How BTS's arrival in Mexico became a national occasion

Members of BTS and Mexico's President Claudia Sheinbaum stood on a balcony of the National Palace in Mexico City on May 6, greeting 50,000 fans ahead of the group’s first concert in the country as part of its “Arirang” world tour. Mexico has long been home to one of BTS’s strongest markets outside Asia and North America, and the group’s popularity in the country was reflected in the overwhelming crowd. All three shows at Estadio GNP Seguros sold out almost immediately, prompting Sheinbaum to ask Korean President Lee Jae Myung if additional dates in the country could be arranged. Mexico City was the city that listened to BTS the most on Spotify during March — the month that the group returned from a nearly 4-year hiatus — with 714,212 listeners, followed by Jakarta, Indonesia, and São Paulo, Brazil. BTS drew around 37 million monthly listeners worldwide during the period. The Mexico City Chamber of Commerce, Services and Tourism estimated that the shows at Estadio GNP Seguros would generate 1.86 billion pesos ($107.6 million) in economic activity, including ticket sales and spending on accommodations, food and services. Such figures point to a market in which BTS is not simply an imported pop act but a major cultural and economic force. For Mitzy Minerva, a devoted BTS fan from Mexico, the answer lies in communication. “The connection between [BTS] and its fans is different [from that of other musicians],” she said. “For example, one of my favorite artists is [British singer] Robbie Williams, but he wouldn’t communicate with fans [as BTS does] through Weverse.” Weverse is a K-pop fan community platform. Her comment points to a quality that sets K-pop acts apart from their Western counterparts. Beyond its polished production for both its music and performances, K-pop is built around a sense of community and intimacy, encouraging people to be not merely fans but active participants in the artists’ journey. In Latin America, the appeal has been amplified by highly active fan communities — which have played a central role in promoting K-pop and making it more accessible through translations, dance covers, fan-made content and streaming campaigns — led by the comparatively large and social media-savvy youth populations in Mexico and the broader Latin America region. According to Statista data published in December last year, Mexico had nearly 90 million social media users, and the percentage of the population actively using social media reached nearly 84 percent. The country also has one of the region’s longest histories of exposure to Korean content, beginning with films and dramas in the 1990s. BTS, however, helped change how K-pop and Korea as a whole are perceived in Mexico. “K-pop had been popular even before BTS, but it wasn’t as widely loved across different demographics as it is now,” said Lim Su-jin, a professor in the Department of Spanish Language and Latin American Studies at Daegu Catholic University. “K-pop, once considered a minor subculture, has helped change perceptions not only of Korean content but of Korea itself, leading to broader interest in the country's economy and culture.” In a paper published last year titled “BTS and Latin America ARMY [the name for BTS fans] as public diplomatic assets,” Lim notes that “despite the cultural differences between Latin America and Korea, K-pop has rapidly grown across the [former] region due to a significant change in music consumption patterns driven by the spread of online media.” Lim argues that “the collective action of fandom and the emotional connection — enabled through music and social media between idols and fans — had a significant sociocultural impact on young people in the Latin America region,” and that BTS’s strong presence in the region could serve as a form of “public diplomacy” by enhancing the reach and effectiveness of Korea’s soft power.