A Korean Girl Sees BTS for the First Time

I walked into SoFi Stadium knowing pretty much nothing about BTS. All I knew was that I had been told I was about to see the biggest band in the world. 

My friend had texted me that she was going to all four nights, and one of my mom’s friends picked up multiple extra work shifts to cover a soundcheck ticket that cost her more than a thousand dollars. As someone who doesn’t have many rich friends but attends shows often, I had never attended a show where the only people I knew there had spent more than a thousand dollars to see an act more than once.

Formed in 2010, BTS (방탄소년단) is a South Korean K-pop group made up of members Jin, Suga, J-Hope, RM, Jimin, V, and Jung Kook, who sing, rap, and dance. BTS is the first act from South Korea to top the Billboard 200 and the first all–South Korean act to hit number one on both the Billboard Hot 100 and Billboard Global 200, and they had the first Korean album certified platinum by the RIAA. Recently, BTS became the first group since rhe Beatles to score three No. 1 albums on the Billboard 200 chart in less than a year. In other words: They’re huge.

Walking from my car to the gates, a few fans handed out BTS goodie bags. I asked to grab an extra for my friend, and they happily handed one to me and some people nearby. Everyone was so warm and sweet, and by the end of the show, they were by far the most welcoming crowd of fans at a show I’d ever been to.

The stage was in the center with seats surrounding all sides, and the stadium was completely packed with most fans donning party hats for Jung Kook’s birthday. The night started with the intro of “Hooligan” playing on repeat, as a dancer ran to the stage holding billowing red smoke. The members walked out, the camera showing each of their faces. The audience was incredibly loud as J-Hope started the song, and each member went on to sing, with the crowd cheering louder for each. 

The band played multiple songs from their recent record ARIRANG, including “Aliens,” “Like Animals,” and “SWIM.” The latter saw the band on top of the circular stage within the main stage, complete with two moving tiers. Their dancers acted as the water circling them, holding up sheets and creating waves with their hands in sync with one another. BTS also played some of their older hits, such as “IDOL,” “Butter,” and “Dynamite” (each with more than one billion plays on YouTube). 

Midway through the show, the camera panned to the crowd and showed fans holding up posters. There were posters in Korean, with cutouts of the members’ faces, and one that said, “Your music saved me after my dad passed away in May.” People of all different races and ages were represented, and it was truly diverse, much more so than any other crowd I’d been in.

Immediately after, the members took turns giving speeches in Korean and English while sitting on the edge of the slowly spinning stage. They spoke with an authentic humility I hadn’t seen in singers of their caliber before. “I’m going to remember today for a long time … also … Why am I saying ‘also’ so much…. I’m so hungry; are you guys hungry too?” Jimin remarked, as the audience laughed. 

To close out the show, BTS played surprise encore songs “Boy In Luv” and “Magic Shop” and adorned Jung Kook with a crown for his birthday as he told the crowd, “I wasn’t expecting this … thank you!”

After the show, I watched one of their interviews with my mom, and she mentioned, “The cognitive dissonance in my brain happening right now that there are people this famous speaking the same language I did as a kid….”

My mother grew up as the only Asian kid in her school, right here in Southern California where this show was held. As a Korean American whose mom was bullied growing up, and having recently been advised to abandon my own career path because of my race, I found it surreal to see a stadium filled with people loving the band like it was normal. As of now, it still isn’t.

It’s an open secret that being a minority stacks opportunities against you, and it can feel at times like there’s no point in trying when it’s so much harder. But having heard recently that BTS pulled their music from Grammy consideration after the show created a separate category for Asian Pop, I realized that I had experienced a show and a community so unique and welcoming that it exists in a completely different category from white-dominated award shows. BTS, and any minority, deserves the same opportunities as anyone else, and it felt like just the beginning of seeing the potential it could stretch to for the first time. While it is unfortunate that it came as such a surprise, I’m happy to have felt it, and although long overdue, it’s a first step of many. 

At the show, I could sense that feeling you get when you’ve been made to feel different most of your life and finally find something that shines a light on and validates that difference in you. The show was proof to me that what makes you unique is exactly how you create something, well, unique; something that has never been done before. 

And that’s worth trying anything you set your mind to.