{"id":307659,"date":"2026-05-09T12:46:11","date_gmt":"2026-05-09T12:46:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/307659\/"},"modified":"2026-05-09T12:46:11","modified_gmt":"2026-05-09T12:46:11","slug":"bts-brings-k-pop-frenzy-to-mexico","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/307659\/","title":{"rendered":"BTS brings K-pop frenzy to Mexico"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

MEXICO CITY\u00a0\u2014\u00a0It isn\u2019t often that a boy band becomes a matter of international diplomacy. <\/p>\n

But this, after more than a million K-pop fans in Mexico tried and failed to buy tickets for a three-night run of shows by the beloved band BTS, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum sent a letter to her counterpart in South Korea, pleading for more concert dates. <\/p>\n

The Korean president wrote back apologetically, saying that she had inquired into the issue, but BTS was unable to accommodate more shows in Mexico during its world tour.<\/p>\n

This week, ahead of the band\u2019s shows at Mexico City\u2019s GNP Serguros Stadium on Thursday, Friday and Saturday, Sheinbaum invited its seven members to the National Palace \u2014 an honor typically reserved for visiting diplomats. They showed up in well-tailored suits, their sleek hair perfectly coiffed. <\/p>\n

K-pop fans are known for their frenzy. That is especially true in Mexico City, which is ranked as the No. 1 <\/p>\n

\"Crowds <\/p>\n

Crowds of BTS fans arrive outside GNP Seguros Stadium before the group\u2019s concert in Mexico City on Thursday. Many gathered to enjoy the atmosphere and music, whether they had tickets or not.<\/p>\n

city for BTS streams on Spotify.<\/p>\n

1 <\/p>\n

\"BTS <\/p>\n

2 <\/p>\n

\"A <\/p>\n

1. BTS fans gather to dance outside Estadio GNP Seguros in Mexico City, Thursday, May 7, 2026. 2. A father and his daughter dance and sing outside Estadio GNP Seguros during a BTS concert in Mexico City, Thursday, May 7, 2026. (Alejandra Rajal\/For The Times) <\/p>\n

The National Palace visit was announced with just five hours\u2019 notice. Still, an estimated 50,000 fans managed to fill the Z\u00f3calo, Mexico City\u2019s central square, in time to see the president and the pop stars waving from a balcony. <\/p>\n

\u201cI love you, I adore you. Thank you very much!\u201d singer Kim Nam-joon said in halting Spanish as a cacophony of screams erupted from the crowd. <\/p>\n

Sheinbaum drew more cheers when she announced that she had invited the band to play again in Mexico again in 2027. How\u2019s that for pop music populism? <\/p>\n

Photographer Alejandra Rajal documented the band\u2019s visit to Mexico, including thousands of members of the ARMY, as the BTS fanbase is known, who turned up outside the stadium despite not having tickets to enter.<\/p>\n

\"Fans <\/p>\n

Fans watch from an elevated street near GNP Seguros Stadium during a BTS concert in Mexico City on Thursday.<\/p>\n

Rosa Gabriela Hern\u00e1ndez Flores, 22, had traveled from northern Sinaloa state in hopes of finding a way in. Her heart fell when she realized scalpers were selling seats for around $3,500 a pop. <\/p>\n

But sadness and envy morphed into joy when she realized she had found a spot where she could hear a bit of the music coming from inside, and see the corner of a massive screen where the band\u2019s movements were projected. <\/p>\n

\"Zoe <\/p>\n

Zoe Castro, 12, who has been a BTS fan since she was 6, try to buy tickets online outside.<\/p>\n

She and a crew of fans sang along to hits such as \u201cMIC Drop\u201d and \u201cSwim.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cI cried, I laughed, I screamed \u2014 I did it all,\u201d Hern\u00e1ndez said. \u201cThose minutes with them felt magical.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MEXICO CITY\u00a0\u2014\u00a0It isn\u2019t often that a boy band becomes a matter of international diplomacy. But this, after more…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":307660,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[129343,29274,11154,129347,129346,129345,48,52,51,47,50,49,2324,2457,2458,129344,54202,30546,1860,2429,211],"class_list":["post-307659","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-boy-band","tag-bts","tag-fan","tag-gnp-serguros-stadium","tag-k-pop-frenzy","tag-korean-president","tag-la","tag-la-headlines","tag-la-news","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-headlines","tag-los-angeles-news","tag-member","tag-mexico","tag-mexico-city","tag-national-palace","tag-pop-star","tag-sheinbaum","tag-show","tag-thursday","tag-ticket"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/307659","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=307659"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/307659\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/307660"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=307659"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=307659"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=307659"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}