K-pop superstars BTS have announced that a new single is coming ... and it will be in English.
The group said the song, set to be released on Friday, August 21, will come out ahead of a full new album scheduled for later in the year.
“We are preparing an album for the second half of this year, but decided to first release a single because we wanted to reach our fans as soon as possible,” the group said on Korean broadcasting app VLive.
“Due to Covid-19, people around the world have been going through tough times and we wanted to share some positive energy with our fans.”
While BTS didn’t reveal the name of the song, fans were given some insight into why the band decided to record it in English this time.
“We thought that the song sounded perfect as it is in English. We recorded the guide version and felt that the result was something totally new and fresh,” they said.
They explained it had been written because “we also needed a breakthrough during these unforeseen times”.
“This is a new challenge for us as well,” they said.
The band had been set to go on a highly anticipated Map of the Soul world tour, but had to postpone it back in April due to the global coronavirus outbreak.
But BTS have since upped their online presence to better connect with fans. The group recently held Bang Bang Con: the Live, an online live-streamed paid concert event that set a Guinness World Record for viewership in June. The seven-piece band also hosted a two-day event on YouTube that provided online streams of previous concerts, as well as past meet-and-greet sessions in April.
They also launched a series of Korean-language teaching videos to establish a stronger connection with fans around the world, called Learn Korean with BTS.
Scroll through below to see a gallery of the group through the years:
