Beyond The Story

Chapter 7

Dynamite 

BE

 Butter 

Proof

On November 30, 2021, V from a hotel in Los Angeles begins this interview in a state of excitement.

The performance is so much fun!

This was in answer to the question of how the show was going. Two years since the 2019 BTS WORLD TOUR "LOVE YOURSELF: SPEAK

YOURSELF," BTS on November 27 and 28 and December 1 and 2 held

BTS PERMISSION TO DANCE ON STAGE—LA,, , a live show. V, who

normally speaks in a calm voice during interviews, sounds fired up on this day:

It was like two years of being frozen in place and then shattering into motion again. Like coming back to what was "normality" to us. I'm so happy that we get to feel this again.

From the beginning of 2020 to the end of 2021, a period in which BTS could not meet up with their audience, their popularity and position in the industry only grew. Their digital single "Dynamite," released on August 21, 2020, topped the Billboard Hot 100 for three weeks, including two consecutive weeks, and "Butter," released on May 21, 2021, topped the same chart for ten weeks total and seven weeks consecutively. And the album BE, released between Dynamite and Butter on November 20, 2020, became that year's second-highest-selling album on the Gaon Chart with 2,692,022 copies sold in just a single month. The highest-selling album was, of course, MAP OF THE SOUL: 7, which was released on February 21, 2020, and sold 4,376,975 copies.

Aside from the opening, I think the screams were the loudest when we transitioned from "Dynamite" to "Butter."

What RM says of the BTS PERMISSION TO DANCE ON STAGE—LA

event shows BTS's heightened positioning in the world of popular music since the release of "Dynamite" and "Butter." Not only did the worldwide success of these two songs cement BTS as the artists with the most

passionate fandom in the world, they also made them the most famous superstars in terms of mainstream reach. This performance features surprise guest appearances from Megan Thee Stallion and Coldplay's Chris Martin, garnering 210,000 audience members over the four days. Jin says of performing before a live audience again:

I was thrilled! Maybe it's because I tend not to think of the past too much or dwell on sad memories, but this performance made me feel we were back to two years ago. Like we'd never left the stage. But meeting the fans was such a thrill. The members kept talking about that right before the first performance. We were worried we'd start crying in the middle of doing our opening number, "ON." I was really curious and wondering, 'Will these guys really burst into tears?' but thankfully, no one cried (laughs).