LEILA FADEL, HOST:
About a quarter million people are expected to flood the streets of downtown Seoul tomorrow for the big comeback concert of K-pop's biggest group, BTS.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "SWIM")
BTS: (Singing) I just wanna dive, I just wanna dive. Bad world, gone away, and I still wake up in this mad world. Name a place that I could breathe on this map, world.
FADEL: It's the boy band's first concert in nearly four years. So where have they been, and why the huge comeback? Well, our next guest has all those answers - Tetris Kelly, the host of the radio show "Billboard News," and he joins me now. Good morning.
TETRIS KELLY: Hey, good morning. First of all, happy "Arirang" Day. The album is out. We are so excited. It's a big day.
FADEL: A big day, but where have they been the past four years?
KELLY: Well, what a lot of people don't know is that in Korea, it's mandatory for everyone to do military service at their age. And over the last year or so, every single member has went into the military.
FADEL: And people are so excited to have them back. I mean, you can't really underestimate the impact BTS has had on pop music, right? Tell me about their influence.
KELLY: Well, first of all, their influence is insane, not even for a K-pop group, for a pop group in general. So let's just look at the simple numbers, OK? You have six albums that they've had that have topped our Billboard 200 chart, six songs that have topped the Hot 100 chart. We're talking about "Butter," "Dynamite," my personal favorite, "Permission To Dance." These are songs that most people know.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "PERMISSION TO DANCE")
BTS: (Singing) I wanna dance. The music's got me going. Ain't nothing that can stop how we move.
KELLY: While they've been on this break, they've had solo success as well. Jimin was the first Korean soloist to hit No. 1 on our Billboard Hot 100 chart with his song "Like Crazy."
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "LIKE CRAZY")
JIMIN: (Singing) I'd rather be lost in the lights, lost in the lights. I'm out of my mind.
KELLY: It's interesting to me because a lot of people are crediting "Golden" and the whole "KPop Demon Hunters" with kind of bringing people into K-pop. But I don't think that the success of even "Golden" would have happened if BTS hadn't (ph) already kind of pushed that door open for this kind of moment. So now that the new album is out today and they have this huge show on Netflix, everybody is just ready.
FADEL: So officials in Seoul are expecting this huge crowd to turn out. How are they handling security for such a big event?
KELLY: Well, of course, they've had thousands of police they're planning to be there on the scene. And I've actually been to that area of Seoul before, and I remember it's a very historic area, but it is highly dense, and they're sealing off about 30 buildings around that area. Of course, they're going to say, be vigilant. They can't rule out anything bad happening, but, of course, they're doing everything possible to make sure that nothing goes down.
FADEL: And this is just the opening night, if you will, of this album and this tour. I mean, what is next for them after this concert?
KELLY: First of all, just in this next week - the boys are insane. So they will have a show for Spotify in New York City. And then Netflix is dropping a documentary that kind of highlights how they've been building this album in this whole era that they're launching into. And then after all of that promo for the album, then they're launching a world tour. It goes well into 2027. I'll be popping over to Seoul for opening date of that. And then they're going to LA, Vegas, Spain, Germany, Australia, Brazil, all over the world, to see all the army that's been waiting for them to come back.
FADEL: Whirlwind. Tetris Kelly is host of "Billboard News" and pop culture connoisseur. Thank you so much for your time and your insights.
KELLY: No problem. Thank you so much.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "BODY TO BODY")
BTS: (Singing) Somebody like you, eh. Somebody like you, oh. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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