The South Korean boy band BTS has (temporarily) called it a day. The seven members want to focus on their solo careers. But they do promise to come back “one day.”
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After nine years, BTS will cease to exist. During their birthday celebrations, leader RM (27) announced that it is time for each to go their separate ways. They want to work on their solo careers while on hiatus and thus ‘grow further’. That announcement was accompanied by many tears.
“I always thought BTS was different from other groups, but the problem with K-pop and the whole system is that they don’t give you time to grow up,” RM said. ‘You have to keep producing music and keep doing something.’ Jimin added: “We can’t help but think about our fans, no matter what happens, we want to be the kind of artists that are remembered by our fans. I think we’re now starting to think about how we want to be remembered by our fans.”
The members emphasized that they are not separating permanently. But they also don’t say when the seven of them will crawl on stage again. “One day,” it sounds.
The announcement may sound familiar to One Direction fans. The British boy band also announced in 2015 that they were going to focus on their solo careers, but did not split up permanently. There has been no reunion since then.
Grammy’s
The Korean boy band, consisting of leader RM (27), Jungkook (24), Jin (29), RM (27), V (26), Suga (29), J-Hope (28) and Jimin (26), was Founded in 2010 by the Korean music company Big Hit Entertainment, the band made its debut in 2013. The band had been successful in its own country for many years, but with a few English-language hits they also broke through internationally. They have won several awards internationally and have been nominated twice for a Grammy. Recently they were guests of US President Joe Biden and previously they were also allowed to perform at the General Assembly of the United Nations in New York.
Over the past year, there have been many rumors about the future of BTS. In Korea, men are still required to do their military service and almost all members of BTS are at the maximum age limit.
Many saw the (temporary) split coming. In December 2021, Big Hit Entertainment already announced that the band was taking a short break. There was a need for rest. All seven members returned a few months later, as a series of performances in the US were planned.
This time the goodbye sounds more serious. Last Friday BTS released their latest album Proof out, a collection of their greatest hits accompanied by unreleased tracks.
But the members have also been working on individual projects for longer and more prominently. For example, rapper and producer Suga recently released a single with Korean music icon Psy and rapper J-Hope announced that he will soon headline music festival Lollapalooza in Chicago.
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