BTS Loves Mexico
– 3 min read
As we saw last week, 50,000 people showed up outside the National Palace in Mexico City to catch a glimpse of BTS on the balcony when President Claudia Sheinbaum welcomed RM, Jin, Suga, j-hope, Jimin, V, and Jungkook to the country ahead of their three sold-out shows. Demand for tickets greatly exceeded availability – something like two million people were trying to go see them perform. And knowing, as they do, in all their originality and trademark chaos, BTS returned the love.
On Friday, when they weren’t scheduled to perform, Jin, Suga, Jimin, and Jung Kook showed up unexpectedly at Lucha Libre resulting in multiple mega viral moments including when Místico entered wearing a BTS jacket.
@reign.080 Místico entered the show with a custom BTS jacket just because 4 members were watching 🥹💜 #jin #jimin #suga #jungkook #bts ♬ som original - ؘ
And Jin’s many hilarious reactions during the match.
While their appearance at wrestling was a surprise, it was not a surprise at all when they then, during the concert on Saturday, started doing wrestling moves on stage, LOL. Jin is wearing that same jacket, btw.
Here’s more unseriousness from Jin and JK during sound check.
They also ended up incorporating Lucha Libre in the show – all the backup dancers were wearing Mexican wrestling masks.
@nixci58 At the BTS concert in Mexico, the dancers wore Luchadores masks #btsconcert #armymexico #btsworldtour #army #armybts ♬ original sound - тгк: starly
Suga, later on, while he was addressing the crowd, talked about the experience at Lucha Libre and how much he enjoyed wrestling when he was growing up. Known as the most reserved member of BTS, Mexico brought out the most bubbly corners of Yoongi’s personality that he typically keeps pretty concealed – but this goes back to my point about BTS’s relationship with Mexico, how much affection they have for ARMY there and vice versa. Because while they filled the stadium, there were 40,000 fans outside who didn’t have tickets who just wanted to be there anyway to hear them… and there’s no doubt they were fully aware of it. Well before they even arrived in Mexico.
Because Mexico City “is ranked as the No. 1 city for BTS streams on Spotify” and, in general, K-pop and K-culture is huuuuuge in Latin America; this is why, in part, BTS is spending the entire month of October in Latin America later this year with tour stops in Colombia, Peru, Chile, Argentina, and Brazil. As this headline at The Guardian put it last month, “The US is no longer the go-to place”, more evidence that the west is no longer the dominant cultural force, that cultures are being exchanged from one end of the globe to the other, and no longer just heading in one direction from one point of origin.
So with that in mind… and just for kicks but not really… let’s talk about the Super Bowl. Three months ago at the Benito Bowl, Bad Bunny performed entirely in Spanish during the most televised event in North America, breaking history and setting records. It was both a creative and business decision. Creative, obviously, because he is one of the biggest artists on the planet. Business, however, because Latin America is a priority for the NFL, the game is rapidly growing in Mexico and Brazil in particular. We’ve just seen how popular BTS is in Mexico. In Brazil it’s not that far off – pre-sale for their three concerts in Brazil at the end of October exceeded 1.2 million people. So you could make a creative and business case for the BTS Bowl next February in Inglewood, California, where they are performing for four sold-out nights in September and also where (in Los Angeles) there is the largest concentration of Koreans in the United States.
BTS was recently asked about the Super Bowl during their interview with Rolling Stone. They called it a “dream”
@rollingstone @BTS on the possibility of playing the Super Bowl one day: "We're a pretty performance-heavy group, so I imagine how we could perform if we ever get to be on that stage." — Jin (#김석진) #bts #btsarmy #jin #superbowl ♬ original sound - Rolling Stone
BTS doesn’t need the Super Bowl. But the Super Bowl and the NFL could benefit so much from BTS being at their marquee event, not unlike the benefits Benito generously gave them earlier this year. Right now, BTS is scheduled to be in Australia just before the Super Bowl in 2027… but venues have not yet been announced, tickets are not yet on sale. Rescheduling is definitely a possibility and the speculation has been ongoing for months. Much of that speculation, however, is uninformed about BTS’s influence and where they are influential. The way they were received in Mexico, and how they returned that warmth, might open some eyes of those who were previously unaware of which markets pop off for this band. All markets, pretty much, but for the purposes of this discussion, Latin America definitely knows BTS.
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