The K-pop powerhouse BTS announced on Tuesday a 79-date comeback tour that would have the seven-member boy band racing across five continents over about 11 months.
The band, which released its first album in 2013, played a leading role in rocketing K-pop into the global mainstream, and it is the first Korean act to top the Billboard Hot 100, with their 2020 smash hit “Dynamite.” Their follow-up songs included “Butter” and “My Universe,” a collaboration with Coldplay.
BTS has raked in billions of dollars through album sales, concert tickets and social media, and it plays an outsize role in the South Korean economy.
In 2022, BTS released a video discussing the members’ desire to take a break, so they could explore their individual music careers. The hiatus, the members added, would also take pressure off their lives as international pop sensations. (The entertainment company associated with the band at the time said members would remain active but focus on solo projects.)
BTS members did mandatory military service.
The timing of their break coincided with an incontrovertible fact: Most men 18 and older must serve in the military in South Korea, typically for 18 months. Some exceptions are made, like for Olympic champions and classical musicians who win international competitions. But pop stars are not exempt.
The BTS enlistments began in December 2022, when Jin, the oldest member of the group, entered a military training center near the North Korean border shortly after his 30th birthday. The members J-Hope and Suga enlisted a few months later, followed by RM, the group’s leader, and V, one of the younger members. The last two members, Jimin and Jungkook, began their military service in December 2023.
Last June, Suga — who completed an alternative form of military service as a social service agent — was the last to be discharged.
They went on to have solo careers.
Their hiatus propelled each member to individual success.
Jungkook and Jimin each reached the top of the Billboard Hot 100 in 2023, Jungkook with “Seven” and Jimin with “Like Crazy.”
J-Hope became the first South Korean artist to headline Lollapalooza, in 2022, and he performed on a world tour last year. Suga, performing as Agust D, did his own world tour in 2023.
Jin released the albums “Happy” in 2024 and “Echo” in 2025 and he also toured on his own. RM released the albums “Indigo” in 2022 and “Right Place, Wrong Person” in 2024. V released the album “Layover” in 2023.
Collectively, their albums allowed them to explore new genres outside of K-pop.
Their new album is coming in March.
BTS has said that its fifth full-length album, with 14 tracks, will be released on March 20, and its global tour will begin just three weeks later in — where else? — South Korea.
The band’s record label, Big Hit Music, told BTS fans, who call themselves Army, that the album was “packed with honest stories.”
“The members were deeply involved in the creation of the songs,” Big Hit Music wrote, “infusing their own thoughts and colors into them while musically expressing the emotions and struggles they have experienced along their journey.”
What are the tour dates and locations?
In April, after concerts in South Korea and Japan, BTS will head to Tampa, Fla.; El Paso; Stanford, Calif.; Las Vegas; and Mexico City. The band will then be in Europe for most of June and July before spending the rest of the summer in East Rutherford, N.J.; Foxborough, Mass.; Baltimore; Arlington, Texas; Toronto; Chicago; and Los Angeles.
Adeel Hassan, a New York-based reporter for The Times, covers breaking news and other topics.
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