BTS return to London for their world tour since their sold out concerts last October at O2 Arena. This time they make it bigger at Wembley Stadium. Originally scheduled for Saturday, they added an extra date to make it more of a packed weekend for devoted ARMY.
Here is a quick review of my attendance on day one.
After endless viewings and tunings in of live streams since 2015, I finally managed to buy a London ticket when the second round of production tickets were released after the first sell out round. Unable to grab a soundcheck ticket from any of the sales, I went with a level 2 seat for Saturday only (didn't want to be greedy and I had to budget after spending on other things!). I also skipped queuing for the BTS Studio and merchandise on the actual day and arriving at my seat just half an hour before the scheduled start time of 7.45pm.
Anyone who attended the Love Yourself tour or the cinema screening of said concert will notice the setlist is almost identical for Speak Yourself but with the addition of the newer songs from Map Of The Soul Persona album. The Speak Yourself tour is an encore tour, providing an opportunity for the ARMYs who missed out on the chance to see their favourite group live in concert or for anyone who wanted to experience the magic all over again.
Bangtan Boys opened the night with Dionysus. A rock-inspired song from the latest mini album that sets the fierce mood for the evening. Continuing the hype feel we move into Not Today which included Korean and local dancers joining together on the extended stage. The medley of Dope, Silver Spoon/Baepsae and Fire
Everyone made an attempt to speak (British) English and I give them huge kudos for trying and being able to express how they feel. I chuckled over Namjoon's 'lovely' and Jungkook's 'easy peasy, lemon squeezy.' Clearly there was love between them and the fans attending. They were grateful to be in a legendary venue like Wembley Stadium and the work put into the production and both stages was incredible. While my view was half-blocked no thanks to poles and lights, I was able to see the group in their entirety on the extended stage. Ever since I watched the encore cinematic screening of Love Yourself In Seoul, I had a rough idea on how the setlist would be laid out and how the different stages would be set.
Most of the solo stages were the same as before but Jungkook flew across the VIP seating area during Euphoria and was dubbed hunky Mary Poppins by a reporter from The Telegraph. I loved all the solo stages to be honest. J-Hope shows his groove in Just Dance, Jimin took me to another world with his graceful Serendipity, Taehyung got everyone screaming with his sensual Singularity, Yoongi oozed charisma and charm with Seesaw, Namjoon was full of love on his Trivia: Love stage and Jin made my heart ache with Epiphany. As I said in my previous review for the cinema screening and previous performances from music shows, we should appreciate every single member's solo stage. I could see everyone got screams but who got the loudest screams their way was rather evident. All seven performances give us something different, something magical. Let's embrace them.
Alongside fun, dance tunes such as Idol, Boy With Luv, Anpanman and So What we also have chilled out mellow pieces like Make It Right and the ending song Mikrokosmos. Angsty buttons ensue with Fake Love, The Truth Untold and Outro: Tear. I envied everyone who had an ARMY bomb and managed to sync their lightsticks so it changed colour depending by the songs being played. The rainbow ocean was a stunning sight that it definitely made every fan and BTS feel such happiness in a united room. I rarely use light sticks since I am often busy taking photos with my camera and my hands are so tied up during the evening but maybe next time I will consider buying an ARMY bomb in the future should I decide to try for another concert.
Wembley Stadium went purple for BTS in the evening. As you come out of the venue, you can see its arch light in purple along with the banners down the pathway leading back to Wembley Park station. It has been a decade since I last set foot into Wembley Stadium (the last time I attended a concert there was for Take That and Lady Gaga was one of the support acts) and my long hours of Saturday were worth it in the end. Even the long wait outside Wembley Park was memorable with the security keeping a large portion of ARMY entertained with a Youtube playlist of BTS songs till we got to the station (while we waited, we sang along to Run, War of Hormone and Go Go).
Media
My fancams can be seen below:-
Serendipity - Park Jimin's contemporary background shows so nicely in this stage.
Tear - Rapper Line make you sit up and listen intently. This song is one of my rare life anthems.
Mikrokosmos + Ending My favourite song from this comeback.
Second half of Seesaw . Yoongi sings and raps here. Very cool and I hope he sings a bit more in future tracks.
Bangtan Sonyeondan came to London, stole the show, stole the hearts of young and older fans and knew how to be electrifying as well as genuinely sweet guys. They are teaching their fans to speak themselves, love themselves and that's fine. Whether or not BTS won UK hearts through their Britain's Got Talent appearance it doesn't matter. I'm not pushing that agenda on their validation. They are one of a few Kpop groups/Asian artists to make me feel emotions and tap into ethnic identity. That's enough for me.
A small preview of the photos I took:-
All my photos can be seen here for your reference.