Members of the K-pop phenom BTS pose for the camera during a press conference at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles on Nov. 29, 2021, in this photo provided by its agency Big Hit Music.
SEOUL, Dec. 2 (Korea Bizwire) — K-pop supergroup BTS will be unable to attend the 2021 Mnet Asian Music Awards (MAMAs) scheduled for next week as the members have to go through COVID-19 isolation upon arrival from the United States due to tightened quarantine rules.
The government decided to place all overseas arrivals under a 10-day quarantine for two weeks starting Friday, regardless of their nationalities and vaccination status, to tackle the omicron variant.
The septet is currently in Los Angeles for its first in-person concerts in two years. The group is set to return home after performing at the iHeartRadio Jingle Ball Tour, the largest year-end radio show in the United States, on Friday.
The 10-day mandatory self-quarantine will make the group unable to attend the MAMA show on Dec. 11 in person.
Mnet, the music cable channel that hosts the annual event, also confirmed, “It was decided that BTS will not appear in the MAMAs.”
The group, instead, is preparing for a brief video message for its fans who will watch the show, according to an Mnet official.
BTS attended last year’s MAMAs, which were held online with no audience due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and won eight awards, including those in the top four categories.
This year’s show is scheduled to be held with an audience at CJ ENM Content World in Paju, 30 kilometers north of Seoul, as the government eased social distancing for people’s gradual return to normal life under its “living with COVID-19″ scheme.
Among the headliners at the upcoming awards show are popular K-pop groups aespa, Brave Girls, ITZY, Enhypen, NCT 127, NCT Dream, Stray Kids and Tomorrow X Together, according to the channel.
(Yonhap)
