K-pop supergroup BTS hit the stage on Thursday, kicking off their comeback world tour after a four-year hiatus. More than 40,000 fans attended outside Seoul despite heavy rain. The performance focused heavily on the group’s new music, with some throwback numbers and unexpected choices.
BTS will soon hit the road, performing roughly 80 concerts in a tour expected to rake in more than $1 billion globally. The group’s latest album, Arirang, is its seventh to debut at number one on the Billboard 200, selling a record 4 million copies in one day. BTS has charted four number one albums faster than any group since The Beatles and were the first K-pop group ever to be nominated for a Grammy.
Nicole Fell, assistant editor at The Hollywood Reporter, said one of the biggest highlights was seeing the setlist choice: rather than lean on older hits after their long absence, BTS went headfirst into Arirang, playing almost the entirety of the new album and sprinkling in fan favorites. She noted the group has matured during the four years they were away completing mandatory military service, but their chemistry and joy onstage felt unchanged — clips from this show and from five years ago would be hard for fans to distinguish.
Fell added that Thursday’s show signaled this will not be a greatest-hits tour but the next step in BTS’s journey: the members emphasized being back together as a group, performing only group songs rather than solo material.