The seven members – Jin, Suga, RM, J-Hope, Jimin, V and Jungkook, announced that the group was taking an indefinite hiatus during their “Festa” dinner party where the group reunited to celebrate their ninth anniversary as than BTS.
In an hour-long video, the group members talked about the struggle to grow and mature as individual artists in the K-pop genre.
However, Hybe, the South Korean entertainment company behind BTS, released a statement hours after the group’s announcement and said the group will still be working on projects as a group, as well as individually. “BTS is not taking a break. The members will be focusing more on solo projects at this time,” the statement read.
Meanwhile, on Thursday, BTS’s youngest member Jungkook did a live session for over an hour where he addressed the wildfire and assured fans that the group was not disbanding. The singer further stated that BTS will continue to work on “Run BTS,” their reality show, and other projects.
“I woke up today and saw there was a mess, about Bangtan [BTS] taking a break or suspending activities, or dissolving. So I thought there was some work to be done, and I came here [on the live]“, said Jungkook, adding that” BTS is forever. The army is forever.
The K-pop group is credited with generating billions of dollars for the South Korean economy, so it goes without saying that the news sent shockwaves through the market as shares of record label Hybe which runs BTS, fell about 27%.
According
Bloomberg News, the stock – down nearly 60% so far in 2022, was heading for its lowest close on record since its October 2020 stock market debut, wiping $1.6 billion off its market value.
BTS’ announcement came days after the group released a three-disc anthology album “Proof.”
At the end of the dinner, several members of the group cried as they expressed their gratitude to ARMY, their known fans online.
Frontman RM, 27, said that after BTS’ latest Grammy-nominated singles, he “didn’t know what kind of group they were anymore.” The group added that they were exhausted.
RM Addresses BTS Breakup Reports
The leader of the group, RM, took to WeVerse to set the record straight and said that their new song “Yet To Come” from the album “Proof” speaks for itself about the next era of BTS with the promise that the band will come back stronger in the future.
“When I saw the screenshots and the titles of the articles sent to me, there were a lot of provocative and partially spoken keywords such as disbandment, promotions, breakup, declaration,” he said. he writes in Korean in his long message.
“It’s not that I wasn’t aware something like this would happen, or that I wasn’t prepared, but indeed it’s quite bittersweet,” Namjoon added. “This was only a video dedicated to all the ARMYs who have stood by us for the past 9 years.”
“I think the courage to want to be honest indeed always creates unnecessary misunderstandings and invites disaster,” he wrote.