“They are the world’s best selling artists, and they have brought the ‘K-Wave’ to the White House.” (BBC)
Today, the main character of the White House is BTS. When BTS stepped onto the podium, foreign reporters all became ARMY and pulled out their smartphone cameras. Brian Deese, Director of the White House’s National Economic Committee, even said, “I get to go home and tell my kids BTS opened (the briefing) for me.” The BBC described the scene as “K-Wave,” a wave of the Korean Wave that goes way beyond K-pop. “The heat at the scene was tremendous as BTS appeared,” our report said.
BTS entered the White House on the afternoon of May 31st as young ambassadors who spreads a message of hope against anti-Asian hate crimes. White House spokesman Karine Jean-Pierre introduced BTS as “international icons who also play an important role as youth ambassadors promoting a message of respect and positivity.”
BTS expressed his gratitude for the invitation, saying, “It is a great honor to be invited to the White House today to discuss such important issues.” Jin also added that they were there to “join the White House to stand with the AAPI community.” J-Hope and Jungkook expressed their feelings towards their fandom, saying, “We are here today thanks to our ARMY who have different nationalities and cultures and use different languages.”
Expressing his regret over Asian hate crime, Jimin said, “We were devastated by the recent surge of hate crimes, including Asian American hate crimes. To put a stop on this and support the cause, we’d like to take this opportunity to voice ourselves once again,” he explained.
The heat among the foreign press was simply hot on that day. The White House briefing room was filled with reporters gathered to cover BTS as all 49 seats in the briefing room are full. There was no room to step in the hallway and around the fixed seats. In addition to the fixed seats, more than 100 reporters filled the briefing room. Reporters began to take out their phones at the same time as BTS appeared. Some reporters even shouted, “Phone down.”
CNBC reported, “A White House press briefing on Tuesday saw a massive spike in viewers when K-pop megastars BTS stopped by to deliver remarks ahead of a meeting with President Joe Biden. The seven-member sensation drove more than 310,000 simultaneous viewers to tune into a livestream of the press briefing on the White House’s YouTube channel.”
The same goes for ARMY. Hundreds of fans stayed around the White House to see BTS hours before the speech began. There were placards and posters of BTS everywhere. President Biden is trying to combat hate crimes against Asians, which are emerging as a more serious problem after the pandemic. BTS has also been adding strength together with President Biden. In fact, they voiced their opposition to Asian hate crimes by speaking directly about the shooting aimed at Asian of an Atlanta man in March.
Meanwhile, BTS will release “Proof” on the 10th of this month. This will be an anthology album containing BTS’s past, present, and future.
Source: Dispatch
