K pop band BTS are going on hiatus for an “extended period", their agency have announced.
The seven member boy band, consisting of Jin, Suga, J-Hope, RM, Jimin, V and Jungkook, will “enjoy the ordinary lives of young people in their 20s”, BigHit Entertainment said in a statement.
The band’s final concert was marked yesterday at the Lotte Duty Free Family Concert in Seoul, South Korea.
The statement, which was published on Twitter yesterday afternoon, said: “We would like to announce that for the first time since their debut, BTS will be going on an official extended period of rest and relaxation.
“This period of rest will be an opportunity for the members of BTS, who have relentlessly driven themselves towards their goal since their debut, to recharge and prepare to present themselves anew as musicians and creators.”
It added: “This will also provide them with a chance to enjoy the ordinary lives of young people in their 20s, albeit briefly.”
It is not clear how long the band will go on a break for.
Last night BTS won four awards at the 2019 Teen Choice Awards in California.
The band scooped the gongs for Choice International Artist, Choice Collaboration for their song “Boy with Luv” with singer Halsey, the Choice Summer Tour and Choice fandom for their BTSArmy.
BTS are one of the world’s biggest boy bands, with a huge and devoted worldwide fanbase.
In May last year, the band released their third album Love Yourself: Tear, which became the first foreign language album to achieve the number one spot on the US charts in more than 12 years.
In the UK, they became the first ever K-Pop group to break the top 40, charting at number eight. Three months later, the video for the band’s single Idol racked up 43.2 million YouTube views within 24 hours, breaking a record previously held by Taylor Swift, while every single one of the 40,000 tickets for their New York show on October 6 sold out within minutes.
In April this year, their album Map of the Soul: Persona, topped the UK charts, making BTS the first Korean artists to do so.
Then in June, they became the first South Korean group to headline Wembley Stadium.
Fans said on Twitter they would miss the band but they deserved the time off.
K-pop was conceived in South Korea in the 1990s as a Western-Asian hybrid. It is now a hugely successful industry, with fans across the globe.
