BTS. Photo Credit: AJeong_JM / CC by 4.0
K-pop sensation BTS’s much-anticipated Map of the Soul Tour has officially been canceled, Big Hit Music recently confirmed.
Big Hit Music higher-ups first announced the cancellation via a message on Hybe’s WeVerse artist-to-fan social platform, and BTS diehards subsequently posted the corresponding notice to other social-media services. The seven-piece boy band put the tour’s South Korea stops on hold in February of 2020 and postponed the North American leg last March, owing to COVID-19 concerns and lockdown measures, before indefinitely shelving the entirety of the concert series in late April of 2020.
Now, despite the return of many concerts as well as music festivals including Lollapalooza, Latitude, and next month’s Bonnaroo, Big Hit and BTS have announced the “formal cancellation” of the long-awaited tour, citing “changing circumstances beyond our control” and the corresponding difficulty associated with resuming “performances at the same scale and timeline as previously planned.”
“Please allow us to offer our sincere apology to all fans who have waited for the BTS MAP OF THE SOUL TOUR to resume,” Big Hit Music’s message concludes. “We are working to prepare a viable schedule and performance format that can meet your expectations, and we will provide updated notices as soon as possible.”
Worth noting on the latter front is that BTS last July received a Guinness World Record for hosting the largest online concert, as the act’s pay-per-view Bang Bang Con: The Live in June of 2020 attracted north of 750,000 fans, for an estimated total of almost $20 million in revenue. Hybe’s earnings momentum hasn’t slowed in 2021, either, for the entity reported a 79 percent year-over-year income uptick in the second quarter.
It also bears mentioning with regard to the “viable schedule and performance format” that BTS members received a deferment from South Korea’s mandatory military service last year. Nevertheless, the group’s oldest member, Jin, is slated to begin his approximately 18-month enlistment no later than December 4th of 2022, when he will celebrate his 30th birthday.
In terms of when refunds will become available to those who purchased tickets to the Map of the Soul Tour’s North American shows, Big Hit Music encouraged fans to remain on the lookout for “an email from your original point of purchase.”
Live Nation recently implemented a COVID-19 vaccination/negative-test requirement at its music festivals and venues, following AEG’s rolling out a similar policy, while country star Garth Brooks put his next five stadium concerts on ice, citing the “new wave” of COVID-19 cases.