BTS, THE PERFECT FORMULA Mariana de Obeso Fernández del Valle “BTS has a magical ability to turn sadness into hope and differences into similarity.” Moon Jae-In, South Korea’s President On September 25th, 2018, a Korean group name BTS gave a speech at the UN General Assembly.1 One month later, they were named Tourist Honorary Ambassadors by the Korean government and received the Hwagwan Order of Cultural Merit, one of the most appreciated awards in South Korea for spreading National culture around the world. They were the youngest persons ever to receive such merit.2 How did this happen? How did a Korean boy band end up giving a speech in a room full of global leaders and winning the most important cultural award in their home country? The purpose of this article is to explain it. But to do so, we must first understand 1 Bard Wilkinson, “K-Pop band BTS tells world youth to “speak yourself ” at UN”, CNN, 2018, https://edition.cnn.com/2018/09/24/asia/bts-un-korea-intl/index.html, consultado el 20 de noviembre. 2 Caitlin Kelley, “As Torchbearers Of Hallyu’s Legacy, BTS Received The Order of Cultural Meri”, Forbes, 2018, https://www.forbes.com/sites/caitlinkelley/2018/10/27/bts-order-ofcultural-merit/#4eddd011e2d9, consultado el 26 de noviembre.
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