BTS in Colombia
Bogotá, Oct 2 (EFE).-
For Colombian fans, K-pop group BTS is much more than music: it represents community, travel, shared projects, and a special way of celebrating the arrival of the South Korean septet, which opens its long-awaited Latin American tour in Bogotá on Friday.
“ARMY (the collective name for BTS fans) means not only supporting a group, but also community,” Melissa Medina, a fan since 2020, told EFE, describing it as a space for “solidarity, empathy, self-acceptance” and respect.
The phenomenon created by RM, Jin, J-Hope, Suga, V, Jimin, and Jungkook has inspired a devoted global following.
Thousands of fans do not need to speak Korean to sing along to their songs from memory.
After several years away from the stage due to the mandatory military service of its members, BTS has returned with the “Arirang” world tour, which begins with two consecutive concerts at Bogotá’s El Campín stadium.
The tour will then take the South Korean septet to Lima, Santiago, Buenos Aires, and São Paulo, where it will conclude its Latin American leg with 12 more concerts.
An eagerly awaited return
While BTS prepares to take the stage, ARMY fans have been occupying Bogotá for days.
Fans from across Colombia, as well as from countries including Ecuador and Mexico, have traveled to the capital and turned a large house in the north of the city into a temporary store and one of their main meeting and preparation points ahead of the concerts.
The store receives between 1,500 and 1,600 visitors a day, according to Paola Chaparro, president of ARMY Colombia.
“The arrival of BTS in Colombia has felt like an immense achievement because we have worked toward this for years. I have been in the fandom for 10 years, and it has been a very difficult journey, but we achieved it,” Chaparro told EFE.
The ground floor of the house features T-shirts, albums, and keychains, while the second floor offers a sensory experience with images of the seven members, instruments, and elements associated with “Arirang,” the group’s latest album
But the mobilization goes beyond the store. Fan clubs have prepared banners for the two concerts, stickers that will allow fans to form the Colombian flag with their phone flashlights, and decorations for the iconic light sticks that will illuminate the stadium during the shows.
The BTS phenomenon has also reached city institutions. On Thursday, the Bogotá Mayor’s Office named the group an honorary guest of the city.
During the two concert nights, some of the capital’s landmarks, including the Monserrate sanctuary and the Torre Colpatria, a 196-meter skyscraper, will be illuminated in purple, the group’s signature color.
In recent years, BTS has become the first South Korean group to top both the Billboard Hot 100 and Billboard 200 charts, doing so multiple times.
It was also the first K-pop group to receive a Grammy nomination and has received five nominations for the awards.
The group, which helped propel K-pop far beyond Asia, is part of the global expansion of South Korea’s entertainment industry, which has turned the country’s popular culture into a worldwide phenomenon spanning music, cosmetics, food, film, and animation. EFE
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