BTS will celebrate the release of their upcoming comeback album, Arirang, with a grand return to late-night television. The band will perform two songs and sit down for an interview on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon in the days following the album’s release.
BTS’ first Tonight Show appearance in nearly five years will air on March 25 and 26. The first episode to run will include the interview and one song, while the other performance will be saved for the following night. It’s the same double-performance schedule the show deployed in 2021, when BTS sang both “Permission to Dance” and “Butter.”
To put into context how much time has passed since BTS were last fully active as a band: Their most recent late-night appearance was on James Corden’s The Late Late Show, which aired its final episode in 2023.
Arirang will arrive on March 20. Rather than going full promo-mode in the lead-up to the release, BTS are waiting to hit the gas. The day after the album arrives, BTS will perform a free concert at Seoul’s Gwanghwamun Square, which will be livestreamed globally on Netflix. On March 23, RM, Jin, Suga, J-hope, Jimin, V, and Jung Kook will perform in New York City for Spotify x BTS: SWIMSIDE, their first U.S. performance in almost four years. The Tonight Show appearance will follow later that week and a behind-the-scenes documentary about the making of the album will premiere on Netflix on March 27.
The album marks the band’s first LP since each member completed his mandatory military service in South Korea. BTS will reunite with fans around the world on their 82-date international tour scheduled to kick off on April 9. It is the largest world tour ever mounted by a single act from South Korea. “The most important thing,” RM told GQ in the group’s first joint interview since announcing its hiatus in 2022, “is just that we are here back together again.”
© Melissa Auf der Maur
