The scramble for tickets to K-pop band BTS’ comeback tour, which comes after a four-year hiatus, has seen Mexico’s president appealing to her South Korean counterpart to add more shows in her country.
“I wrote a letter to the [president] of Korea… I still haven’t received the answer, but let’s hope it’s positive,” Mexico’s president Claudia Sheinbaum said on Monday.
BTS will hold three shows in Mexico City in May, as part of its 79-date world tour after a four-year hiatus. Tickets were wiped out in less than 40 minutes, local media reported.
Some fans have also accused Ticketmaster and resale platforms of dynamic pricing, prompting an investigation.
While on Ticketmaster, the official sales channel, tickets were going for between 1,800 pesos and 17,800 pesos ($100 to $1,030; £76 to £750), resale platforms were offering them for between 11,300 to 92,100 pesos, according to Reuters.
Mexico’s consumer watchdog has sanctioned resale platforms StubHub and Viagogo for “abusive and disloyal practices” over the ticketing process.
About a million young people were vying for 150,000 BTS concert tickets, Sheinbaum said on Monday.
“This group, BTS, is very popular among young Mexicans,” she said.
Spotify lists Mexico as K-pop’s fifth-largest market worldwide, with streaming of the genre’s songs growing more than 500% in the country in the last five years.
Sheinbaum wrote to South Korea’s President Lee Jae Myung after being told by local concert promoter Ocesa that the band’s packed itinerary made adding shows unfeasible.
Seoul’s presidential office and foreign ministry have declined to comment on the matter, according to South Korean media.
BTS has not released music as a group since June 2022, as they took a break to explore individual music careers and later underwent mandatory military service.
The septet’s globe-spanning comeback tour – likely to be one of the biggest tours of the year – will kick off with three nights in South Korea’s Goyang Stadium on 9 April, before travelling across across Asia, Europe and America.
According to Billboard, the group and their record label Hybe stand to make more than $1bn (£740m) from the tour, across concerts, merchandise, licensing, album sales and streaming revenue.
