BTS closes Dear Class Of 2020 YouTube event with 12-minute performance
The virtual event also saw personalities like Barack and Michelle Obama, Lady Gaga and Taylor Swift delivering inspirational messages to this year’s graduates.
This handout photo provided on Feb 24, 2020 shows K-pop group BTS members posing for a photo before a press conference to promote their fourth album Map of the Soul: 7 in Seoul. (Photo: AFP/Big Hit Entertainment)
K-pop band BTS brought the Dear Class Of 2020 YouTube event to a roaring close with a 12-minute performance of three hit songs.
The virtual event on Sunday (Jun 7) was streamed on YouTube for this year’s graduating classes who weren't able to have commencement ceremonies due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The band performed at the National Museum of Korea, singing and dancing expertly to Boy Wit Luv, Spring Day and Mikrokosmos.
They also delivered a message to the graduating class, with several members sharing his own personal memory of graduation.
RM talked about his middle school graduation that he remembered clearly because it was snowing really hard. “On that day, I was just a boy who had closed just one chapter, ready to pen another. And I remember that feeling: It was really thrilling and breath-taking.”
Suga shared an inspirational message, “As you and I continue on in life, we will find ourselves in so many situations out of our grasp. The only thing we can control is ourselves. Get your hands on the changes you can make, because your possibilities are limitless. After all, I also had no idea I would become BTS either.”
Other celebrities and personalities took part in the more than four-hour event, including former US president Barack Obama and former US first lady, Michelle Obama; and celebrities such as Lady Gaga, Justin Timberlake, Alicia Keys, Shawn Mendes, Katy Perry and Taylor Swift.
Some, like BTS, performed, while others delivered commencement speeches or short messages of support.
Lady Gaga spoke about racism and called the class of 2020 “the seeds of the future”.
She said, “You are the seeds that will grow into a new and different forest that is far more beautiful and loving than the one we live in today.”
Michelle Obama’s speech urged people to go beyond social media activism. She shared, “You’ve got to make hard choices and sacrifice. If you’re spending a lot of time just hash tagging and posting, that’s useful, especially during a pandemic, but it’s only a beginning. Go further. Send all your friends a link to register to vote. Text everybody you know to join you to exercising their constitutional right to protest.”
You can watch the BTS performance here:
