BTS releases new album Arirang ahead of their comeback concert | BTS

K-pop stars BTS released a new album on Friday described as reflecting the mature boy band’s Korean roots and identity, with buzz growing ahead of their outdoor comeback concert in the heart of Seoul.

Saturday night’s concert, which is expected to attract about 260,000 people, will be BTS’s first after a nearly four-year hiatus while all seven members served their compulsory military service. It comes ahead of an 82-date world tour.

“We have thought deeply about who we are — and how best to express ourselves authentically — across our entire music and performances,” BTS member Jimin said ahead of the release of the group’s album, the group’s fifth release.

“As an extension of this process, we also reconsidered the importance of our background as a group composed entirely of Korean members,” he said in a statement.

Beginning with “Body to Body” and ending with “In the Sun,” the 14-track album “Arirang” takes its name from a popular song about longing and separation that is often called the unofficial national anthem of South Korea.

The film’s animated clip appears to be based on the story of Korean students who recorded their singing of the song, which American anthropologist Alice Fletcher recorded on a cylinder phonograph in Washington in 1896.

As the tune plays, the trailer shows the students sailing to the United States before cutting to BTS at Gyeongbokgung Palace in Seoul – the backdrop for Saturday’s concert.

Meanwhile, excitement has grown in Seoul, with hotels long booked and thousands arriving from abroad, bringing home the massive popularity of this multi-award-winning act that sings mostly in Korean.

BTS are the musical vanguard of the Korean cultural wave, which includes Oscar-winning films like Parasite and KPop Demon Hunters, hit dramas like Squid Game, Nobel Prize-winning author Han Kang, and food and cosmetics endorsed by the likes of Kylie Jenner.

In Seoul, streets were decorated with purple and blue banners reading “Welcome BTS + ARMY,” a reference to the group’s fanbase. BTS jackets, wallets and figurines were on sale at new pop-up stores and convenience stores.

Mara Crystia Yao and Rhodessa Erica Bonon, fans from the Philippines, came to Seoul despite not being able to secure their tickets for Saturday’s concert.

“We’ll come to this area anyway. We’re thinking about where we’ll be stationed tomorrow,” Yao said, after taking photos with each other near Gwanghwamun Square, where the huge stage is being set up.

At the concert, BTS is expected to perform the new album, which the group reportedly spent time recording in Los Angeles.

Although it features collaborations with Western songwriters and producers, the title serves to “remind international fans that BTS is, first and foremost, a Korean group,” said Grace Kao, a sociology professor at Yale University.

“They look to the future but remind the fans and themselves of their history,” she said.

It also follows some new experiences for the band members, who are now between 28 and 33 years old. Four of them spent their military service stationed near the heavily fortified border with the north, known for its barbed wire, harsh winters and intense training.

Greek fan Loukia Keratzoglou said that BTS is “back strong and ready to continue their journey.”

After visiting the White House, releasing hugely successful English-language albums and performing at iconic venues around the world, the group chose a historic home theater for their historic comeback concert.

Seoul’s wide Gwanghwamun Square, near the historic Gyeongbokgung Palace, is an area that has witnessed centuries of history, including major political protests in 2025.

In addition to those attending in Seoul – amid a massive security operation – millions more will likely watch the ceremony via Netflix live stream to around 190 countries.

Billboard’s K-pop columnist Jeff Benjamin said this new album “feels like a love letter to their homeland.” “I think they will be remembered the way we remember the Beatles or Michael Jackson – not just as chart-topping artists but as artists whose time the industry counts in terms of ‘before’ and ‘after.’