The King Fahd International Stadium shined in purple waves on Friday evening, as 30,000
fans surged to Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia, for BTS’ world tour concert.
The K-pop superstar threw its last overseas concert of the 14-month-long “LOVE YOURSELF:
SPEAK YOURSELF” world tour at 7:30 p.m.
BTS’ Riyadh concert marks the Middle Eastern kingdom’s first-ever stadium concert by
a non-Arabic group. Until only 2 years ago in Saudi Arabia, women were forbidden from
dancing in public places.
Most female fans dressed themselves in black abaya and covered their faces with niqab,
hijab or chador. These local women, however, never shied away from singing after their
favorite stars’ music video, projected on the giant screen prior to the main show.
The local fans responded to BTS’ songs in Korean, with great precision in timing and pronunciation.
The concert kicked off when a giant leopard figurine slowly rose under the spotlight.
The entire event ran about 2 hours and 40 minutes, uniting the South Korean artists
and the Islamic nation through 24 songs and mini-talk sessions.
Starting off with “Dionysus,” the seven members of BTS blasted the stage with its
Billboards hits, including “Boy With Luv,” “Idol,” “Fake Love.” BTS fans sang
along, waving the ARMY bombs, or the purple torch-sticks of BTS’ official fan club “ARMY.”
In performing “Euphoria,” Jungkuk flew over the stadium on a lift.
At times, BTS members asked the fans to light up their mobile phones, or make up-and-down
waves from their seats.
Many men, dressed in white traditional Arabic costume, also seized attention by taking pictures
and selfies to archive this memorable event.
Fans cheered and screamed at Jin’s hand-kiss, V’s smile, and every gesture by Jimin. Water
cannon and fireworks heat up the already-broiling stadium. In the encore-stage time, BTS members
and the audience sang birthday song in Arabic for Jimin, who turned 24 the next day.
Thanks to global popularity of BTS, the Riyadh concert drew numerous local media outlets,
such as Al Riyadh, AlJazeera and Al Arabia.
After the concert, BTS fans shared the touching moment with other audience from all over the
Middle Eastern region, missing their friends who couldn’t make it to the Riyadh concert.