Two and a half hours of sleep. V put that number out there himself — and it hits differently when there's a whole city about to light up for him. If you're just joining us: before this tour stop, BIGHIT and HYBE were already monitoring malicious posts, filing complaints, and pursuing enforcement around stalking and residential trespass. There was even a deferred prosecution disposition on record — basically, the company saying privacy invasions are legal violations, not messy fan enthusiasm. This is BTS Daily. Today — V drawing a hard line at the hotel doors, London going red over the Thames, and Samsung Securities calling HYBE's next payday. Let's start with V. We'll keep tracking BIGHIT artist-rights legal crackdown — follow the show so the next update finds you. Oh Seo-yoon, writing in The Korea Times:
BTS member V asked fans to stop visiting the hotels where the group is staying during its "ARIRANG" world tour, saying the crowding compromises his privacy and disrupts his performances. V made the request Wednesday on Weverse, an online fan platform, thanking fans for welcoming him but urging them to avoid private lodgings.
V went on Weverse and said it straight — two and a half hours of sleep. That's the number. Tae himself is telling us what fans camping at the hotel are doing to him, and you can't smooth that into some vague 'please respect privacy' notice. And that's why the number lands harder. You can wave off a generic notice. Two and a half hours, from V's own mouth? You can't. This is the same tour we've spent all week celebrating — Busan, the crowds, the records. Now we're hearing the cost in his own words, too. He still opened by thanking fans for the welcome, which — that's so him. He's exhausted and he's still being gentle about it. It also ties straight back to that BigHit enforcement push — the residential trespass and stalking actions they've been filing. V's plea takes it out of the legal paperwork and turns it into a warning about actual tour conditions. Right. All week, that policy's been paperwork. Now it's Tae saying he's getting two and a half hours of sleep, and BigHit's backing it with strict legal action over the hotel visits. Good. From Ji Seung-hoon at MK:
The citywide festival for the group BTS, 'BTS THE CITY ARIRANG - LONDON' (hereinafter 'The City London'), has unveiled preview images of its main programs ahead of its opening. 'The City London' will run across London, England, starting July 4 local time. The project was designed to showcase a range of content throughout the city in connection with the new album 'Arirang.'
Okay, the London preview images are finally here — we're past the tease now. Red London Eye, a 32-meter boat floating an ARIRANG logo down the Thames. This is the payoff. And with MK's framing — 'London turns BTS blue,' red lights covering the Thames — you can hear local press clocking the scale, not just repeating a HYBE press line. The London Eye alone gets, what, three and a half million visitors a year? That's a lot of people walking into a red skyline. I just came off the V hotel piece feeling protective, and now we're looking at THIS. Same tour, same album, and the visuals are genuinely gorgeous. It's a weird emotional whiplash. It kicks off July 4 local time. The music video on Outernet's 16K screen, the boat on the river at night — MK's already walking through it landmark by landmark: the London Eye, the Thames, the Now Building. Next, here's what Kwon Woo-seok at CHOSUNBIZ is reporting. So Samsung Securities is calling a HYBE profit surge, and here's what got me — BTS isn't carrying the whole thing by itself. They're flagging rookie-artist momentum too. Right, and that's the part I care about. The ARIRANG-era money is one revenue line — direct, tour-driven. Samsung's saying the label machine underneath it is compounding on its own. After the hotel story we just hit, that's a weird gut-punch, honestly. The company posts a profit forecast while V's out there running on two and a half hours of sleep. Yeah — an analyst puts a number on the momentum, and that momentum has a face who can't get past his own lobby. I'm not gonna pretend it isn't uncomfortable seeing those side by side. From Mun Wansik at STARNEWS:
Inside the venue, Spanish fans waved signs bearing Jin's name and shouted his name. Outside the venue, on the first day, 'MI LUNA JIN EN MADRID' (Jin, My Moon in Madrid), and on the second day, 'MI GUAPO JIN EN MADRID' (Jin, My Handsome One in Madrid), trended in real-time on X (formerly Twitter) in multiple countries including the United States.
Okay, after the V hotel piece we just hit, I needed this one. Jin dropped his own Madrid behind-the-scenes on Instagram — the pink mic, looking out at the crowd, waiting backstage with the members. And the fan side is what got me — on day one it's 'MI LUNA JIN EN MADRID,' then on day two it flips to 'MI GUAPO JIN EN MADRID.' Trending on X across multiple countries, including the US. They went from 'my moon' to 'my handsome one' in twenty-four hours. That's a fandom pacing itself, honestly. And this is the same Riyadh Air Metropolitano that pulled 120,000-plus across the two nights, per STARNEWS. So those signs and trends have real weight behind them — way more than a handful of accounts. If you want another daily K-pop fix, check out BLACKPINK Daily Podcast. It's daily BLINK updates on Jennie, Lisa, Jisoo, and Rose — solo releases, comeback watch, fashion, chart reactions. BTS news listeners, you'll feel right at home wherever you listen to podcasts.
What we're watching next: BTS' ARIRANG world tour is scheduled at Stade Roi Baudouin in Brussels for July 2 and 3 KST, and BTS THE CITY ARIRANG - LONDON is set to begin across London on July 4 local time.
As always, we've put links to every story in the show notes, so you can follow up on anything you want to read for yourself. That's BTS Daily Podcast for today. This is a Lantern Podcast.