Dear Gossips,

By the time this is posted, BTS would have arrived in the United States, with two days to spare before they perform the first of three shows in Tampa. This is probably why I’m getting Tampa news in my feed suddenly, lol. Apparently there’s a lot of talk about traffic and road closures – city officials are expecting huge crowds, as they should, and they’re putting up a merch tent, opening today, that will also have an impact on local routes. But it will be offset by the impact that BTS’s presence over the weekend will have on the local economy.

This is their first concert in the United States in four years, there are people coming to Tampa not just from across the US but from around the world for one reason, or seven reasons: RM, Jin, Suga, j-hope, Jimin, V, and Jung Kook – people who would ordinarily never, ever book a ticket to Tampa, no disrespect. Which is why the mayor of Tampa has turned the city purple. No doubt, this is the most trafficked reel she has ever posted.

We’ve been anticipating this ever since BTS confirmed the tour – a mega boost to local economies, similar to what happened with Taylor Swift’s The Eras tour. Seoul, Goyang, and Tokyo have already experienced a surge and we’ll see similar results through the rest of the year and the early part of 2027.

Even though they’ve already given us so much, and will continue to give on stage during their performances, BTS’s relentless fan service continues. The first episode of their variety show, Run BTS! 2.0 dropped today and I'm saving it for later but I know already that it’s classic Bangtan: chaos and more chaos, 25+ minutes worth.

And of course their airport arrival at Incheon is keeping ARMY busy. First of all, note again the media and public presence, how many people showed up to see them – a reminder of their influence in Korea. And then, of course, as Suga tries to get over it as quickly as possible (typical), Jung Kook was particularly high energy, you can see it at the one-minute mark in the video below.

What he’s doing is the choreography from Cortis’s new single, “REDRED”, off their upcoming new mini-album, GREENGREEN. Multiple videos for the track were released earlier this week, my personal favourite, as usual, is the performance version, because this is where you can better see the choreo. And the choreo is super fun, very distinctive – with the most distinctive part just amplified by JK himself at the airport. Cortis just performed “REDRED” on Mnet tonight and now that they’ve once again been endorsed by their sunbaenim, JK, these moves will likely start blowing up on TikTok, if they haven’t already.

I really like the 2000s influence that has shaped Cortis’s work and aesthetic so far. You can see it clearly in the styling – in comparison to other K-pop visuals, their signature look is so casual, deceptively unpolished. On Mnet almost all of them were just wearing track pants, like students who were just ten minutes ago cramming for exams. When I was in Korea last year, we went to an Mnet taping, one of the highlights of our trip. We saw over a dozen groups and solo artists performing that night and few of them have been able to really level up over the last 12 months. This was five months before Cortis debuted.

It has only been eight months (!), their ascent has been explosive, but maybe not surprising since they are, in my opinion, the standouts of K-pop’s fifth generation, with so much potential still to be discovered. It’ll be interesting to see if and how they deliver on that potential as we continue to track their progress.

Yours in gossip,

Lainey

Photo credits: Kim Hong-Ji/POOL/EPA/Shutterstock

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