It is official, after many politically confusing rumours about BTS’s appearance at the President’s inauguration ceremony, it is not confirmed that the South Korean superstars will not be performing nor will be attending the newly elected president Yoon Suk-Yeol next month. The news was announced at the press conference of the transition team’s party situated in Tongui-dong, central Seoul, on Monday, where Park Joo-sun, the head of the inauguration ceremony preparation committee, revealed that the committee has decided to not invite BTS because of the “limited budget and other various circumstances.”
Although, this wasn’t planned from the very beginning as the committee did want BTS to be present at the ceremony but later changed their stance. “We did discuss the possibility of including a performance by BTS for the meaningful event, as just one of many different ideas the committee came up with,” Park said. Park Joo-sun also went ahead and discussed how president Yoon wanted the ceremony to be ‘small but significant’ which can only be achieved by inviting the young generation and not-so-popular celebrities.
But here’s when the controversies started, that sparked debates, when last month Park Joo-sun made an appearance at the “Joo Jin-woo Live”, a KBS radio show. Upon being asked if there was the possibility of witnessing the iconic boy band at the ceremony, Park replied “That’s also being discussed right now,” almost giving hope to people. This isn’t the controversy though, it began when BTS’s loyal fanbase, popularly known as ARMY found out about the news and raised their concern about the government using BTS and their fame for ‘political purposes. It was then when HYBE Label had to kick in and released an official statement assuring everyone that the boys were not invited to the ceremony and that they have not even received a formal invitation.
What created confusion was the president committee’s stance, which kept changing. At some point, they admitted saying that they are not taking BTS’s attendance into consideration, while the same day, the committee released another statement saying, “It’s true we have reviewed the possibility for inviting BTS to perform during our discussions, but it hasn’t been confirmed.”
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Despite the decision of not inviting the group, Park Joo-sun revealed how BTS is a cultural asset of South Korea that they’re proud of. “However, during the review process, the president-elect noted that the ceremony should be a small but substantial and harmonious event, and we also evaluated that the direction was right,” he said.