The End Of Suga’s D-Day Tour Hit Me Hard

If art is a way to access and understand emotions — our own, and those of others — then Suga’s raw, vulnerable closing concert was art in its purest form.

Suga, Big Hit

Min Yoongi (aka Suga of BTS aka Agust D) concluded his first solo tour D-Day this past weekend with three special encore concerts at Seoul’s KSPO Dome. I wrote about the tour back in June after traveling to Singapore to see it, and I didn’t initially plan to revisit the topic here — but the encore concerts, and the last one in particular, were such a heart-filling and heart-wrenching experience as a fan, it’s still all I’m thinking about days later. 

Yoongi ensured these encore concerts felt special from the get-go. He poured his all into the performances and planned plenty of surprises. He’s had collaborators — Max, Halsey, and Psy — join him as guests for a song each at some previous concerts, but he saved the best for last: across each encore night, a different BTS member joined him for a duet, before Yoongi left the stage so they could perform their own solo songs. That he did this at his own concert speaks volumes about the pride and trust the BTS members have in each other, not to mention the loving support they show for one another’s work. 

On Friday night, youngest member Jungkook surprised the crowd mid-song by joining Yoongi for ‘Burn It’, his collaboration with Max, and the joy the two of them had being on stage together was palpable. Jungkook then performed his solo song ‘Seven’, which he’s only been able to do a handful of times so far, and never to such a big crowd of dedicated ARMY. It was an exciting and meaningful moment (even if perfectionist Jungkook did totally spiral on Weverse live later that night over forgetting a lyric in ‘Burn It’, something which no one besides him noticed or cared about). 

Saturday night saw Jimin join Yoongi for a long-awaited rendition of fan favourite ‘Tony Montana’, a song off the latter’s first mixtape Agust D which the two had memorably performed together once before. Fans have been begging for a repeat performance for literal years, and it was more than worth the wait, showcasing Yoongi and Jimin’s chemistry as well as their incredible growth as artists. Yoongi then left the stage and gifted Jimin, like Jungkook, with his biggest audience yet for his solo song ‘Like Crazy’.

At both of these shows, Yoongi himself was excited and focused. There were brief moments of emotion, but overall he seemed really joyful and steady. 

On the third night, Sunday, the energy immediately felt different. First of all, it was already emotional not only because it was the last show, but because J-Hope and Jin, the two BTS members currently enlisted in the military, had managed to use a day off to attend and were seated in the audience. It was heartwarming to see their faces when we so rarely can while they’re in the military, but most of all it felt special to see them go out of their way to support Yoongi. 

Meanwhile Yoongi, usually one to throw himself entirely into a performance and match his emotions to the songs, kept smiling through the first, musically-intense, section of the concert. He was practically bouncing a couple of times, he seemed so exuberant and thrilled to be on stage. It was somewhat of a relief, watching as a fan — in a way, I’d been dreading the final concert, for so many reasons. 

Because it meant an end to a tour I’d loved watching (over and over and over again). Because it meant that Yoongi’s own mandatory enlistment would no doubt be imminent (and indeed, his company, Big Hit, announced the very next day he had initiated the process). And because it would mean not only not seeing him for nearly two years, but also likely not seeing any BTS concerts until 2025 (unless one of the remaining members decides to tour, which I don’t dare to hope for) — something which makes me sad on an individual level, but also on a fandom level, because nothing quite brings the community together in positive ways, whether in person or online, like a tour.

So my tension eased a lot as I watched Yoongi happily performing his final D-Day. ‘Maybe this won’t be as heartbreaking as I thought’, I said to myself. Famous last words. 

Sunday’s guest was BTS’s leader, RM. He came out to perform ‘Strange’ with Yoongi, the pair’s collab off the latter’s second mixtape D-2, and it felt so right seeing the member Yoongi has known the longest — who he has been with since the very beginning of his BTS journey — helping to bring his first solo tour to a close. When Yoongi left the stage this time, RM surprised the audience by performing not one of his released solo songs, but an unnamed, unreleased track he’s been working on. It felt like RM’s gift to ARMY, but also Yoongi’s gift to RM, who noted that he likely wouldn’t be able to perform the song when it is released due to his own military enlistment.

And then we reached the second part of the concert, and the emotional trifecta of ‘Snooze’, ‘Dear My Friend’, and ‘Amygdala’. ‘Snooze’ is a heartfelt song dedicated to younger artists, an offer of comfort and encouragement through hard times — which Yoongi knows all too well, as he’s openly discussed many times over the years (including throughout his solo music). He’s been performing the song all tour, but this time he only made it about thirty seconds before his emotions overcame him, and he proceeded to cry through most of the rest of the song. The audience raised their own voices to help him finish, culminating in a particularly moving moment where the repeated line ‘It’s gonna be alright’, normally performed by Yoongi, reverberated around the stadium by the crowd as he broke down on stage. 

As Yoongi acknowledged in a Weverse livestream after the concert, it’s extremely rare for him to cry. He revealed that in this instance, with some of his fellow BTS members in the audience (RM joined J-Hope and Jin in the crowd after his performance), not to mention artists he’d looked up to, the message of the song — and the fact that he was now an artist others looked up to, after everything he’d been through — suddenly really hit home. 

Back to the concert, and ‘Snooze’ was followed up with ‘Dear My Friend’. Before he began, Yoongi urged the audience to once again raise their voices for the song, as he doubted he’d be able to get through it. This wasn’t surprising, given the emotional state he was in already, coupled with the fact ‘Dear My Friend’ seems to be a song that hits him particularly hard. It had actually been added to the setlist for the encore concerts, replacing ‘Polar Night’, and while all of Yoongi’s songs are deeply personal, this one, about the loss of a close friendship, seems to touch on a wound that hasn’t healed. I’d noted the absence of the song from the setlist at the beginning of the tour, but watching him perform it even for the first time on Friday night, it was clear why – it immediately made him emotional, although he managed to contain it for nights one and two.

Night three was a different matter. He sobbed throughout the song. It was, frankly, brutal to watch. But also beautiful. If art is a way to access and understand emotions — our own, and those of others — then this raw, vulnerable moment was art in its purest form. A moment of real, human connection between performer and audience; an unashamed display of feelings that reminds us what it is to be alive, and what it is that matters. 

Yoongi followed ‘Dear My Friend’ up with ‘Amygdala’, the last official song on the setlist (before the encore) and another deeply personal track, this time focused on his personal struggles and hardships. Watching him perform it throughout the tour, I’d been amazed he’d been able to do so without ever getting emotional — a feeling that was only reinforced seeing him break down during it for the last concert. This time, as he collapsed on the stage at the end of the song — as he always does in each concert — it felt real, and it felt like a relief. 

After such an emotional run of songs, the encore brought the concert — and the tour — to a hopeful, and cathartic, end. As always, Yoongi came back on stage singing ‘future’s gonna be okay’, the lyrics for the song D-Day, and it was a much-needed promise for the audience and, seemingly, himself. He goofed off with his band and dancers, he shared his closing thoughts on the tour, he performed ‘Nevermind’ and ‘The Last’ as usual — but instead of walking off stage without looking back as he normally would, the lights went dark, and a clip played featuring parts from the music video for ‘Amygdala’, in which Yoongi depicts the traumatised part of his subconscious locked in a room, unable to escape no matter how much he pulls at the door. 

When the stadium lit up again, Yoongi was smiling, and he began a farewell victory lap, waving to the crowd. A door had appeared, just like the one in the ‘Amygdala’ music video. Back in June, I wrote about how the concert itself represents a journey into Yoongi’s psyche, and this last moment reinforced that and brought it all full circle. With one last, affectionate glance at the crowd, he exited through the door and closed it behind him — visually freeing himself from that locked room, and closing the door on the past and the pain. 

It was a cathartic moment that helped me, as a fan, breathe easier. Something about his smile before he closed that door made me feel that it had done that for Yoongi, too.

‘The Flash’ by Kwon Eunbi: Kwon Eunbi has recently been going viral thanks to her Waterbomb Festival performances, so the release of The Flash, her first single album with an energetic title track of the same name, is well-timed. There are also two b-sides on the album, ‘Comet’, and ‘Beautiful Night’. 

‘WE GO’ by The Wind: The Wind are a boy group that debuted earlier this year with bright, youthful, exuberant visuals and a sound to match. ‘WE GO’, the title track off their latest single album, is a feel-good anthem that suits their vibe, as is pre-release track ‘Summer Vacation’. 

TWO RABBITS by MAMAMOO+: The first mini album from the MAMAMOO sub-unit composed of Moonbyul and Solar features catchy, upbeat title track ‘dangdang’, the slower, quieter pre-release ‘Save Me’, plus an intro track and two b-sides ‘I LIKE THIS’ and ‘Starry Sea’. 

‘ONE MORE TIME’ by BB Girls: Formerly known as Brave Girls, this is the girl group’s first release under their new label and fresh name, BB Girls. It’s a fun track reminiscent of ’90s dance hits, and is paired with the fizzy and sweet b-side ‘LEMONADE’ on the accompanying single album. 

‘PHANTASY Pt 1 Christmas In August’ by THE BOYZ:  This six-track album opens with the incredibly infectious title track ‘LIP GLOSS’ and moves on to bop after bop, making it the perfect beach or poolside album for summer.

Happy anniversary BLACKPINK! August 8 marked seven years since the megastar girl group’s debut, and while the status of their contract renewal with YG still remains up in the air, it’s nevertheless a time for celebration. Seven years together as a group is a huge achievement in itself, but during that time BLACKPINK have done things most groups could only dream of. In honour of their anniversary, here’s just some of the incredible things Jisoo, Jennie, Rosé, and Lisa have achieved together in the past seven years: 

• Highest debut on the ARIA singles chart by a K-pop group, with ‘Pink Venom’ hitting number one

• Highest charting Korean girl group on the Billboard Hot 100, with ‘Ice Cream’ reaching 13

• Best-selling album by a Korean girl group of all time with Born Pink

• First album by a K-pop girl group to hit number one on both the Billboard 200 and the UK Albums Chart with Born Pink

• First music video by a Korean group to hit one billion and then two billion views with ‘Ddu-Du Ddu-Du’

• Most-subscribed music artists and most-viewed music channel on YouTube

• Most-followed and most-streamed girl group on Spotify

• First Korean girl group to win an MTV Video Music Award and to perform at the VMAs

• First K-pop group to perform at Coachella, in 2019

• First K-pop group to headline Coachella, in 2023

With love, 

Jenna