Arirang is Korea’s best-known folk song, inscribed by UNESCO as Intangible Cultural Heritage, and survives today in more than sixty regional variants and thousands of documented versions. It was a symbol of resistance during the Japanese occupation, it accompanies official ceremonies in both Koreas and was played, among other moments, in the joint parades of North and South Korean athletes at the Sydney 2000 and PyeongChang 2018 Olympic Games, under the flag of unification. The most widespread variant, Bonjo Arirang, revolves around someone crossing a mountain pass while another person remains behind. The separation, the farewell and the hope of reunion are also the starting point of the new stage of BTS. The group uses precisely a sample of Bonjo Arirang in Body to Body, the song that opens their new album, Arirang, the first published after the parenthesis of the mandatory military service of its seven members. Four years after their last continuous activity as a group, BTS returned to the European stage last night with the first of the two dates planned at the Metropolitan Stadium in Madrid, their first concert in the city, before 70,000 people, full, with tickets from 80 to 561 euros.
Continue reading