It’s a sad day for the BTS Army. The K-pop group just announced that they will be cancelling their Map of the Soul world tour. Big Hit Music made the announcement via Weverse on Thursday.
“Our company has worked hard to resume preparations for the BTS MAP OF THE SOUL TOUR, knowing that all fans have been waiting eagerly and long for the tour,” Big Hit said in the statement. “However, due to changing circumstances beyond our control, it has become difficult to resume performances at the same scale and timeline as previously planned. Therefore we must announce the cancellation of the BTS Map of The Soul Tour.”
BTS’ massive world tour was first announced at the beginning of 2020, with the band set to perform 38 concerts across Asia, North America and Europe. The tour was set to begin in Seoul, South Korea, in April 2020, but all four shows were cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic. The rest of the tour’s schedule had been postponed indefinitely before Thursday’s announcement.
Ticket-holders are expected to receive an email regarding refunds for the tour, which many have been waiting over a year to attend.
“Once again, please allow us to offer our sincere apology to all fans who have waited for the BTS MAP OF THE SOUL TOUR to resume,” wrote Big Hit.
In July, the group revealed that they almost named their fans something other than Army. During an appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, RM, Jin, Jimin, J-Hope, Jungkook, Suga and V revealed that their fanbase was nearly called “The Bells.”
“When you say BTS, it stands for ‘bangtan’ in Korean, not ‘behind-the scenes.’ I mean, for your information,” RM explained. “It stands for ‘bangtan,’ and when you say ‘bell’ in Korean, it sounds like ‘bang wool.’ It starts with the same word, ‘bang.'”
“So when we think of the fan name, someone brings up the idea, like, ‘What about the bell thing?’ Everybody rings their bells and [we’re] like, ‘Make some noise!’ and the Bells are like ‘ring-a-ling-a-ling,'” he continued. “But thank God that [it changed], ARMY is so much better.”
