On Jan. 4, the K-Pop group BTS announced its fifth studio album, later announced as “Arirang,” which comes out on March 20. This is the first group album BTS is releasing after all the members have fulfilled their mandatory military service. According to the Weverse announcement, “The album, featuring 14 tracks, is packed with honest stories that BTS wants to share with ARMY, who have been waiting for their pm comeback as a whole group.”

During BTS’s group activities break, each member worked on their solo projects. Some of these projects include Jungkook modeling for Calvin Klein, releasing his solo album “Golden,” Jin releasing his album “Happy,” and Taehyung, “V,” attending Paris Fashion Week in 2024. During the break, Jin and J-Hope also had successful world tours for their solo albums, with J-Hope also performing at Lollapalooza in 2022.

Alongside the album announcement, BTS also revealed the dates and cities for its next world tour on Jan. 13. The tour will consist of 34 different shows across 23 different countries. The tour begins on April 9, in Goyang, South Korea, and is planned to end in March 2027 in Manila. At the end of the poster, it states that additional cities will be announced for 2027, including Japan and the Middle East.

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