BTS Spotlight at the United Nations General Assembly

US Media Report 1 Million Viewers for UN SDG Moment with BTS... 10 Million Views in One Day
BTS Delivers Message of Comfort and Praise to Youth Overcoming the Pandemic

[Asia Economy International Department Reporter] The fiery popularity of BTS is also drawing attention on the stage of the United Nations General Assembly.

The New York Times (NYT) and The Washington Post (WP) highlighted on the 20th (local time) that 1 million people watched the live broadcast of the UN Sustainable Development Goals High-Level Meeting (SDG Moment) event attended by BTS.

[Image source=Reuters Yonhap News]

More than 980,000 viewers watched the live broadcast on the official UN YouTube account alone, and tens of thousands of netizens listened through other channels, according to U.S. media reports.

NYT especially reported in an article titled "BTS Takes Center Stage at the UN" on the 21st that despite the COVID-19 pandemic, the Afghanistan crisis, and the climate change emergency, over 1 million people watched BTS, a 'boy band' rather than national leaders from various countries.

Attending the UN General Assembly as a special envoy of President Moon Jae-in, BTS promoted COVID-19 vaccines in their seven-minute speech the day before and delivered messages of comfort and praise to the younger generation who overcame the pandemic.

Fans went wild over BTS's appearance at the UN by posting purple heart emojis in the YouTube live chat. WP evaluated that at the UN General Assembly, where mainly politicians attend and fail to attract broad public interest, this year BTS drew unusually intense attention, surpassing other high-level figures.

The fact that the number of online live viewers dropped sharply to 50,000 one hour after BTS appeared at the SDG Moment event the day before well illustrates their status.

The video of BTS's "Permission to Dance" performance at the UN headquarters on the UN YouTube channel has recorded 11.32 million views as of 2 p.m. on the day after it was uploaded.

The UN also appears encouraged by BTS's "support fire." Amina Mohammed, UN Deputy Secretary-General, posted a Korean message saying "Thank you" along with videos and photos of BTS's event the day before on her Twitter.