BTS dropped the title of its upcoming comeback album, setting the internet ablaze. On January 15, ARMY received the gift from the K-pop legends as they announced the name and opened the window for Arirang ‘s pre-orders, ahead of the release of their fifth album on . Though many fans praised the beautiful title that traces its roots in the Korean culture, others quickly started digging out things shared and spoken by its seven members, Jin, J-Hope, Suga, RM, Jimin, V and Jungkook in the past.
Fans are now calling them spoilers and hints about the name, which they missed at that time.
Namjoon topping the list for spoiling ‘ArirANG’
The most circulated photo that has resurfaced is a mirror selfie posted by RM, which the leader later deleted. But, it had spread across social media by then. It showed RM clicking himself possibly inside a lift. He attached the text “ang” on the photo, which fans are now calling a part of the word “ArirANG”. A user wrote on X (formerly Twitter), “just realized namjoon gave the biggest spoiler ever (arirANG) and not a single person batted an eye.” Another fan reacted, “ANG turns out he was actually giving spoilers for the ARIRANG album name.”
BTS Arirang Medley
BTS had performed the Arirang Medley a decade ago, paying tribute to their cultural symbol at KCON 2016 in Paris. The act turned a precious piece, getting referred by broadcasting companies to depict Korean culture and music. When their album was announced, fans went back to the 10-year-old performance, calling it a spoiler the band gave out a decade ago. “They’ve been planning for centuries!!” a fan wrote. A second one reacted, “this was a spoiler or what? Arirang studio version was released on soundcloud back in 2016.”
Jungkook’s past reactions to ‘Arirang’
Many even got reminded of Jungkook’s reaction across multiple lives when ARMYs mentioned ‘Arirang’ from their 2016 performance. “I remember those lives but it wasn’t jk just randomly mentioning Arirang. Everyone and I mean EVERYONE was begging him to sing that song that’s why he looks so confused,” recalled a fan. Another one said, “I actually wonder if he saw all the request for him to sing it and told the members that armys really like Arirang.” A third one joked, “well this aged very well – Googie’s complete and total confusion every time someone mentioned ARIRANG.”
BTS Weverse live hints
BTS’ Weverse live also left ARMYs guessing and digging out hints about their album. A fan said, “GIYS I FEEL like “eternal sunshine” is a spoiler of some sort?? Like with all this sun symbilsim and jk also said that sun set was a spoiler.” A second one added, “I’m pretty sure they’ve spoiled something but we are too dumb to get the hint.”
RM explains ‘Arirang’ title
During , RM explained the emotion behind picking ‘Arirang’ as the name. He said, “When we were all gathered, we thought a lot about who we were. And we wanted to show you where we started. The seven of us are Koreans and we wanted to include something that symbolised Korea. And we came to call out Arirang.”