BTS added another accolade to their already overflowing list of achievements becoming the first South Korean musicians to perform on MTV Unplugged.
The Grammy nominated septet — RM, Jin, Suga, J-Hope, Jimin, V and Jungkook — performed tracks from their latest album ‘BE’, two of them for the first time, and also gave a moving rendition of the hit Coldplay song ‘Fix You’.
In the past, MTV Unplugged has been known for staging some of the most iconic, stripped-back performances by top artists of their time such as Nirvana, Mariah Carey, Alanis Morissette and Eric Clapton.
“It’s really an honour to be a part of the MTV Unplugged legacy, where so many legends have performed,” RM said at the start of the performance. “We’re definitely thankful, honoured we got to be a part of this.”
They kicked off their performance with ‘Telepathy’, an upbeat B-side track that they sang for the first time on TV.
Suga, who has been recovering from shoulder surgery, talked about the song that he wrote and how it reflect their reality.
“We’re in a situation where we can’t meet our fans around the world in person due to COVID-19. So the song’s lyrics describe our current situation of temporarily being apart from each other,” he said.
They also debuted the hauntingly beautiful ‘Blue & Grey’, which its co-writer V said was about experiencing fatigue and burn out during the pandemic.
The last two songs were Billboard Hot 100 toppers they had staged before — ‘Life Goes On’, a soothing and hope-filled song, and the evergreen disco track ‘Dynamite’ — backed by the band Ghost (who also supported them for their NPR Tiny Desk concert).
The brightest star of them all was the cover of Coldplay’s 2005 song ‘Fix You’, which saw the members seated and with spotlights above them as they sang the famous lyrics: “And the tears come streaming down your face, when you lose something you can’t replace... Lights will guide you home.”
