At the BTS concert in Tokyo on Friday (April 17), j-hope shared a sad update with ARMY: His grandmother, who was very involved in raising him and had nothing but pride for his success with the boy band, has died.
On stage at the Tokyo Dome, the K-pop performer was upfront with the thousands of supportive fans in attendance. “Honestly, this might be a bit of a heavy thing to share, but I really wanted to express how I’m feeling today,” he began, as translated to English from Korean. “Right after we arrived in Japan, I got the news that my maternal grandmother — the one who raised me from when I was little — had passed away.”
“I was in complete shock and honestly didn’t know what to feel, but being with the members, sharing a meal together and pouring myself into rehearsals helped ease that feeling more than I expected,” j-hope continued. “My grandmother was always so proud — not just of me, but of all the members. She thought what we did was truly incredible. So I’d like to think that if she was watching from up above today, she would have absolutely loved every moment of it.”
The star ended by sharing his thanks to the crowd for making his first show after the death of his grandmother as special as possible.
BTS is currently on tour in support of new album ARIRANG, which recently scored its third week at No. 1 on the Billboard 200. After three kickoff performances in Goyang, South Korea, the septet will play two shows at the Tokyo Dome before traveling overseas for a North American leg. By the time the tour ends in March of next year, the group will have also visited Latin America, Europe, Australia and more parts of Asia.
On the same day as the first of the two Japan shows, j-hope’s one-on-one interview with Rolling Stone dropped. At one point in the conversation, the performer opened up about being a leader in the group. “I think that’s my role on the team,” he said. “It just comes naturally … It feels weird to call it a ‘role.’ But all I can do is take it in stride and do what I can for the other members.”
Additional reporting from Billboard Korea.
