BUENOS AIRES — Thousands of young Argentine BTS fans were moved to tears as they
said goodbye on Friday to K-pop superstar Jin, as he performed his emotional new
single “
The Astronaut” alongside Coldplay before taking a hiatus to perform
mandatory military service.
اضافة اعلان
“We didn’t have
time to do anything. He arrived, he sang, we cried, and we didn’t even realize
he was leaving. (It was) very emotional,” Eliana Suarez, a 25-year-old law
student, told AFP at the end of the concert at the Monumental Stadium in
Buenos Aires.
“It’s magic that
he comes to Argentina, that he chooses Argentina to sing his single,” she
added.
The 29-year-old
performed his song, co-written with singer Chris Martin, on Friday during one
of Coldplay’s 10 concerts in Buenos Aires, part of their “Music of the Spheres”
tour.
“It was the best
thing I’ve ever seen, the most spectacular, the best show. I grew up with
Coldplay ... and now BTS!” exclaimed Daniela Zuniga, a 21-year-old medical
student.
The announcement
of Jin’s participation in Coldplay’s concerts in Buenos Aires had triggered a
frenzy.
Hundreds of
women, often dressed in the purple dresses of BTS fans, camped out for days in
front of the stadium to get a seat.
“A lot of people
were left without tickets, there are a lot of resales and a lot of scams. They
took advantage of the desperation,” Noelia Zarate, 23, who makes T-shirts
embroidered with K-pop designs, told AFP before entering the stadium.
With the
600,000-capacity stadium full, a few hundred fans who could not get tickets
watched the concert from outside.
On Twitter, the
hashtags
#TheAstronaut and
#ThanksArgentina, the phrase with which Jin bid
farewell to the audience, were the two main trends Friday.
A fortnight ago,
the agency representing BTS said the band’s seven members would enlist in the
military, putting an end to a debate about whether they should be exempt from
the mandatory service requirement of about two years.
Jin, the eldest
of the septet, said he would sign up in December.
The group,
credited with generating billions for the South Korean economy, have said they
hope to reconvene by 2025.
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