"Qué Chimba": 6 Moments That Made BTS' First Colombia Concerts Unforgettable

BTS had waited 13 years to perform in Colombia. When they finally arrived, Colombian ARMY made sure the group knew exactly how long they had been waiting.

On October 2 and 3, BTS brought their "ARIRANG" world tour to Bogotá's El Campín Stadium for their first concerts in the country. More than 53,000 people filled the stadium each night, while thousands more gathered outside without tickets.

However, after more than a decade of waiting, it was the distinctly Colombian details that made the weekend stand out. From local slang and a seven-year-old inside joke finally coming full circle to yellow butterflies filling El Campín, BTS's first visit quickly became more than another stop on the tour.

1. BTS Didn't Just Learn Spanish, They Learned Colombian Spanish

International artists addressing audiences in the local language is hardly unusual. BTS, however, took things slightly further in Bogotá.

"Parce," "bacano," "qué chimba" and "hágale pues" all made their way into the members' vocabulary during the concerts. V told the audience that he had been studying Spanish before asking them to help him with his Colombian expressions, while Jin delivered his own "hágale pues."

For Colombian fans, the distinction mattered as Valeria, a Colombian ARMY, who attended both concerts "That made it feel more magical because they were in Colombia and actually knew what they were saying," Valeria, a Colombian ARMY who attended both concerts, explained.

The language exchange quickly started going both ways. Fans shouted "papacitos" toward the stage and, at one point, "mucha ropa" meaning literally "too many clothes," leaving the members with a few Colombian expressions of their own to decipher.

2. "Assarabia Colombia" Finally Made It to Colombia

For longtime ARMY, there was another phrase they had been waiting years to hear.

"Assarabia Colombia" predates BTS as a Korean expression, combining "Assarabia," an exclamation associated with excitement, with Colombia in a familiar rhyme. Within the BTS fandom, however, it took on another meaning in 2019.

During an episode of "Run BTS!," the members were asked to name the capital of Colombia. After struggling with the answer, Jin turned to "Assarabia Colombia," prompting the other members to join the joke. It remained an inside reference between BTS and fans for years.

Seven years later, they were finally able to say it while actually standing in Colombia, and the response inside El Campín was immediate.

"People went crazy," Valeria recalled. "They were crying and screaming. We completely lost our voices, we really gave it everything."

3. Colombian ARMY Made Sure the Concert Looked Colombian Too

BTS were not the only ones preparing for the concerts as Colombian ARMY organized projects across the two dates, including 110,000 banners and colored stickers distributed by seating area to transform the stands into the yellow, blue and red of the Colombian flag.

Valeria remembers fans organizing themselves before they had even entered the stadium.

"Everyone was reminding each other to have their stickers ready because we were going to make the Colombian flag," she said. "It was very organized."

Another project filled El Campín with yellow butterflies, referencing Nobel Prize-winning Colombian author Gabriel García Márquez and the magical realism so closely associated with his work.

For Valeria, that made the project particularly meaningful. "The butterflies are something very Colombian because of Gabriel García Márquez and magical realism," she said.

"It felt like we were telling them, ‘We really want you here. Welcome to your second home.'"

4. The Colombian Crowd Was Difficult to Ignore

Clips from the concerts captured the crowd's impact, including footage from the production area showing equipment and platforms appearing to shake as thousands of fans jumped inside El Campín.

Valeria attended both nights from different parts of the stadium, but the first, when she stood near the stage with a VIP ticket, stood out most. "Everyone was screaming, jumping and doing the choreography," she recalled. "The emotion you experience down there was crazy."

Having attended concerts while living in South Korea, she also noticed a clear difference.

"In Korea, people are calmer and hold their emotions in a little more. In Colombia, you sing the entire song, you scream until you lose your voice, people cry, you give everything."

She still recognized similarities, particularly the freebie culture and the way ARMY looked after one another. But the Colombian crowd brought a different level of intensity.

"In terms of the emotion and passion, it almost feels like they are the guests at ARMY's concert," and BTS appeared to notice it too.

"The first night, they seemed genuinely shocked, like, ‘What is happening here? They really love us,'" Valeria said. "By the second night, it felt more like, ‘Okay, now we know what they're like.'"

5. Bogotá Treated BTS's Arrival as More Than a Concert

That enthusiasm was not confined to just the stadium as ahead of the concerts, Bogotá Mayor Carlos Fernando Galán signed a decree declaring BTS "Guests of Honor" of the city.

The entire country recognized the group's contribution to the global reach of South Korean music and culture and across Bogotá, landmarks and other spaces were illuminated in purple, while fan events and activities appeared around the capital as ARMY arrived for the concerts.

Even fans who could not get inside El Campín remained part of the weekend. Crowds gathered outside the stadium to listen to the concerts from beyond its walls, turning BTS's first visit into something considerably larger than the audience holding tickets.

For Valeria, seeing the city participate made the group's arrival feel different from an ordinary tour stop saying, "It felt like everything revolved around them."

6. Colombia's Earthquake Victims Were Not Forgotten

Amid the celebration, one of the weekend's more solemn moments came before BTS even appeared on stage.

The concerts arrived less than two months after the August earthquake that affected communities across Colombia. HYBE had previously donated one billion Colombian pesos toward relief efforts following the disaster.

Before the concert began, attendees were shown a video acknowledging the earthquake and those affected by it. For Valeria, who is from Cali, the moment hit particularly close to home.

"Before the concert started, they spoke about the earthquake in Colombia, which affected many people in Cali, my city, and other parts of the country," she said.

In a stadium filled with tens of thousands of people who had spent years waiting for BTS to arrive, the acknowledgement briefly shifted attention toward communities still dealing with the consequences of the disaster.

"I thought it was meaningful that they acknowledged what was happening because there are still communities that have suffered a lot and haven't recovered," Valeria said.

After 13 years, that may ultimately be what made Bogotá stand out. Colombian fans had spent years watching BTS perform elsewhere, knowing that traveling abroad to see them was not an option available to everyone.

"There were people who had been waiting for them since 2013, 2015 or 2016 because they had never come to Colombia," Valeria said. "For the people who were inside that stadium, it really was a dream."

This time, Colombian ARMY did not have to go anywhere else to be part of BTS's story as BTS had finally come to them.