International Korean boy group, BTS, kicked off their ‘Love Yourself’ World Tour on August 25th, 2018 with two concerts in their home country of South Korea. After leaving South Korea, BTS started the North American leg of the Love Yourself World Tour. They visited Los Angeles, Oakland, Fort Worth, Hamilton, Newark, Chicago and ended the tour in New York. Altogether, BTS had fifteen shows for their North American leg of the tour. Their fans who are known as ARMY, know that this won’t be the last that they’ll see of them as the boys of BTS keep saying “see you next year” which has left ARMYs all over the world wondering if another world tour will happen in 2019 or if BTS will return back to North America before the Love Yourself World Tour officially ends. Whatever it may be, ARMYs sure are excited.
BTS’s concert last night at CitiField is an event that will go down in history. BTS is the first ever Korean musicians to play at Citi Field Stadium and they reportedly outsold the venue with an estimated concert attendance of 50,000 fans. This would reportedly be the highest number of attendees for an event beating the ‘2013 MLB All-Star Game’ and the ‘2015 World Series’.
In an interview with Sportswordi one hour before the concert, each member of BTS shared their thoughts on their US stadium debut concert:
“I still can’t believe it. It’s like one of our precious dreams is coming true. I heard lots of people are waiting outside. I will work hard to pay back with a performance you’ve been expecting.” (translation credits @minminnie1204)
“It’s such an honor to be able to perform in such a big stadium, not only South Korea but also in the US. Lots of audiences have been singing along to our songs during our tour, I’m already having chills just thinking about these many people singing along to our songs.” (translation credits @minminnie1204)
“Performing at Citi Field, it’s such a meaningful event, as much as Korea’s Jamsil stadium and Japan dome concert. Not only the size of the concert hall, its only for very few artists, which makes me so much more emotional. I will not stop here, I want to show a better stage to the audience. I hope Citi Field will be the beginning.” (translation credits @minminnie1204)
“It’s such a meaningful thing to perform here in Citi Field. I consider this another big event in my life as Jung Hoseok or career as singer J-hope. We’ve been climbing up one stair at a time, the peak seems to be right in front of our eyes. I want to thank the ARM Ys of giving this infinite honor. Since it is such an opportunity, I want to make the best of stages.” (translation credits @minminnie1204)
“Performing at Citi Field is such an honorable and delightful event. I still can’t believe it, I can only thank for all our fans who always come to see our performance. I’m excited imagining Citi Field stadium full of our fans. I will show all I can today with this mind” (translation credits @minminnie1204)
“Finally we can perform in Citi Field which we’ve been dreaming. I’ve thought we’ve been performing at big concert halls during our world tours, but I haven’t thought we could do at this big place. I’ll show the best stage for ARMY. It will be a really great day” (translation credits @choi_bts2)
“Its first stadium concert in the US. It’s such an honorable, special event. I can pick this day as the best day of this year. I want to play and enjoy with our fans on the stage as soon as possible. I am so thankful to ARMYs” (translations credits @minminnie1204)
Namjoon shared with the crowd- “New York is a very important place to [him] because it’s the place where the music that changed my life was first born. The music born here changed my life, made me dream, gave me a new life. And now, we’re here with more than 40,000 people in New York. Thank you for all of this”
The crowd at Citi Field Stadium was out of this world and the fan chants were beautiful. Magical moments happened at BTS’s last concert in North America. There were over 40,000 fans singing along and having the best time of their lives with the seven boys who have all impacted them in one way or another, that itself is a historic moment.
Video credits @rosilyjimin
A quote that you see all over ARMY stan twitter about BTS is “No one saw it coming…not even them.” BTS has been able to receive awards they never thought were possible for them to get as well as experience historic moments like last night’s concert. BTS has been able to achieve things that were beyond their imagination because of the hard work and passion they have continually put into their music and most importantly because of the love they have incessantly received from their fans. They are able to bring together millions of people from different races, religion, gender identity, and sexual orientation and become one voice. A lot of people have a stand-offish attitude towards Korean music especially K-Pop but BTS has continuously proved to the world that language barriers mean nothing. In an old V-live (live stream), Namjoon, leader of BTS said, “There are no language barriers between BTS and ARMY. We are above the walls of language”.
BTS unites millions of people from all over the world with a common goal of promoting self-love in a society that tries to tear people down. With such a powerful and beautiful message, language is not a barrier.
BTS is only getting started and the best is yet to come. Although they have ended their North American leg of the ‘Love Yourself’ World Tour, they are headed over to Europe to kick off the Europen leg of the tour with their first concert in London, England.
Image Credits @kthceo
Featured Image Via BTS/BigHit
