BTS Return to MetLife Stadium for Full ARIRANG Show: Best Moments

Before the concert even began, BTS proved how their mission to spread more of Korean culture with ARIRANG extended into the tour experience. Compositions using traditional Korean instruments like “Hanyang” by CelloGayageum (the duo of Sol Daniel Kim and Dayoung Yoon who play cello and the gayageum, as their name would suggest) and Park Dawool’s “GeomunToy” (Park plays the geomungo and is a member of rock band KARDI) were paired with gorgeous black, white and gray artwork across the massive, 360-degrees of LED screen visuals at the center of the stadium.

With pre-show merch sales, on-site activations and many ARMY members meeting up ahead of the show, concertgoers being treated to these songs while waiting for the show to start is just another way BTS has kept their promise to keep spreading their culture around the world.

While BTS’ voices were on point throughout the two-and-a-half-hour live affair, the setlist’s fifth song, “Like Animals,” delivered a noticeably strong and impassioned vocal performance after the show’s first four turn-up tracks. In particular, Jung Kook floated impressive ad-libs throughout the choruses handled by the vocal line including Jin, V, Jimin and himself — a welcome reminder of how well BTS’ youngest hones his masterful instrument.

BTS and their team have never skimped on breathtaking visuals for their live shows and the ARIRANG World Tour utilized exciting tech that made a major visual impact. That was clearest in the performance of “Fake Love,” when the member shown singing on the LED screens appeared to be surrounded by effects, lines, and designs that moved and reacted around them in real time. It almost looked like a live-performance music video with CGI added in post-production — but it was happening in real time!

While much has been made about BTS’ decision to forgo submitting to the upcoming Grammy Awards, the one-two punch performance of ARIRANG tracks “SWIM” followed by “Merry Go Round” were absolutely award-show worthy. The members performed the two mid-tempo tracks, surrounded by their dancers holding long, flowing cloths that created a billowing wave effect on stage, which were ocean blue during “SWIM” and then opened the aperture to pinks and purples for “Merry Go Round.” It was that simple, smart visual effect that would offer maximum impact on television.

But beyond the visual impact, “Merry Go Round” in particular offered one of the more tender performances of the night with J-Hope and RM closing the falsetto-heavy, Kevin Parker–produced track with palpable emotional impact.

The audience closing the song by shouting a fanchat made the performance that much more perfect.

It was less than two weeks since Jimin last performed at the World Cup Final Halftime Show at MetLife, where he wowed with his long blonde locks tucked back in a low ponytail. For his comeback to the New Jersey stadium, Jimin was still rocking the long ‘do, now with stunning gray tones that gave him a classic princely aura as he performed. We can’t pick just one moment where his hair looked best because it somehow stayed shiny and bodied throughout the whole show. Just look at their pre- and post-concert group photos.

As the second act of the show began, another visual representation honored Korea, with the stage encircled in a light formation reminiscent of the red-and-blue taegeuk circle on the South Korean flag. The taeguk represents harmony between negative forces (the yin, the blue portion) and positive forces (the yang, the red portion), with those meaningful elements brought into a humongous stadium concert and on full display to thousands before ARIRANG cut “2.0” began.

One of the best parts of seeing BTS live is witnessing their brotherly camaraderie in real time. While there were many playful moments like the guys spraying each other with water bottles, the funniest had to be when V was actively trying to get RM’s attention during the performance of “NORMAL.” At one point, V threw the beanie cap he was wearing at RM, who was dancing nearby and unaware of his bandmate, with V calling out, “RM…Namjoon…hey…hey!” into his mic while the group sang — hilariously, all to no avail.

Every song sounds special on tour, but the performance of the 2017 single “Not Today” brought out a distinct mix with heavier percussion and what sounded like tribal drums, giving the song’s original mix of energetic hip-hop and moombahton even more punch. RM was clearly feeling the track, bringing more gusto when shouting out the song’s anthemic intro: “All the underdogs in the world/ A day may come when we lose/ But it is not today/ Today, we fight.”

While HYBE chairman and founder Bang Si-Hyuk previously told Billboard that he encouraged BTS to ease up on their famously intense choreography, the songs that did include full-fledged routines were among MetLife Stadium’s favorites.

In particular, the guys pulling out the full-stage routine for the first half of 2017 hit “MIC Drop” earned a huge reaction from the crowd, especially when Jimin was at the center, leading the group choreo during the chorus. BTS’s ability to pull off their stage routines so easily and fluidly shows why they remain at the top of the game today.

From the first listen of ARIRANG, one could quickly imagine how hyped the audience was bound to get when BTS performed “FYA” on tour. BTS mashed the Jersey club–inspired cut with one of their most intense singles, 2016’s “Fire,” to deliver such a hot and heavy performance that a noticeable shaking and stomping effect began in this reporter’s section of the stadium.

BTS themselves were clearly impressed by the audience’s energy, too, with Jin commenting after the performance, “ARMY, you ate that.”

ARIRANG album opener “Body to Body” is one of pop music’s biggest and best cultural statements this year, incorporating Korea’s famous folk song the album is named after with the futuristic pop/rap production. Its performance on tour truly spotlighted BTS’ larger global impact as the mega LED screens displayed BTS fans of every age, color, size, and shape donning the traditional Korean dress, hanbok, as the sampled “Arirang” performance rang out throughout the football stadium.

Before the encore section of the show, fans once again had the chance to share homemade, personalized signs on the big screen — and ARMY had a lot to say. While there were loads of heartfelt signs (“ARMY Since Age 1,” “Music & Love Are Universal Like BTS & ARMY”), the camera did not shy away from signs that had pointed messages to the Grammy Awards following BTS’ announcement they would not submit to the upcoming ceremony: “BTS Are Bigger Than the Grammys,” “ARMY’s Winner Album of the Year – BTS, ARIRANG” “Who Needs a Grammy When You Have an ARMY?” and “Beyond categories, the music is ours” were just some that had the audience hollering their endorsements.

During the members’ final speeches, J-Hope shared that he and Jung Kook went to see the Spider-Man: Brand New Day movie in theaters yesterday — appropriate since he is visiting Spider-Man’s home city of New York. The rapper even gave his best impression of Spidey’s web shooter that sounded remarkably like a real action-movie effect.

In a 2021 Rolling Stone digital cover story, RM shared how he grew up during the “golden age of hip-hop,” with artists like Nas serving as an early influence and an icon he looked up to as he was growing up. For BTS’ first concert back in the New York area, the BTS leader not only revealed that the East Coast rap icon was in the house but spoke about how meaningful the concert was for him: “Personally, I wanted to give a shoutout to the artist who dominated my whole teenage life. Big Nas is here tonight. Shoutout to Nasty Nas, thanks for coming. It’s a really strange and wonderful feeling to be able to perform in front of your teenage idol.”

ARMY looks forward to the two surprise songs BTS performs at every concert and the New York area getting the Arirang tour debut of “Dis-ease” (a B-side off the 2020 Billboard 200 No. 1 album BE) and the second performance of “Run” (the 2015 single from The Most Beautiful Moment in Life, Pt. 2, the first BTS album to enter the Billboard 200).

Both songs were special in their own way: “Dis-ease” includes RM’s double entendre “I’m ill” line (which may or may not have been a wink to the concert’s special guest Nas and his classic Illmatic album) and “Run” saw Jung Kook perform the song’s accompanying choreography on the final chorus (no doubt a fun throwback to the fans who remember watching this song being performed over a decade ago).