BTS Plots Comeback After 4-Year Hiatus with New Album & Tour

Photo Credit: BigHit Music / Hybe

After nearly four years, BTS’ military service hiatus comes to an end. The group confirms their upcoming reunion this spring, including an album and a monster tour.

K-pop legends BTS will end their nearly four-year hiatus on March 20 with new music and a world tour. The group confirmed the news in a social media post shared by BTS’ label, BigHit Music, a subsidiary of entertainment juggernaut Hybe.

It’s been a long four years for BTS fans, as all seven of the group’s members—RM, Jin, Jimin, V, Suga, Jungkook, and J-Hope—recently completed their mandatory South Korean military service.

“March 20th comeback confirmed,” the post reads.

The group originally announced plans during a livestream over the summer to return in the spring. The stream was the first time all seven members had broadcast together since September 2022 before they began their military service.

“Since it will be a group album, it will reflect each member’s thoughts and ideas,” said BTS at the time. “We’re approaching the album with the same mindset we had when we first started.”

BTS was careful to stagger their enlistments so that members could focus on solo projects while the group was on hiatus. Their upcoming album will be their first since the 2022 anthology Proof, their Japanese compilation album BTS, the Best, and their studio album, Be, in 2020.

Suga, the group’s rapper, was the final member of BTS to be released from his duties in June last year. Due to a shoulder injury, Suga was serving as a social service agent as an alternative to traditional military service. The other six members served in the South Korean army.

In South Korea, all able-bodied men aged 18 to 28 must perform 18-21 months of military service under the country’s conscription system. While the law gives special exemptions to athletes, classical and traditional musicians, and ballet and other dancers, K-pop stars and other entertainers are not eligible for exemption. However, BTS postponed their service in 2020 after South Korea’s National Assembly revised its Military Service Act, which enabled entertainers like K-pop stars to defer enlistment until age 30.