{"id":546245,"date":"2026-03-26T10:44:11","date_gmt":"2026-03-26T10:44:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/546245\/"},"modified":"2026-03-26T10:44:11","modified_gmt":"2026-03-26T10:44:11","slug":"k-pop-group-makes-tonight-show-return","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/546245\/","title":{"rendered":"K-pop Group Makes \u2018Tonight Show\u2019 Return"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\t\u201cI just want to tell you we\u2019ve missed you,\u201d Tonight Show<\/a> host Jimmy Fallon told the seven guests crammed on two couches during Wednesday\u2019s show. <\/p>\n

\n\tThose seven guests \u2014 RM, Jin, Suga, J-hope, Jimin, V and Jungkook \u2014 make up K-pop supergroup BTS<\/a>, who made their first U.S. late night appearance since 2021 on the NBC late night show. Fresh off the release of their first album in nearly four years, Arirang, the group is in the middle of a press run that included a supersized Netflix comeback live stream. <\/p>\n

\n\tBTS chatted with Fallon about their return from their mandatory military enlistment in their home country of South Korea, even noting what each member missed about another during that time. The group recounted their experience living together for the first time in years while making Arirang. Jin, the eldest member, took a moment to lovingly rag on Jungkook, the youngest, for being the messiest member in the house because he never fully unpacked in the house. <\/p>\n

\n\tAs Fallon has in the past with guests, he had the group surprise unsuspecting fans, whose reactions ranged from utter shock to screaming to even throwing themselves on the ground and putting themselves in time out \u2014 an average reaction to seeing BTS in the flesh. <\/p>\n

\n\tThe group took questions Fallon sourced from viewers, even building the BTS fan starter pack with five must-listen songs \u2014 \u201cSwim,\u201d \u201cMic Drop,\u201d \u201cMikrokosmos,\u201d \u201cSpring Day\u201d and \u201cDynamite.\u201d They were also asked to describe how they feel about their dedicated fanbase, collectively known as ARMY, in one word. They decided on \u201clove,\u201d which garnered an audible swoon from the gathered audience. <\/p>\n

\n\tAnd, of course, the questions had to get a bit silly. The group was asked if RM, whose real name is Kim Namjoon, if they\u2019ve been in the car with him driving yet. The rapper, BTS\u2019 leader, famously hadn\u2019t had a license until recently. V joked it was \u201cvery scary.\u201d <\/p>\n

\n\tAfter the interview, the performed \u201cSwim,\u201d the lead single off Arirang. Instead of sticking to the 30 Rock studio, the show brought the group and a select crowd to New York\u2019s Guggenheim Museum. The members started at various sections of the iconic museum before gathering on a stage in the center. <\/p>\n

\n\tA historic trailblazer in the globalization of K-pop, BTS took over the entire heart of their home city of Seoul to celebrate their return last week, setting their Netflix live stream in a historic location. The choice to stage the comeback performance in front of Gwanghwamun, the main gate and historic entryway to Seoul\u2019s Gyeongbokgung Palace, was no coincidence \u2014 as the new album is in many ways a meditation on the group\u2019s cultural identity. <\/p>\n

\n\tThe album\u2019s name,\u00a0Arirang, pays tribute to a treasured Korean folk ballad of the same name, which was famously the country\u2019s first song, sung by Korean men, ever recorded (it was preserved for posterity by American ethnologist Alice Fletcher in 1896). Motifs from the original \u201cArirang\u201d feature prominently in the closing minutes of the new album\u2019s opening track, \u201cBody to Body.\u201d One of the most striking tracks on the album is \u201cNo. 29,\u201d a song made up only of the sound of a bell being tolled once, with the resonant ringing lasting a minute and 38 seconds. The bell used for the recording is Korea\u2019s original, 1,255-year-old Divine Bell of King Seongdeok. The song\u2019s title is a reference to the historic object\u2019s official designation as \u201cSouth Korea\u2019s National Treasure No. 29.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tArirang\u00a0sends an unmistakable message \u2014 BTS no longer only promotes in Korea, but they are proud of their roots. They are, and always will be, a Korean band, even if their audience has expanded to encompass the entire world.<\/p>\n

\n\tBTS is expected to return to The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon on Thursday night (March 26).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cI just want to tell you we\u2019ve missed you,\u201d Tonight Show host Jimmy Fallon told the seven guests…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":546246,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[53],"tags":[92201,88,25702,216,33878,96938],"class_list":["post-546245","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-bts","tag-entertainment","tag-k-pop-news","tag-music","tag-tonight-show","tag-tonight-show-starring-jimmy-fallon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/546245","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=546245"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/546245\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/546246"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=546245"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=546245"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=546245"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}