Dear Gossips,

Fan service from an East Asian popstar will always be more involved and … in my opinion… special, maybe even too special if I’m honest. Sometimes I worry that the expectations are too much and where the line is between idol and fandom. But not today, LOL. No one who is ARMY was surprised this morning when Jung Kook livestreamed on his birthday. He is now 29 (30 in Korean age, which is no longer official but still used informally in Korea) and the only member of BTS to celebrate his birthday on a show day on tour this year as BTS will play the first of four shows at SoFi Stadium tonight in Inglewood to kick off BTS Week in Los Angeles.

Many cities around the world have done this, understanding the economic impact when RM, Jin, Suga, j-hope, Jimin, V, and Jung Kook are in town. Los Angeles City Hall will be lit up in red tonight to match the ARIRANG album cover. The Celebrity Capital of the western world for the next few days will be taken over by the biggest band in the world.

But BTS has not been known on this tour to do the celebrity thing – show up at bougie exclusive places and make themselves heatscores. Rather they’ve patronised Korean establishments, many mom and pop shops, local businesses that will benefit greatly from their visit. It was like this in Toronto when they were here, when they hung out in North York, a neighbourhood the “cool crowd” barely knows exists because it’s outside of the downtown core. North York, though, for those who know, is where the good sh-t is. Flavour without the fuss, especially for East Asian food.

To go back to Jung Kook and his birthday livestream, he sang a couple songs, including a Richard Marx classic, and also put out a job listing for what he’s looking for in a cinematographer, and also did some work as a Chanel ambassador.

I love it when BTS members talk about makeup and skincare and beauty routines. These men did military service, they are ripped, and constantly ripping each other’s clothes off on stage. But they care about lip gloss and eye cream – in a way that’s the exact opposite of looksmaxxing, obvs.

Los Angeles is the final stop on the North American leg of the ARIRANG tour. They have a monthlong break before they resume in South America. It’ll be interesting to see if they show up at the MTV VMAs, on September 27, where they are nominated for two awards, and MTV would desperately want that, but the VMAs have been increasingly irrelevant over the years. It’ll be interesting to see if they bother to attend or if they prefer to go home to Korea instead because that weekend is also a major holiday across East Asia – Moon Festival, or Chuseok in Korea and Mid-Autumn Festival in China, for example. I would go home just for the food.

Yours in gossip,

Lainey

 

 

Photo credits: John Angelillo/UPI/Shutterstock

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