#trending: Woman's 18th birthday bash in Philippines with ‘low budget BTS’ performance steals hearts online
PHILIPPINES — A birthday bash turned into a mini K-pop concert for an 18-year-old woman as a “low budget BTS” boy band took the stage to perform at her party.
- A video of a group of impersonators, dubbed “low budget BTS”, who performed at a birthday party in the Philippines has gone viral
- The TikTok video posted on Sunday (Oct 22) shows a group of young men singing a cover of the song Boy With Luv to an animated crowd, organised to celebrate a woman’s 18th birthday
- They were accompanied by a woman — who TODAY later found out was the person celebrating her birthday — parodying American singer Halsey
- Netizens praised the performers' dedication and accuracy in paying homage to the original Korean boy band's performance
PHILIPPINES — A birthday bash turned into a mini K-pop concert for an 18-year-old woman in the Philippines as a “low budget BTS” boy band took the stage to perform at her party.
A TikTok video posted by user “patchwita” on Sunday (Oct 22) shows a group of young men impersonating popular K-pop group BTS as they adorned dark suits and strutted into a large function room while waving at the applauding crowd.
They were accompanied by a woman in a striking lilac outfit parodying American singer Halsey. TODAY later found out that the woman was the person celebrating the birthday.
According to the video’s captions and comments, the performance was organised by the poster's brother and his friends, for their sister’s 18th birthday.
After making an entrance, the group swiftly takes the stage and opens with an asynchronous version of BTS’s signature greeting amid screams from the crowd.
“Love you, oppa! (Korean term for ‘older brother’)” shouts a woman in the crowd.
As the group begins its cover performance of the award-winning song Boy With Luv, even more cheers erupt in the form of a “fan chant”, where fans cheer for idols by chanting phrases and names of members in a specific order during performances in show of support.
The imitative performance drew inspiration from BTS’s actual live performances of the song, with the impersonators attempting to faithfully recreate the choreography while adding some unintentional flair of their own.
It was evident that although the performance was largely lip-synced, and sometimes uncoordinated, a lot of blood, sweat, and tears had gone into the preparation of the event.
With the audience still riled up, the dynamite performance comes to an end with the group striking the song’s signature back-turned, ending pose.
The video of the microphone-dropping performance quickly went viral, attracting more than 551,100 views, 70,100 likes, and 1,157 comments as of Tuesday afternoon.
The original poster “patchwita” also shared a follow-up video showing a close-up of the group’s “grand entrance” into the function room.
Responding to several comments, the original poster revealed that most of the impersonators are fans of BTS and that they had "only (practised) the night before" for the performance.
Many TikTok users, who appeared to be fans of the real South Korean boy band, left comments praising the impersonators’ dedication and accuracy of the performance.
One TikTok user punctuated their comment with hearts, writing: “Salute to the guys for doing this for the birthday girl."
Another pointed out the accuracy of the impersonators’ “heavy breathing” at the end of the performance.
Others were envious of the birthday girl for having such doting relatives and friends.
One user commented: "Wow! (So) supportive of brother and friends."
“All I see is how much love those boys must have to do this for her,” wrote another.
In a message to TODAY via TikTok, the original poster “patchwita”, who wanted to be known only as Patch, said: "That performance was supposed to be a surprise for her but the boys couldn’t practise without her because she’s always around."
With the performance set to be scrapped, Patch, 25, revealed the plans to her sister, who then decided to revive the act by partaking in the stunt as a faux Halsey.