Our long, international nightmare is over. K-pop superstars BTS, on hiatus since 2022 for their mandatory South Korean military service, reunited for a livestream on the Weverse fan platform to talk about future plans for more music.
The big news coming out of the livestream was that the band expects to put out a new album next spring ahead of a world tour, their first since the Love Yourself World Tour in 2018 and 2019. Their plan is to begin working on new music in the U.S. later this month, when Jin has a series of solo dates over here.
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So realistically, when are we looking at new music from BTS?
At this point, it’s difficult to gauge. If we’re going off of their most recent studio album output and the timing around promotional singles for those, a rough timeline begins to appear.
The most recent full-length album, Be, was preceded by standalone single “Dynamite,” which came out around three months beforehand. But the album’s lead single, “Life Goes On,” dropped the same day as the album.
That timing is somewhat unusual, however, when compared to the two albums immediately before Be, Map of the Soul: 7 and its Japanese-language companion, Map of the Soul: 7 — The Journey. Both of those releases came with lead singles that dropped about a month before each, “Black Swan” and “Stay Gold” respectively.
If that timing sticks and the next album does hit in the spring of 2026 (let’s say late March/early April), then we could be looking at a new song around late February or early March.
And if that’s the case, the Army will be waiting a long time to see if BTS could possibly break their losing streak at the Grammys. Despite five previous nominations, the band has yet to take home a trophy, and with the Grammy eligibility window running from August to August, their next opportunity most likely won’t be until early 2027.
But if the Army can survive military service, it can certainly hold it together during the wait for Grammy eligibility.
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