Countless bands and musical artists have celebrated new album releases on late-night television, but no one has done so with quite the art world flair as BTS, the mega-famous K-pop boy band fronted by art enthusiast and collector RM. (The other six members are Jin, Suga, j-hope, Jimin, V, and Jung Kook.)
Fresh off a four-year hiatus, BTS’s new album Arirang came out on Mar. 20. The band was interviewed on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon on Wednesday night. But instead of performing their new single “SWIM” in Studio 6B, Fallon played a previously recorded video from a secret live performance at the Guggenheim Museum earlier that day.
In the video, Fallon stands in front of a circular stage on the ground floor of “New York’s iconic Guggenheim Museum,” as the host puts it, and introduces the song. All seven BTS members take turns singing while strolling separately down the museum ramp, with Carol Bove’s colorful metal sculptures acting as a backdrop to the performance. They meet up on the stage just in time for the first chorus.
During the interview portion of the The Tonight Show, RM explains that they named the album—their first as a group since taking a hiatus in 2022 due to compulsory service in the Korean military—after the Korean folk song “Arirang.” The album, RM said, includes a lot of emotions: joy, sorrow, longing, sadness, resistance. “We hope our new songs can be universal, like Arirang.”
BTS also performed a second single at the Guggenheim, “2.0.” This one involved more choreography, with the 150 audience members watching from the ramps above rather than from around the stage. (RM hurt his ankle during a recent rehearsal, so performed from a stool.)
