BTS, a cultural powerhouse contributing $4.65 billion to South Korea's GDP, recently welcomed The Hollywood Reporter to Seoul for an exclusive interview. In the conversation, they discussed their groundbreaking achievements, including performances in Saudi Arabia, impending military service, and the prospect of a Grammy nomination. The group's success is unparalleled, with BTS being the first since The Beatles to achieve three No. 1 albums on the Billboard 200 chart in under a year. This milestone is particularly remarkable considering that most of their songs are in Korean. Their EP, "Map of the Soul: Persona," sold a staggering 3.5 million copies worldwide within six months of its release, with 562,000 copies sold in the U.S. alone.
Their music video for "Boy With Luv," featuring Halsey, shattered records by surpassing 100 million views on YouTube in less than 48 hours. Currently, the video is nearing 600 million views. In April, BTS became the first Asian band to exceed 5 billion streams on Spotify, further solidifying their global dominance. Their live concerts are equally in demand, with the U.S. stadium leg of their 2019 tour experiencing overwhelming ticket sales. Despite Ticketmaster's servers repeatedly crashing due to high demand, all 300,000 seats were sold out within minutes, with an average price of $452 each.
BTS continues to break barriers and captivate audiences worldwide with their music, performances, and cultural impact.
“We have to consider ourselves not just better [than other K-pop acts], but the best. When we’re out there on that stage, we’re there to conquer. We think we’re the ones.” RM
“But we feel like we’re very respected when we talk to Mr. Bang. He gives us a lot of freedom to do whatever we want to do,” he says via a translator. “I’m not sure quite how to say it, but I think we need each other.” Jung Kook
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