinema music production ever. It reached number 6 in England and number 4 in Korea and even in my tiny country, Denmark, where BTS are hardly ever mentioned in the press, it gained more than $14,000 screen average.

Furthermore, the movie was only meant to be screened a single time in capitols in a few chosen countries, but currently the movie has been in theatres for over two weeks with several shows a day in a large number of cinemas in cities big and small in countries all over the world and more shows are still being added.

Before the theatrical release, another documentary about BTS and their Wings tour, where they gave forty concerts to a total of 550,000 people in three continents, has been made as an eight-episode series on YouTube Red (now Premium) with the first episode airing on March 28^th, 2018. This is called “Burn the Stage” too, but apart from the title, the two have very little in common as form, contents and even message are different for the two releases.

Nitty-gritty series and calling-card movie
When you compare the two, they both have pros and cons. In the very first episode of the series, BTS’ explicitly tell the documentarists that they wish to show their fans (who go by the name of A.R.M.Y.) their true selves without concealing anything. Because of this, the series is a nitty-gritty documentary where the audience is the proverbial fly on the wall, witnessing all the ups and downs of BTS, their friendships and work relationships, what they do when they are not on stage and how it is to be a hardworking, but very tight-bonded band on the road, trying to break though internationally.

Although fans generally love the series, some (not me!) also find it a bit long with too many interviews with the BTS-members instead of footage of them goofing around. Others (still not me!) find it difficult to witness the hardships that BTS go through behind the scene like the youngest member Jungkook passing out backstage from fatigue after a concert and having to lie down on the floor and have an oxygen mask help him breathe, or the two members V and Jin argue backstage to such a degree that V ends up in tears. On the other hand, we also see the unique chemistry between the seven of them and the endless fun, love and respect they share with and have for each other.

In the movie, the focus has shifted to how professional BTS are and how they work together like a well-oiled machine. Up to 90% of the footage is new and instead of concentrating on the Wings tour, which lasted from February 18th to December 10th, 2017, the movie centers itself around the period from when BTS won their first Billboard Award in May 2017 to when they won their second in May 2018, where international fame was already theirs. As such, the movie is an international calling card for BTS aimed at fans and non-fans alike, where scenes of the highly efficient and hardworking BTS are highlighted and the funny, dorky sides toned down a bit.

Poetic narration replacing the fly-on-the-wall
Where BTS tell their own story in the series in personal one-on-one interviews scattered all over the episodes like an ongoing conversation with each member, the movie uses a narrator, who guides the audience along to make sure that we receive the right message. The narrator has the benefit of hindsight and is able to steer the audience to conclusions that weren’t even thought of during the tour, whereas in the series the band members talk directly to the camera while on tour, telling about their past, their hardships and friendship, and their wishes and hopes.

The main function of the narrator is to make BTS look less dorky (and human?) and enhance the view on them as the symbiotic work unit that they also are. Scenes that may seem to work against this view have been omitted, so Jungkook no longer passes out as only the clip with the icepack remains in the movie along with a brief mention of his indisposition. V and Jin no longer argue either, we only hear group leader RM’s consoling words to V before they go on stage, which without the context I found a bit confusing.

Instead the narrator lets the audience know that BTS don’t argue because they have learned to tone down their differences to become one and that injuries don’t matter to them because they have each other’s back. We even see this clearly in the movie, where V consoles member Jimin, when he cries in frustration over himself, whereas in the series, it is a staff member who comes to his aid.

The narrator furthermore goes on to say that BTS don’t need time apart because they treat each other with love and respect like friends and brothers, so scenes from the series where member Suga admits that he likes his alone-time and goes shopping for electronics on his own have been replaced with scenes of him and Jin going shopping in the movie. In the same way scenes in the series where BTS go to a restaurant without Suga and drink in the hotel without Jungkook have been replaced with the (equally entertaining) barbeque/pool scene where all seven are together.

Don’t get me wrong, I wouldn’t miss the pool scene for anything in the movie, but by omitting the more nitty-gritty scenes we don’t get to see just how strong the bond is between the BTS members and how they come together as one to solve their problems with grace and dignity in a very mature way like after the argument. Besides, the movie uses random footage from the tour as cutaway shots for the narration, regardless of what the shots originally signified, so scenes from, say, arguments can now be used as scenes of unity, which is rather confusing if you already know the series.

In any case, the narration is very poetic and emotive, referring to the dessert and sea lyrics from the hidden BTS track “The Sea” on their album “Love Yourself: Her”, and it often replaces the real sound of the band members talking so the audience is no longer a fly on the wall but is now looking at BTS through the filter of the narrator. Personally, I felt that some sort of glass wall had been put between BTS and me in the sense that the narrator made me very aware that I was sitting in a cinema and watching BTS on the big screen whereas in the series, I felt I was there, right in the middle of the tour along with the BTS members. In any case, many A.R.M.Y.s like the narration better than the original interviews with BTS because it is more poetic.

There are still interviews with BTS in the movie, though, as replacing the missing series-interviews, short new interviews with each member have been put at the end of the movie. Like the narrator, BTS now have the benefit of hindsight as well, so although the interviews seem fresh as they are much newer than the ones in the series, they lack a bit of the authenticity that the old ones had because they were conducted during the tour.

BTS members and cameos
Because BTS are now presented as a unit with no personality clashes, we don’t really get to see the different personalities of the group members in the movie like we did in the series. Here all seven of them stood out in their own way and we got to see them as the seven very talented, funny and individual persons who we as A.R.M.Y. know and love, but in the movie, only Suga and Jin stand out. Jin’s character is much brighter and funnier in the movie than in the series and Suga is outright hilarious! The five others BTS members are portraited much vaguer and almost one-dimensional in the movie.

On the other hand, V’s adorable Pomeranian puppy Yeontan and Big Hit Entertainment’s founder and CEO Bang Sihyuk (Hitman Bang) both cameo in the movie, something they don’t do in the series, and to be honest, they both got spontaneous applause much larger than BTS from the cinema audience, especially Yeontan.

Why the changes were made
To answer the question why Big Hit has made changes from the YouTube series to the movie, using a narrator, different scenes and a displaced timeline, I think the main reason is exactly what the movie shows: the lives of BTS are different now than when they started filming “Burn the Stage” for YouTube. They have made it to the top of the music industry now and are no longer uncertain of what is going to happen after the Wings tour like they were in the series. Furthermore, having reached international fame, Big Hit must be much more careful what they share about BTS as in our present political and social climate, even the most innocent things can be distorted and made into controversial fake news.

As BTS always think of A.R.M.Y. before themselves, I guess the changes also have been made to avoid upsetting A.R.M.Y. further by showing how hard the life as BTS can be at times, as that upset many when the series came out. Maybe Big Hit reasoned too that A.R.M.Y. have already paid for the series, so to give them value for their money, the theatrical version of the documentary had to be something completely different.

Finally, another reason for the changes is surely, that when you cut down four hours of documentary from a series to the very short runtime of 84 minutes of the theatrical version, you must find a new format and a new story or plot if you will. The plot of the series was how BTS managed to conquer America while on tour, and although it was a bit repetitious at times when you reached episode 6, you kept going anyway, as BTS are always darn good company.

The plot of the movie is far from as clear, as it is basically about the acclaimed entertainment unit BTS, who upon winning the Billboard Awards the first time, has a desire to perform at the award show the year after. Personally, I would have liked a plot a bit more solid like the one touched upon by RM in some of the last scenes in the movie. RM, who is a genius with an IQ of 148, mentions that living the hectic life as a member of BTS, they each have to find a way to live happily as this is what they tell their fans to do. In his mind, it is neither right nor authentic to ask A.R.M.Y. to be happy, if BTS are not happy themselves. This struggle to find happiness in such a hectic and public life would have been really interesting, but it is only mentioned briefly.

Odd things, great things
Had the movie been longer, say two hours, it would have been more realistic to keep the old gritty storyline, but the short runtime is not enough to get under the skin of BTS. Despite Hitman Bang mentioning in the movie that people love BTS because of their rookie mentality, this mentality doesn’t quite come across. I found that out when speaking to non-A.R.M.Y.s who have watched the movie, because they don’t understand why we, A.R.M.Y., love BTS so much.

The non-A.R.M.Y. audience I met praised the hard work and great success of BTS, but they found that BTS came across as your typical teenage idol band on screen and not the particularly humble, kind and different artists, that we as A.R.M.Y. know, who bravely speak about subjects like mental health, social awareness, equal rights etc. I guess much of BTS’ amazing chemistry, talent, silliness, kindness and social and cultural bravery is lost in the transition from series to movie if you’re not a fan, who knows that these qualities are there.

Another thing lost in the transition is the spelling of BTS’ names. I found it really odd that they were spelled in a different way in the movie than what they usually are. RM’s real name is Namjoon and Suga’s is Yoongi, but the movie subs spell them Namjun and Yunki. It is not wrong, as both are Romanized versions of the Korean names, but as the movie is BTS’ calling card, why introduce the members with names spelled in a way that you won’t see anywhere else?

When that is said, it seems that the majority of A.R.M.Y.s prefers the movie to the series as it has a much more poetic, light and positive vibe to it. As a professional writer, I personally prefer the series, though, as I have always been told: “show, don’t tell”, and the movie with its narrator tells whereas the series with its fly-on-the-wall approach shows.

When it comes to viewing, though, the movie is way better as in the cinema I met a lot of lovely fellow A.R.M.Y.s who come from all walks of life and range from preteens to grandparents. Meeting A.R.M.Y. is rare, particularly here in Denmark that must be one of the only western countries where the press won’t take BTS seriously as they think they are the new One Direction and not what they really are; the Beatles of their generation who through their music, lyrics, messages and actions have a lot of cultural, social and, let’s just admit it, political influence and power worldwide.

Behind the stage and behind the scene
All in all, I think both the series and the movie are worth seeing, no matter if you are A.R.M.Y. or not. With their many differences, the two productions would benefit from having different titles, though, so that people won’t get them mixed up. Personally I find “Burn the Stage” a great title for the movie as it is mostly an introduction to BTS and their workload, but the series could successfully change name to “Behind the Scene” as this is more about what goes on in the private lives of the group members and it is where you’ll be able to get a closer and more detailed look into the BTS members and their world. Like a friend of my daughter put it, “The movie shows you BTS behind the stage, but the series shows them behind the scene”.

As I’m A.R.M.Y. I have already bought “Burn the Stage” the series and watched it several times with great pleasure and should the movie be available on DVD someday, I will definitely buy it too, as I’m already looking forward to seeing Yeontan again along with the pool scene and Suga with his red wine, not to mention the credits. You really have to watch all the credits. They are almost as hilarious as Suga!

N.B. Before you wonder why I haven’t mentioned BTS member J-Hope: J-Hope is my bias and as a J-Hope stan I was devastated to see all his great scenes from the series missing in the movie. Furthermore, as a Soapie I was equally devastated to see all the Sope (Suga and J-Hope)-moments from the series replaced by Suga and red wine / J-Hope and Yeontan – although it was funny!

I purple you

Peace

© Lise Lyng Falkenberg, 2018

Proud A.R.M.Y. since spring 2016

BTS – Love Yourself Tour in Berlin, October 17th, 2018

- or The long but truthful account of a 56-year-old Danish author’s first BTS concert

 In 1964, when I was two years old, the Beatles visited my country Denmark for the first and only time. I was of course much too young to attend their concert and I was only eight, when they split up, so although I was a huge fan, I never got to experience them live, which I have always regretted.

When earlier in the year I learned that the South Korean group BTS was going to include Europe for the first time on their world tours, I decided that I had to see them, no matter what, as so far BTS is the only act in fifty years that has been able to match the Beatles.

B-T-Who?

If you don’t know who BTS are, frankly it says more about you than about BTS. People as diverse as Jimmy Fallon, Tyra Banks, Jared Leto, Whoopie Goldberg and John Cena are among their fans and their popularity has let them to win the Billboard Music Award for Top Social Artist two years in a row (2017 and 2018), dethroning Justin Bieber. Within four months they scored two No. 1 albums in the US with “Love Yourself: Tear” and “Love Yourself: Answer” and their most recent hit “IDOL” earned over fifty-six million views on YouTube within its first twenty-four hours. BTS have launched their own end violence campagne “Love Yourself” in partnership with UNICEF, they have been invited to and gave a speech about empowering youth at the United Nations, they were on the cover of TIME magazine as “next generation leaders” and in October they even received the prestigious Korean Order of Cultural Merit as the youngest recipients ever. They are for sure the biggest thing happening at the moment.

Many westerners wonder how BTS can be that influential, because they are just a South Korean boyband, aren’t they, and when we hear the term boyband we immediately think about screaming teenage girls, right? Well, according to statistics, only 15% of BTS fans are teenagers, as most fans are in their twenties and thirties, but with a whopping 25% who are 40+. Thus, the boyband term is just a label that western media have stuck on BTS because they sing AND dance. What BTS is, is a South Korean idol-group, which is something quite different. The title is untranslatable to western terms as we don’t have the same type of groups, but most idol-groups are run by one of the three big Korean companies JYP, SM and YG that decide everything about their groups regarding both their careers and private lives but then again, BTS are different from all other idol groups, too!

BTS come from the (originally) small company Big Hit Entertainment, run by the insightful producer and hitmaker Mr. Shiyuk Bang (or Hitman Bang as he hilariously calls himself). They never had as many restrictions as most other idol-groups and right from the start, they were given artistic freedom to write and produce their own music. As they are a very talented and tightknit bunch, this freedom to show their combined talents is – in my opinion – what has set them apart and made them famous internationally.

Starting out in 2013 as an underdog hip-hop group, BTS gradually built a reputation as sincere and innovative artists who write and talk about serious and relevant issues such as rigid school systems, gender equality, mental health and other social and political issues including women’s rights and LGBTQ+ rights, which are more or less taboo subjects in Korea. Furthermore, their albums and music videos form an ongoing narrative about the social and academic pressure, the confusion and pain, but also the hope and love that teenagers and young adults experience while growing into maturity.

As such, the main idea behind BTS was never to appeal to the masses, but to talk about important issues, tell stories that the world needs and be helpful to the world. As it always says in the Big Hit music intros, this is music and artists for healing, BTS trying to comfort, heal and help especially the young generation.

Fans got to know the members of BTS through social media, mainly through their shared Twitter-account @BTS_twt and their Korean fan café, but also via their dairy logs and behind the scene videos on their BANGTANTV channel on YouTube and through their two channels BTS and BTS+ on the video streaming service Vlive where they upload contents such as gameshows, travel videos and one-on-one talks with their followers, all with subtitles. This way we’ve come to know the bunch as being just as lovable, silly, talented and socially engaged as the Beatles, although in their own quirky way. They are not “a four-headed monster” like Mick Jagger once described the Beatles, but instead a seven-headed creative entity to such a degree that they live together, not because they have to like in their rookie days where they shared a dorm, but because they want to, sharing a common luxury flat in Seoul.

Meeting ARMY

Unfortunately, BTS only did seven shows during the European leg of their Love Yourself World Tour, two in London, one in Amsterdam, two in Berlin and two in Paris. This came to a total of approximately 140,000 tickets in all, but with millions of European fans, not to speak of other international fans who planned to see BTS in Europe, the tickets were sold out without nine minutes, so most fans didn’t get tickets, me included. I was very disappointed and so was my daughter, who is the one who introduced me to BTS in the first place. She on the other hand decided to go to South Korea with a friend instead, leaving me in my misery!

It is said that miracles happen to those who believe in them, and I do now. With only a few weeks left to the European leg of the BTS world tour, I was suddenly put in touch with a young Danish woman who had a spare ticket, as one of her friends couldn’t go after all. After having discussed it with my daughter, I bought the ticket, and suddenly I was set for the BTS concert in Berlin on October 17^th, 2018. I just couldn’t believe my luck!

On the day of the concert, I arrived at the Mercedes-Benz Arena at 3 p.m., an hour before the doors opened, to meet up with other Danish fans whom I had only known online through Twitter and Facebook up until now. It was amazing finally to meet and to my surprise, waiting in line was a very pleasant experience too, thanks to ARMY. BTS fans are called ARMY (short for “Adorable Representative M.C.s of Youth”) playfully associating to BTS’ name, as in Korean it is short for 방탄소년단 (Bangtan Sonyeondan), which means as much as “Bulletproof Boy Scouts” - Bangtan deriving from Hitman Bang.

I can honestly say that I was proud to be ARMY that day as the atmosphere was so relaxed and friendly, everybody waiting patiently with no pushing or shoving, and I was also happy to witness the diversity of ARMYs as people seemed to come in all shapes, ages, colours, genders etc. Here everyone is welcome, no matter who you are and where you are from. We are all family.

When the doors finally opened, everyone proceeded inside in an orderly manner, tidying up their own trash as they left the outdoor area to go inside. I quickly found my seat, which turned out to be great as it was a front row seat on the right side of the stage with only the pit separating me from the front stage. For the next three hours, ARMYs gathered in the arena, having a blast, singing and dancing to the on-screen BTS music videos and synchronising their ARMY-bombs, which are light sticks fans use during the show and which can be controlled by the venue to change colour according to the songs.

Again, the diversity and friendliness of ARMY struck me as it can’t be praised enough. Just in my own row, the row behind me and the row next to me, I counted six different nationalities, four different races, more than two sexes (if you know what I mean) and an age-gap of fifty years, as the youngest was a fifteen year old teenage girl and the oldest a sixty-five year old man, at least that was what they told me when I talked to them before the show. Because that’s what we do, ARMY. We talk to each other and wish each other a great concert experience. To be honest, I actually shed a tear before the show began as the love in the arena was quite overwhelming.

Showtime

Finally, at 7 p.m. the show started and let me tell you, this is not your ordinary pop concert, but a huge show with high production value: moving sets, pyrotechnics, confetti cannons, specially made videos, background dancers and a breath-taking laser light show.

The roar of the crowd was deafening, when the seven BTS members appeared on stage and launched into the first number of the evening, their current hit “IDOL” complete with an elaborate, high energy choreography.

A week before the show in Berlin, the youngest BTS member Jungkook had injured his foot prior to a show in London and had to have stitches, so he couldn’t join the choreography and remained seated on the stage during most of the show, but it didn’t spoil the overall experience, as he sang his heart out anyway and was very much part of what happened on stage.

When “IDOL” had finished, it was impressive to hear the seven BTS members introduce themselves in German on stage and at one point, J-Hope even said, “Ihr seid meine Hoffnung und meine Stärke” (“you are my hope and my strength”). It made me glad, though, that my daughter wasn’t with me as I’m not sure she would have survived the shock of hearing BTS speak German, which is one of her least favourite subjects in school!

While touring in the US and Europe, BTS operated with two different set lists, as in many cities they did at least two shows. As the concert I attended was day two in Berlin, we got the day two setlist and I was very happy about that. Not that the day one setlist was bad, it wasn’t, as the two of them were more or less identical except for the medley of hits halfway through the show. Here the day one songs were “21^st Century Girl”, “Go Go”, “Blood, Sweat & Tears”, “Boy in Luv” and “Danger”, but day two had “Boyz With Fun”, “Attack on Bangtan”, “Fire”, “Baepsae” and “Dope”, which are some of my all time favourites, especially “Attack on Bangtan” (yes, I know. I’m old-school!). The full setlist looked like this (copyright BTS Kookie Monster):

The kind of music that BTS make is often referred to as K-pop, Korean pop, because they come from South Korea and sing in Korean, but K-pop is not a musical genre as such, but rather a visual and auditory content package, including not only music, song and dance, but also fashion, TV-shows and more. BTS do sing in Korean mixed with English phrases, which is one of their great charms, but they didn’t start out as a pop-group, they were a hip-hop group, so hip-hop and rap are still close to their hearts. Since their debut, they have expanded into other genres as well such as rock, pop, R&B, EDM, Latin and jazz and we got a taste of most of the genres during the concert.

On stage the seven Bangtan Boys (or rather men by now!) are playful, hardworking, witty, sexy, cute, serious and sincere. They have fun on stage, no doubt about that, but they are humble and work very hard, wanting to show the best performance possible as they always put their fans before themselves. Most of the songs in the show were group songs with choreographies that are famous because of the high level of precision and difficulty, but each of the members also performed a solo song.

The members of BTS

Main rapper and group leader RM (born 1994, real name Kim Namjoon (in Korean) or as we would say in the west Namjoon Kim, putting his first name first) came across as the playful one on stage, juggling words in his solo “Trivia: Love” and having fun with both ARMY and BTS, but at the same time you felt his intellect too. The man has an IQ of 148, which makes him a genius and he is truly one of the most interesting current thinkers and lyricist.

Especially his speech to ARMY at the end of the show was very insightful and moving, RM comparing Germany to Korea as the two nations know what it means to live in a divided country. RM is the only one who speaks English fluently, so he addressed the audience directly where the others did it in Korean through an interpreter.

The “big brother” of BTS, vocalist Jin (born 1992, real name Seokjin Kim), was the one who seemed to work the hardest on stage. You could really see him concentrating and pouring out his heart and soul, especially in his solo “Epiphany”. Not only did he play the piano during the first part of the song, his extremely clear and pretty voice came to its right as well. Normally I’m not one for ballads, but Jin’s voice touches me every time!

Jin is usually known for his flying kisses and for telling bad dad jokes, but on stage he came across as much more serious, at least most of the time. Instead of his usual introduction as “world wide handsome”, he was presented as “Mr. ARMY Bomb”, but he didn’t have an ARMY bomb with him, so he had to borrow one from the audience and that caused quite a lot of fun.

The rapper and award-winning producer Suga (born 1993, real name Yoongi Min), has a reputation of being swag and savage on the outside, but soft-hearted on the inside and we saw both sides on stage. He is known to be an introvert, but on stage he was by far the wittiest and one of the most extrovert of the seven Bangtan men. It’s his job to spur on both group and fans with comments and shouts during the show and he did that to perfection.

Suga is a fast rapper, a capable dancer and an incredible composer and we experienced of all of this during the concert. He has a strong stage presence and I especially liked his almost sarcastically quick wit as well as his pride and pace in his work, especially noticeable during his solo “Trivia: Seesaw”.

As for J-Hope (born 1994, real name Hoseok Jung), rapper and main dancer of BTS, he is usually depicted as the sunshine of the group, always being funny, cute and happy and adding an upbeat, energetic tone to the music, but… He has another side too, a sincere and… well, “adult” side, that we rarely see on YouTube or Vlive. It is commonly known among fans, though, that when J-Hope is abroad, he transforms from the cute and funny Hobi to the ultra-sexy Jay and he was Jay in Berlin too, for sure, as he was oozing sex on stage. He wasn’t sexy, he WAS sex, especially in his solo “Trivia: Just Dance”.

J-Hope is a formidable dancer and the things he can do with his body is out of this world, so during the concert we witnessed him jump over two dancers, slam down in a split, body roll etc. Furthermore, he uses a variety of very small, subtle movements of both body and facial expressions to transform into the “adults only” version of himself. To top it off, J-Hope is the showman of the bunch, a born entertainer who knows how to capture an audience and interact with them.

Jimin (born 1995, real name Jimin Park) is also a dancer, trained in ballet and modern dance and as a vocalist, he is the one who hits the very high notes. Jimin has a reputation of being sexy, cute and a bit of an angel, which has always puzzled me as I think he comes across as a bit of a brat on Vlive and YouTube. Seeing him live, I finally got it, though, as Jimin was nothing but cute and angelic on stage, including the injured Jungkook in the action and even carrying V on his back.

After J-Hope and Suga, Jimin was the one who was mostly in touch with ARMY during the concert, sitting on the stage edge to be close to the fans, sending us Korean finger-hearts and acting sexy, but then giggling as if his sexiness is just pretend. In his solo “Serendipity” Jimin did however show powerful and genuine sexy dancing.

To me, the biggest surprise came from vocalist and dancer V (born 1995, real name Taehyung Kim). V has always been described as otherworldly, not just because of his ridiculously good looks, but also because he is somehow “different”. It’s not just him being eccentric, he has an innocence to him and a way of speaking and reacting that has made both BTS and ARMY think that he must be from another dimension.

In any case, we are used to this beautiful, strange and funny man from YouTube and Vlive, but on stage he was very serious. Instead of goofing around, he concentrated on giving a professional and spot-on performance. He had a few “V-moments”, showing his box smile and doing the V-sign, but it seemed almost rehearsed as part of the choreography, just like his flirtation with ARMY. Next to J-Hope he was surprisingly the one who flirted the most with the fans. Furthermore, V had a lot of impact in his solo “Singularity”, where his deep voice and acting skills made up the perfect melancholy background for the jazzy sound.

Finally, there’s the main vocalist and dancer Jungkook (born 1997, real name Jungkook Jeon), whose nickname is “the golden maknae”, golden because he is good at everything, maknae because it means the youngest of the bunch in Korean.

Although he had to sit down most of the time, he was still golden, his singing so pure and sincere in his solo “Epiphany” that you couldn’t help being moved. He came across as very sincere on stage and also very innocent, young and happy, which made me feel young at heart and happy as well.

The best show in town

The show included unit performances too, namely “The Truth Untold” by the vocal line Jin, Jimin, V and Jungkook and “Outro: Tear” by the rap line RM, Suga and J-Hope.

Originally BigHit built BTS around RM, and the rap line came together in 2010 with the vocal line following in 2011 and 2012 and since BTS’ debut in 2013, the rappers have written the majority of BTS songs, “Outro: Tear” included, and produced quite a lot too, Suga having produced this unit song. Especially in later years, the vocal line has pitched in with writing and producing as well, but “The Truth Untold” is written by RM in collaboration with other songwriters including Steve Aoki, who also produced the song.

For me, the absolute highlights of the concert were “MIC Drop”, “Airplane pt. 2”, “Trivia: Just Dance”, “Trivia: Seesaw”, “Anpanman” and the medley as I’m mostly into the high-energy songs, but for anyone who has loved BTS’ three “Love Yourself”-albums, this concert was perfect.

What struck me the most about the concert was, however, the high level of energy that BTS possess. It was totally unbelievable, especially with all the difficult and powerful choreographies. The show ran for two and a half hours with no intermissions except for the short video breaks that allowed BTS to change stage clothes, so that ARMY would see them in half a dozen different outfits from handsome uniforms to plain T-shirts.

ARMY worked just as hard as BTS as the level of audience participation was incredibly high. During the show all ARMYs sang along to the songs (in Korean!), chanted the names of the group members, waved their ARMY-bombs and gave BTS loud cheers and support. It was very touching, and both group and audience teared up more than once.

I must say that all in all, I was in awe of how well-oiled an entertainment machine such a BTS concert is. Every detail of both the visual and auditory side of the show was designed to hit you like a freight train to such a degree that the 150 minutes flew by and after the encores you asked yourself what just happened, and you only wanted to experience it again.

As a seasoned concert-goer through forty-five years or so, I can honestly say that I have never witness anything like it, as BTS truly bring the best show to town.

 We’ll meet again

When the concert was over, and we came down the stairs to leave the venue, it was once again done without pushing and shoving, ARMY spontaneously chanting the BTS members’ names and singing “Magic Shop”, which was a perfect way to end the show.

I really hope that I will be able to catch a concert again, preferably with my daughter next time. I must say that everything about BTS has me hooked, but especially their music and their lyrics and now their live performance too. With BTS’ vision and ARMY’s support, I am sure that together they will bring as many changes and as much positivity to the world as the Beatles once did.

© Lise Lyng Falkenberg, 2018