BTS made history on Saturday night, becoming the first K-pop group to perform as a musical guest on “Saturday Night Live.”
The boy band sensation performed songs from its newly released album “Map of the Soul: Persona.”
The K-pop group’s performance was highly anticipated, with passionate fans — coined “The Army” — reportedly camped out in front of the studio days in advance in hopes of meeting them. The hype ramped up on Wednesday, when “SNL” released its weekly promo centered on BTS’ appearance, featuring Emma Stone as one of the group’s “super fans.” Stone and “SNL’s” female leads staged a sleepover with BTS posters plastered behind them as they excitedly talked about the heartthrobs like teenage girls. Some fans were angry, however, with the show’s sneak peek, with many arguing that the skit infantilized women’s interests and painted a negative picture of fangirls.
BTS’ new record is a follow-up to the group’s 2018 album “Love Yourself 轉 ‘Tear,’” which became the first Korean-language album to top the Billboard 200 chart. Following the album’s success, the seven-member boy band began making more international appearances, with interviews on both “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon” and “The Ellen DeGeneres Show.” Recently, the group also became the first Korean act to present at the Grammy Awards. The band will kick off their international “Love Yourself: Speak Yourself” tour on May 3.
BTS isn’t the only K-pop act making major strides this week – the popular girl group Blackpink became the K-pop group to perform at Coachella this weekend, which also live-streamed for non-festival-goers at Times Square on Friday.