BTS Reveals They Had Plans To Visit India

The BTS Indian ARMY finally heard the words they’ve yearned for years. Unfortunately, it hasn’t gone the way they expected it would. 

In an interview with Spotify to promote their forthcoming anthology album Proof, BTS revealed they had plans to visit several countries as part of their ‘Map Of The Soul Tour, and India was part of the list. “We planned to go to Mumbai,” says the group’s leader RM. However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the subsequent lockdowns, the pop titans’ long-awaited visit has been delayed indefinitely. 

Announced in January 2020, the ‘Map Of The Soul Tour’ included 37 shows in 17 cities, most of them based in North America, Europe and Asia. With Seoul kick-starting things with four shows in April 2020, BTS were all set to perform hits from their chart-topping album Map of the Soul: 7. Unfortunately, due to the rise in COVID-19 cases and the South Korean government’s decision to ban large gatherings, the Seoul shows were called off in February 2020, followed by a postponement of the American dates. The European and Japanese legs of the tour were postponed even before the tickets hit the market.

After nearly two years of postponement, the pop titans officially pulled the plug on their tour over safety and logistical concerns on August 20th, 2021. 

India has been a key contributor towards the group’s unparalleled streaming dominance. In 2020,  India contributed a reported 8.6 million views to the total of 101.1 million garnered in the first 24-hours following the release of “Dynamite’s” music video, becoming the third-highest after Indonesia and the U.S.A. On Spotify, similar diligence was shown with India becoming the second-highest in the world to stream “Dynamite” on the first day of its release. That same year, Spotify announced BTS as the most-streamed act in India overall and the only international act to make the list of top-five most streamed artists in the country. In 2021, BTS was the fourth most-streamed artist on the Swedish streaming platform with their record-breaking album Love Yourself: Answer also coming in fourth on the list of India’s most-streamed albums that year.

According to an analysis of YouTube’s data by JoongAng Ilbo, an affiliate of the Korea JoongAng Daily, India was the second-highest country to have streamed BTS’ official and lyric videos between March 2021 and February 2022 (1,650,000,000 streams), leaving behind countries like the United States and Korea – both of which have continue to host BTS concerts.

Elsewhere on Twitter, based on the total number of retweets and likes by Twitter accounts in India between January 1st and November 15th, 2021, pop titans BTS ruled music conversations on the microblogging platform last year. Group member Jimin’s tweet updating the BTS ARMY about his new haircut became the Most Retweeted Tweet in music conversations. The crown of the Most Liked Tweet also went to BTS with Jimin and Jung Kook’s airport outfit update right before the group departed for New York to deliver their address and performance at the United Nations General Assembly. Attesting to their unshakable influence in India, BTS was Twitter India’s Most Tweeted About Music Artist of 2021

As several fans worldwide continue to anticipate a live performance in the city, the septet’s highly anticipated anthology album Proof is all set to release on June 10th. “The BTS anthology album that embodies the history of the group will be released as they begin a new chapter as an artist that has been active for nine years to look back on their past endeavors,” the group’s label BigHit Music revealed in a press statement. The 3-CD album features songs from throughout the group’s discography, including three new tracks and demo versions of their previous releases.