BTS Is Releasing *Another* Album This Year—& Here’s Everything We Know So Far

Natti Nisan 11, 2021

With more and more details being revealed every day about forthcoming records from our very own Bangtan Boys, you already know we’re keeping our eyes peeled for BTS’ album 2020 release date, tracklist, and news. ARMYs are constantly sleuthing for the next hint we can find when it comes to their idols’ next moves—thankfully, more has already been revealed.

For a minute there, it seemed like any new BTS album was a lost cause. With the boys canceling their concerts in 2020 in light of recent social distancing guidelines (and in favor of an increased focus on charity efforts), ARMYs were beginning to settle into the harsh reality—alongside BTS—that all plans were being put on hold indefinitely. But things started looking up when BTS members began reconnecting with fans on the Korean app V-Live, with streams under the hashtags #StayConnected and #CarryOn. By June 2020, the BTS crew had confirmed that their Japanese-language version of Map of the Soul: 7, annotated, as ~The Journey ~, would officially be coming out on July 15.

After months of fans theorizing, BTS’ album 2020 is confirmed. But when, exactly, will it will drop? Here’s everything we know so far.

A version of this article was originally published in April 2020.

Is BTS’ album 2020 confirmed?

Yes! BTS confirmed another new album in 2020 in a V-Live on July 26, 2020. The band also revealed that they will be releasing a new single on August 21, 2020, which will be completely in English. “We have prepared a new single for ARMY, set for Aug. 21. We are preparing an album for the second half of this year, but decided to first release a single because we wanted to reach our fans as soon as possible,” BTS shared. “Due to COVID-19, people around the world have been going through tough times and we wanted to share some positive energy with our fans.”

The band continued, The song is upbeat and sung in English, just like ‘MIC Drop’ and ‘Waste It on Me.’ We thought that the song sounded perfect as it is in English. We recorded the guide version and felt that the result was something totally new and fresh.”

As for why they decided to release a new song and a second album this year, BTS told fans that they wanted to lift spirits up during these unprecedented times. “We also needed a breakthrough during these unforeseen times, so we worked on this new song. This is a new challenge for us as well,” BTS shared. “When we first heard and recorded the song, we were energized and our spirits were lifted up. We can’t wait to share this song with you all and enjoy it together.”

The confirmation of BTS’ album 2020 comes after RM teased that the band was working on “something new.” On April 16, Namjoon took to YouTube to host an impromptu discussion with ARMYs. “This [live] content doesn’t have a particular name or anything,” he explained. “I think we decided to prepare such a thing because a lot of the concerts and such have been pushed back or canceled for a prolonged period of time; we thus decided to try something new.”

But does trying “something new” include new music? According to RM, it does.

Source: Instagram

When is BTS’ album 2020 release date?

In their announcement in July, BTS didn’t specify when the release date for their new album would be but that fans should expect their LP in the “second half of this year.” Their first single will be released on August 21, 2020.

BTS’ most recent album, Map of the Soul: 7, was released in early 2020. Before the official announcement of their second album in 2020, Namjoon confirmed in an April live stream that the boys have already been hard at work on new music.

https://twitter.com/doyou_bangtan/status/1251072139773349888?s=20

“An album will be released,” he promised during his April 16, 2020, livestream. “An album is being released, but we’ve only just kicked off, so there haven’t been any in-depth decisions made regarding what sort of song we’ll do, what our title [track] will be like. We’ve only just started talks about it.”

Source: Instagram

Before the announcement, fans on Twitter also speculated that the album would come in August 2020 based on various clues. Some ARMYs focused on comments uploaded by BTS’ fandom fictional universe account, @Smeraldo_Books. On July 10, 2020, the account teased that something new was definitely coming this summer. Historically, notices from Smeraldo blogs coincide a month before another BTS comeback. “we MIGHT have a COMEBACK in August,” wrote one Twitter user. “we got the Smeraldo blog post every year on July 10 (except 2019), it’d always say a new month of “planning to open a flower shop,” they added, indicating that notices from July 2017 lined up with a release by September, and in July 2018, a release followed in August. The theory predicted that fanscould be seeing a new BTS album in either August 2020 or September 2020.

https://twitter.com/BTStranslation_/status/1281513454298259456?s=20