The members of Ok-pop band BTS will serve their obligatory military duties below South Korean regulation, their management firm mentioned Monday, successfully ending a debate on exempting them due to their inventive accomplishments.
Big Hit Music mentioned the band’s oldest member, Jin, will revoke his request to delay his conscription on the finish of the month and undertake the required conscription steps. The six different members additionally plan to serve within the military, in keeping with the corporate’s discover to monetary regulators, which it described as management-related data that would presumably have an effect on funding choices.
Big Hit issued one other assertion on Twitter, saying the corporate and BTS members are “wanting ahead to reconvening as a bunch once more round 2025 following their service dedication.”
No additional data on the timing of their service was given. The band members carried out collectively in Busan over the weekend in help of town’s Expo bid, however solely solo tasks seem like deliberate till 2025.
“Each BTS member in the interim will concentrate on their particular person actions based mostly on their plans to serve within the military,” Hybe Corp., the father or mother firm of Big Hit, mentioned in an e-mail to The Associated Press.
The announcement got here after Lee Ki Sik, commissioner of the Military Manpower Administration, informed lawmakers this month that it might be “fascinating” for BTS members to fulfil their military duties to make sure equity within the nation’s military service.
Members approaching cut-off age
Under South Korean regulation, most able-bodied males are required to carry out 18-21 months of military service, however particular exemptions had been granted for athletes and artists who excel in sure worldwide competitions which were tied with nationwide status.
After enlisting, Jin and different BTS members will obtain 5 weeks of fight coaching earlier than being assigned to particular models and duties, in keeping with officers on the Military Manpower Administration, who pressured that the singers would go below the identical course of as different South Korean males.
The band — its different members are J-Hope, RM (Rap Monster), Jungkook, V, Suga and Jimin — launched in 2013 and has a legion of world supporters who name themselves the “Army.”
After constructing an enormous following in Asia, BTS expanded its reputation within the West with its 2020 hit Dynamite, the band’s first all-English track that made it the primary Ok-pop act to prime Billboard’s Hot 100. The band has carried out in sold-out arenas all over the world and was even invited to talk at United Nations conferences.
Q10:21Jenna Andrews shares how she co-wrote Butter with BTS
This summer time, BTS has been dominating the charts with their hit track Butter. It’s the group’s second English-language single after Dynamite, which earned them their first Grammy nomination in 2020. Calgary-born songwriter and vocal producer Jenna Andrews had a hand in making each of those tracks. She joined us to elucidate how she bought concerned with BTS’s label, Big Hit Music, and what it was like working lengthy distance with the band from her storage.
Whether the BTS members should serve within the military had been a hotly debated situation in South Korea as Jin confronted potential enlistment early subsequent yr. Jin turns 30 in December, the age at which males can not delay enlistment. Other members are at the moment between 25 and 29 years outdated, with Suga turning 30 in March.
Since South Korea’s draft interrupts younger males of their skilled careers or research, the dodging of military duties or creation of exemptions is a extremely delicate situation. Opinion surveys in current weeks confirmed that the general public was cut up over whether or not the BTS members ought to serve within the military.