K-Pop megastars BTS have announced the next stop of their ‘Love Yourself: Speak Yourself’ world tour and it is none other than Riyadh in Saudi Arabia. The band will make their KSA debut at the Kind Fadh International Stadium on October 11.
Despite their relative infancy (2003), BTS is a band you’ve probably heard of. The seven-member strong band made history as the first Korean name to reach the top of the Billboard 200 chart, three times at that.
They also have a spot comfortably on the Time 100’s list of most influential people and recently became the first Korean act to present at the Grammy Awards. It is estimated the group of young men have a combined worth of over $60 million, not bad for six years work.
Their music, hailed for popularising K-Pop to the super level it is now, is characterised by the band’s authentic take on music. It is all self-produced at the moment and they are celebrated for having top-notch performances during live events.
The band have been churning out music since 2013, though it wasn’t till 2015 that they got any major global recognition. This was thanks to their releases of “I NEED U” and “Dope”, both of which had a massively well received reception outside of Korea.
Fast forward to 2019, one of the world’s hottest groups is making noise in Saudi Arabia. As part of their world tour starting in Los Angeles back in May, the group have been to the USA, Brazil, UK, France, Japan and now Saudi Arabia.
Big news for Saudi Armys! @BTS_twt will be the first foreign act to hold a stadium concert in Saudi Arabia. They will play at King Fahd International Stadium on Oct. 11. pic.twitter.com/LKuM2AmqHu
— KpopHerald (@Kpop_Herald) July 14, 2019
Their October performance announcement comes right after the success of another K-Pop show in KSA by a group called Super Junior whom recently performed in Jeddah.
جمهووور السوجو @SJofficial
#سوبر_جونيور_في_موسم_جدة pic.twitter.com/wrGmZ9hd5L— موسم جدة | Jeddah Season (@JED_SEASON) July 12, 2019
Super Junior are a bit more old-school you could say, starting way back in 2005 and having a bit less of a global recognition than BTS at the moment. Still though, Super Junior’s KSA ticket sale was enough to crash the selling website in mere moments. Oh, faces of the band members have also appeared on Chinese stamps.
BTS’s Riyadh concert announcement also comes soon after Nicki Minaj cancels her own KSA performance after concerns regarding the ultra-conservative structure of the country and issues around women’s rights. BTS has actually collaborated with Minaj in the past on a 2018 song called ‘Idol’.
While there are no rumblings yet for a UAE section of the tour, the band did recently get a Dubai star so we can all but hope.
Tickets for the Riyadh concert are not yet on sale.
