BTS to hold first live concert since COVID-19 pandemic in LA this November

Members of K-pop boy band BTS pose for photographs during a news conference promoting their new album “BE(Deluxe Edition)” in Seoul, South Korea, Nov. 20, 2020. Image: Reuters/Heo Ran

SEOUL — South Korean boy band BTS plans to hold live concerts in Los Angeles in November for the first time since the coronavirus outbreak, forcing it to cancel global tours and resort to online performances, the band’s management said on Tuesday.

The concerts, titled “Permission to Dance on Stage,” will take place in SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles on Nov. 27 and 28 and Dec. 1 and 2, Bit Hit Music said.

“Holding an in-person concert in the midst of COVID-19 is not easy,” the company said in a statement posted on its online fan platform Weverse. “We are able to hold the concert in the United States after taking the national and regional health regulations and circumstances into consideration.”

The events will be the seven-member group’s first live performances since they wrapped up their tour from North America to Europe to Asia in April 2019.

The band had to call off what was meant to be its biggest international tour involving nearly 40 concerts as COVID-19 spread around the world.

It has played virtual concerts instead, including one last October that garnered more than 990,000 viewers from 191 countries and some ₩50 billion ($42.4 million) in ticket sales.

BTS said its members were fully vaccinated against the virus. Last week, they attended an event in person at the United Nations General Assembly, as the global body’s special envoys for future generation and culture, to promote its agenda including combating poverty, inequality, injustice and climate change. JB

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