BTS Unveil Release Date for New Album, Tease 2026 Tour

After completing South Korea’s mandatory military service, K-pop juggernauts BTS are now gearing up to release their first new album in six years. The as-yet-untitled LP is due out March 20 via Big Hit Entertainment. It’s their fifth studio album overall and follows 2020’s Be. What’s more, BTS are also teasing a 2026 world tour, with more details to arrive soon.

BTS hit the recording studio last July to work on the new LP. “We’re approaching the album with the same mindset we had when we first started,” the group said in a statement last year. “We’re also planning a world tour alongside the new album. We’ll be visiting fans all around the world, so we hope you’re as excited as we are.”

After Big Hit confirmed at the end of 2021 that BTS were taking an “official extended period of rest,” the K-pop group released their first anthology album, Proof, that following June. Each member eventually pursued his own solo project in the years that followed, including J-Hope’s 2022 album Jack in the Box, RM’s 2022 full-length Indigo, and Jimin’s 2023 LP Face.

As is par for the course for K-pop superstars such as BTS, various members have been busy onscreen during this time. Jimin and Jung Kook appeared on the Disney+ travel series Are You Sure?!, Jin shared a concert film about his debut solo tour, and RM was the subject of a 2024 documentary about the making of his sophomore solo album.

Read about BTS in “Thirst Traps, Anime, and the Viral Power of TikTok Fan Edit Communities.”

BTS: How the Biggest Boy Band in the World Stays Radically Korean