- BTS' Suga broke down onstage and sobbed while singing the last three tracks of his D-DAY concert.
- He finished a three-monthlong world tour on Sunday and is set to begin mandatory military service.
Fans of the South Korean rapper Suga already knew that the final day of his D-DAY tour would be an emotional roller-coaster ride.
Suga — a member of BTS also known by his solo stage name, Agust D — wrapped up three months of solo touring on Sunday with "D-DAY: The Final," a three-night event at the KSPO Dome in Seoul, South Korea.
The rapper tore through one blistering song after another for the first two-thirds of the concert. He brought out RM, his bandmate who is the leader of BTS, for a short segment, where the latter performed a soon-to-be-released and as-yet-untitled song.
For two days, Suga pulled through what's set to be his last in-person concert for years — he is set to soon begin his mandatory military service — without tears. But the floodgates finally opened during the last 20 minutes of Sunday's concert.
Suga started tearing up during "Snooze," a song dedicated to Ryuichi Sakamoto, a late composer best known for "Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence," a 1983 war film starring David Bowie. He tried to hold it together but began choking up at the line: "Because you too are just a human, like everyone else."
He managed to get through "Snooze" after pausing several times to collect himself as tears rolled down his face.
But what was even harder to watch for longtime fans was the next song, "Dear My Friend," a track Suga added to the D-DAY set list for the tour's last three nights. "Dear My Friend" is from Suga's 2020 album, "D-2." The lyrics appear to be a letter to a troubled friend who struggled with addiction, whom Suga visited at a Seoul prison multiple times.
Fans — myself included — cried along with the rapper as he gasped for breath and tried to finish the song. He sometimes buried his face in an arm and doubled over while sobbing.
I didn't think he would manage to finish "Amygdala," the last song on the setlist, without going off-stage to take a break, but he launched right into it after catching his breath. "Amygdala" is a particularly revealing song, by K-pop standards, where Suga gets brutally candid about depression and suicide.
He got through it, buoyed by the cheers of "Min Yoongi," his Korean name, that rang out throughout the stadium.
Despite him breaking down onstage, the show ended on an uplifting note, with three encore tracks: "D-Day," "Never Mind," and "The Last." And Suga hopped onto a Weverse livestream after the show to reassure the fans that he was all right.
"I'm not really the type to cry," Suga said during his livestream on Sunday. "But my band members were there, and my seniors came too. Before, I had a dream while watching my seniors. And now I have become someone's senior. Those 10 years flew past. And that's when the tears came."
Fans of Suga may have to wait a while to see him again. The band's agency, Hybe, released a press release on Monday to announce that Suga was set to begin a mandatory military service period of 18 to 21 months. In South Korea, military service is compulsory for physically fit men from 18 to 35 years old.
It's unclear when Suga's enlistment date begins or which branch of the South Korean armed forces he would join.
Two other BTS members, Jin and J-Hope, have already enlisted in the military. BTS is scheduled to reunite in 2025 once its seven band members finish their military service.