K-pop superstars BTS has confirmed that its latest album “Proof” will stretch across three CDs and consist of 48 tracks. It will drop on Friday.
The album and the composition of the disks are intended to represent the past, present and future of the nine-year-old band, agency Big Hit Music said Wednesday (Korean time).
Within the mix are three new songs: “Yet To Come,” “Run BTS” and “For Youth.”
“Proof” will be available from 1pm local time on Friday, or midnight EST and 9pm Thursday PST, for U.S. fans on the North American West coast. It is BTS’s first physical album since last year’s CD single “Butter” and “Permission to Dance” and was teased in April with the tagline ‘We are Bulletproof.”
The Yonhap news agency reports that the three CDs break down as follows: the first, with 19 tracks, is largely an assembly of hits, including “Danger,” “Fire,” “DNA,” “Boy With Luv” featuring Halsey, “Spring Day,” “Fake Love,” “Dynamite” and “Butter”; the second consists of subunit tracks; the final disc is dedicated to Army, the group’s activist fans and will include the three new tracks and songs and demo versions of some of the band’s past hits.
The band has so far revealed relatively few promotional events and is not planning a press conference for the album release. It will introduce its new songs Monday via YouTube channel Bangtan TV and pre-record a segment for Mnet’s program “M Countdown” at the Jangchung Arena in Seoul. The show will air on June 16.
A 35-second teaser for “Yet to Come,” subtitled “The Most Beautiful Moment” is already available on the Big Hit website and the band’s social media platforms.
Separately, the group announced the #MyBTStory challenge in partnership with YouTube, starting on Friday and running through July 9, exclusively on YouTube Shorts.
“As BTS celebrates the ninth anniversary of its debut and is about to open a new chapter in their 10th year as artists, ‘Proof’ was designed to look back on the group’s past activities and ruminate on their meaning,” the group’s agency Big Hit Music said in a statement.
The seven-member BTS has become one of the most successful pop acts of all time and represent a breakout for Korean music into the international scene. It has won six American Music Awards, 12 Billboard Music Awards and two Grammy nominations. The members have fronted a UNICEF anti-violence campaign, addressed the United Nations general Assembly and recently met with U.S. President Joe Biden.
Over the course of their career, BTS have amassed over 66 million subscribers on their official YouTube channel, making them the third most-subscribed to artist on the platform and have earned six music videos in the platforms’ Billion Views Club to date.
The video for “Butter” amassed 108.2 million views in its first 24 hours and saw over 3.9 million peak concurrent views during its premiere. Over the last 12 months alone, the band has earned over 14 billion views globally on the platform.
Band member J-Hope recently confirmed that he will perform as a solo act at the Lollapalooza music festival in Chicago in July.