Mexico’s president has asked South Korea’s leader to consider adding more BTS concerts in her country after tickets for the K-pop group’s long-awaited comeback tour sold out within minutes.
«I wrote a letter to the president of Korea. I have not received a response yet, but we hope it will be positive,» President Claudia Sheinbaum said.
BTS is scheduled to perform three shows in Mexico City in May as part of a 79-date world tour, its first as a group in four years. Local media reported that tickets were snapped up in under 40 minutes.
The rush has also triggered complaints about dynamic pricing and resale mark-ups. On Ticketmaster, the official seller, tickets were priced between 1,800 and 17,800 pesos, or about $100 to $1,030. On resale platforms, prices climbed to between 11,300 and 92,100 pesos, according to Reuters.
Mexico’s consumer watchdog has already sanctioned resale sites StubHub and Viagogo for what it called abusive and unfair practices linked to the sales process.
K-pop’s popularity in Mexico
Sheinbaum said around one million young people were competing for roughly 150,000 tickets.
«BTS is extremely popular among young Mexicans,» she said.
Spotify ranks Mexico as the world’s fifth-largest market for K-pop, with streaming of the genre rising more than 500% in the past five years.
Sheinbaum said she contacted South Korean President Lee Jae Myung after local promoter Ocesa told her the group’s tight schedule made it difficult to add dates. South Korea’s presidential office and foreign ministry have declined to comment, according to local media.
BTS last released music as a full group in June 2022 before pursuing solo projects and completing mandatory military service.
The tour will open with three nights at Goyang Stadium in South Korea on April 9 before moving across Asia Europe and the Americas. Billboard estimates the band and its label Hybe could earn more than $1 bn from the tour through ticket sales merchandise licensing albums and streaming.
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