BTS just kicked off their Arirang World Tour on April 25 in Tampa, Florida, but the boys conveniently have a week just in time for the Met Gala. Ahead of their next show in Stanford, California, on May 16, the K-pop group didn’t make their debut at the New York City fashion event, which is celebrating the museum’s “Costume Art” exhibit this year.
Jin, Jimin, V, Suga, Jungkook, J-Hope, and RM weren’t seen on the red carpet. Instead, they enjoyed a day away from the cameras.
Some members were active on social media today, though. Jimin posted photos of them from their last show:
V posted a video of them dancing to ILLIT, writing, “Guys, we really tried hard,” in Korean. J-Hope and RM reposted it.
J-Hope also shared a TikTok of himself dancing:
@iamurhope
67???🤷♂️
♬ Six Seven – Laurinha Costa & Dj Cabello & Dj Tchouzen & SoundMusic Original
The group spoke to Rolling Stone in April about what they hope to accomplish with their comeback. RM noted their history, saying, “We all gathered and started in 2013. [Our new album, ARIRANG] is a new start, but I think we unconsciously come back to when we started, all those really turnt-up energy, I-want-to-show-something-to-the-world type of energy.”
V also admitted that he wondered how the individual members having solo careers during the band’s hiatus (and the boys’ mandatory military service) would affect their work as a group.
“Since all seven of us have had solo careers and strengthened our egos, I thought that meant everyone would have much stronger opinions when we came back to work together,” he said. “But to my surprise, all of the members came in so open-minded, and had grown the depths of their character. I learned so much from them working on this album.”
They remain loyal to their fans though. Case in point: Rolling Stone revealed that Jin pushed for them to extend their world tour by eight months so they could see more of the ARMY. “When we first got our tour plans, it didn’t have very many stops,” he recalled. “And it was only going to last about three to four months. I said: ‘Now that we’re back, we promised so many people that we would come and meet them, and I feel like this is breaking our promise.’”
Suga touched on how he hopes the group will approach things differently now that they’re older. “We should enjoy ourselves,” he said. “Before, we were way too competitive. I feel like, in the rush to achieve our goals, we didn’t care so much about our physical and emotional health. But now, we can relax a little, especially since we’re all older. So I think we can have more fun with it now.”
