The band BTS announced their temporary separation while their members pursue personal projects.
The announcement was made during the BTS Festa, an event that marks the foundation of the group that this year celebrated its ninth anniversary.
The group made up of RM, Jin, Suga, J-Hope, Jimin, V y Jungkook debuted in 2013, quickly climbing to become one of the most popular youth bands globally, with over 32 million albums sold globally to date.
“I think we should spend some time apart to learn how to be a group again”, J-Hope stated during the event. “We hope that you will not see this as a negative thing and see it as a healthy plan. I think BTS will get stronger this way.”
RM, the leader of the band, stated that this pause in their activities will allow them to grow as artists and as people, issues that they have not been able to focus on due to the hectic life as a member of a K-pop band.
“So I need to think and have some time alone, and then those thoughts can mature into something uniquely mine.”, considered the artist, noting that he wants to find out what he wants BTS to be.
It has not been the first time that the group has announced a pause in its activities – both in 2019 and at the end of 2021 they announced the same thing -, but this is the first time that the group has asked to have a separate time.
The gravity of the announcement could be heard in the voices of the BTS members present. “We can’t stop thinking about our fans no matter what happens, we want to be the kind of artists who are remembered by their fans. And I think now we’re starting to think about what kind of artists we want to be remembered as.Jimin stated.
Despite that, the members of the group comforted those present by stating that this was not the end of the band.
“We are going to take some time for some time to have fun and experience a lot of things. We promise that we will return one day, more mature than we are nowJungkook pointed out.
Signs of increased independence among BTS members have already been seen in recent months, including the recent announcement that J-Hope will headline Lollapalooza 2022 in Chicago on July 31.
Mixed feelings
The group most impacted by the announcement was the band’s fans, known as the ARMY. In communication with Tradethe representative of the BTS Peru fan club described her feelings after the announcement.
“Among the ARMYs there are many feelings right now, but I perceive and believe that the main feeling is calm, since each of the members of BTS are going to do what they want, what each one wants to show as individual artists, find their own direction, and it is natural, it is one more step in his career“, he claimed. “The melancholy is understandable, since even for them it is a difficult step as they made him feel, but they want to do it and that is what should prevail”