Seven years is a long time between visits. At Estádio do MorumBIS in São Paulo, BTS acknowledged that wait directly, with Jimin addressing the crowd in Portuguese: “A gente levou 7 anos pra voltar pra São Paulo de novo. Então, vamos fazer um show incrível!” (“It took us 7 years to return to São Paulo, so let’s put on an incredible show!”)
The opening night of the group’s three sold-out Brazilian concerts brought BTS WORLD TOUR ‘ARIRANG’ into its final Latin American stretch. After stadium shows in Colombia, Peru, Chile, and Argentina, São Paulo offered another reunion with fans whose anticipation had been evident long before the group arrived. More than 1.9 million people accessed the ticketing system for the three dates, with estimated demand exceeding 3.7 million tickets.
Inside the stadium, the tour’s 360-degree stage placed ARMY around the performance. Its central pavilion drew inspiration from the traditional Korean jeongja and Gyeonghoeru Pavilion at Gyeongbokgung Palace, translating those architectural references into a gathering place on a stadium scale.
Korean symbolism also shaped the stage beneath the members’ feet. Visual elements inspired by the Taegeukgi, South Korea’s flag, anchored the floor, while extended runways radiated outwards in a layout informed by its four trigrams, known as Geongongamri. Together, these details made the tour’s cultural references part of the space shared by performers and audience.
Against that elaborate setting, some of the night’s most personal exchanges needed little more than a few words. V joined Jimin in speaking directly to Brazilian fans, drawing cheers with “ARMY ARRASA! Papo reto, vocês são os melhores!” (“ARMY rocks! Real talk, you guys are the best!”) The colloquial phrasing gave his thanks a local familiarity, continuing a pattern of gestures that had distinguished each stop on the tour.
In Bogotá, V’s “¡Bogotá, qué chimba!” had become one of the visit’s widely shared moments. Lima brought “¡Perú es clave!” and appearances in traditional Peruvian ponchos and chullos. In Buenos Aires, the members wore Lionel Messi’s No. 10 Argentina jersey and joined the audience in singing the football anthem ‘Muchachos’.
These exchanges gave each city something of its own within the larger production. In São Paulo, the Portuguese messages made the long-awaited return feel personal, acknowledging both the years apart and the enthusiasm that had endured.
The welcome across Latin America had extended beyond the concert grounds, too. Lima’s Santiago de Surco district temporarily renamed Calle Sacramento “Avenida BTS” to celebrate the group’s first visit to Peru, while Buenos Aires’ City Council named the members “Huéspedes de Honor”, or Guests of Honour.
São Paulo now carries the tour towards its regional finale, with two further performances at Estádio do MorumBIS on 30 and 31 October. For the opening-night crowd, however, the significance was already clear in Jimin’s greeting: after seven years, BTS and their Brazilian fans were finally sharing a stadium again.
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