BTS in 2022. Photo by Axelle/Bauer-Griffin/FilmMagic
BTS will return to global stages with a new album and a world tour, Reuters reports, three years after the K-pop group took a hiatus to allow its members to fulfill South Korea’s mandatory two-year military service requirements.
On Tuesday, the group shared the news with 7.3 million live viewers during a stream on Weverse, HYBE Entertainment’s fandom platform.
“We’ll be releasing a new BTS album in the spring of next year,” the group said in a statement. “Starting in July, all seven of us will begin working closely together on new music. Since it will be a group album, it will reflect each member’s thoughts and ideas. We’re approaching the album with the same mindset we had when we first started.”
The announcement came just over a week after rapper and producer Suga was discharged from his role as a social service agent, the last of the seven members to complete his military service.
BTS formed in 2010 and debuted in 2013 under Big Hit Entertainment, overcoming long odds to become the record-breaking phenomenon responsible for catapulting K-pop to a global audience. By 2018, they brought in an estimated $3.6 billion to the South Korean economy each year.
It’s been four years since the group’s last tour, and five since their last full-length album, 2020’s Be.
