{"id":246606,"date":"2020-02-29T07:37:52","date_gmt":"2020-02-29T12:37:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=246606"},"modified":"2020-02-29T07:37:52","modified_gmt":"2020-02-29T12:37:52","slug":"virus-fears-lead-k-pop-superstars-bts-to-cancel-seoul-shows","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2020\/02\/29\/virus-fears-lead-k-pop-superstars-bts-to-cancel-seoul-shows\/","title":{"rendered":"Virus fears lead K-pop superstars BTS to cancel Seoul shows"},"content":{"rendered":"<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"ko\" dir=\"ltr\">[\uacf5\uc9c0] <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/BTS?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#BTS<\/a> MAP OF THE SOUL TOUR &#8211; SEOUL \uacf5\uc5f0 \ucde8\uc18c \uc548\ub0b4 (+ENG\/JPN\/CHN)<a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/at6Qtntrbj\">https:\/\/t.co\/at6Qtntrbj<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; BTS_official (@bts_bighit) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/bts_bighit\/status\/1233195543842549760?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">February 28, 2020<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>SEOUL, Korea, Republic Of \u2014 K-pop superstars BTS cancelled an upcoming concert series in South Korea&#8217;s capital as the country that exports entertainment worldwide tries to contain a soaring virus outbreak.<\/p>\n<p>It follows a near-shutdown of entertainment in hard-hit parts of China, the world&#8217;s second-biggest economy and second-biggest box-office market.<\/p>\n<p>BTS, which performed at the Grammys and at New York&#8217;s Grand Central Terminal for \u201cThe Tonight Show\u201d in recent weeks, is seen as an emblem of South Korea&#8217;s cultural and economic power. Local media said the cancelled concerts were the inaugural leg of the band&#8217;s new world tour.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe regret to announce that the BTS MAP OF THE SOUL TOUR &#8230; has been cancelled,\u201d the band&#8217;s agency Big Hit Entertainment said in a statement.<\/p>\n<p>The management agency said the COVID-19 outbreak in South Korea, which has more than 2,000 cases so far, made it impossible to predict the scale of the outbreak by April.<\/p>\n<p>The seven-member boy band was scheduled to perform April 11-12 and April 18-19 at Seoul&#8217;s Olympic Stadium. The agency said it had to consider the health and safety of the artists, the production crews and the more than 200,000 concertgoers expected.<\/p>\n<p>The South Korean government and others affected by the epidemic have pushed to restrict massive public events to try to avoid situations where the virus might spread.<\/p>\n<p>Disney said Friday its parks in Tokyo would close for two weeks, adding to closures of its parks in Shanghai and Hong Kong.<\/p>\n<p>Cinemas in China already were shuttered, which affected the Chinese release of \u201cSonic the Hedgehog\u201d and the Beijing premiere and a promotional tour of the James Bond film \u201cNo Time to Die\u201d among other impacts.<\/p>\n<p>The Walt Disney Co.&#8217;s anticipated live-action \u201cMulan\u201d remake is due to open in China on March 27.<\/p>\n<p>The U.S.&#8217;s National Symphony Orchestra cancelled performances in Japan, after earlier cancelling concerts in Beijing and Shanghai. That followed cancellations by the Boston Symphony Orchestra and Hong Kong Philharmonic.<\/p>\n<p>South Korean agencies have been cancelling K-pop events at home and abroad in response to requests from fans about artists&#8217; safety.<\/p>\n<p>Artists such as Taeyeon and boy bands WINNER and NCT Dream had previously cancelled shows in Singapore and Macao, and GOT7 postponed concerts in Bangkok and Singapore.<\/p>\n<p>U.S. band Green Day postponed upcoming Asia shows as well, citing health and travel concerns in its announcement on Twitter.<\/p>\n<p>BTS has a large international following and was the first K-pop act to debut atop the Billboard Album chart in 2018 with \u201cLove Yourself: Tear.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>[\uacf5\uc9c0] #BTS MAP OF THE SOUL TOUR &#8211; SEOUL \uacf5\uc5f0 \ucde8\uc18c \uc548\ub0b4 (+ENG\/JPN\/CHN)https:\/\/t.co\/at6Qtntrbj &mdash; BTS_official (@bts_bighit) February 28, 2020 &nbsp; &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":246607,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,106],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-246606","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","category-hollywood","mauthors-hyung-jin-kim","mauthors-the-associated-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246606","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=246606"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246606\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":246608,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246606\/revisions\/246608"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/246607"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=246606"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=246606"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=246606"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}