5 hours ago
6
During the opening night of the North American leg of “Hope on the Stage,” the first solo tour from j-hope of BTS, there was only one moment in the show that felt even slightly less than euphoric. Greeting the sold-out crowd at Barclay’s Center in Brooklyn, the rapper and dancer noted that this tour was his return to the stage after his time in the military, which led to a brief murmur rolling through the audience of 19,000 people like a wave. After over a decade of training, high-profile performances, and honing his craft, the person onstage at Barclay’s Center cast a striking shadow; it’s impossible to imagine j-hope anywhere but the stage.
Back up to over a decade ago — before military enlistment, before “Dynamite,” before BTS appeared on SNL or cracked the Billboard Hot 100 or did any of the record-shattering they’ve done as a team — and the members of the septet weren’t just fighting for a place on the global stage; they were fighting for a place in the Korean landscape, too. Together, RM, Jin, SUGA, j-hope, Jimin, V, and Jung Kook forged a path entirely unique to a group out of South Korea, and as the members have navigated overlapping solo chapters and in recent years, j-hope has proven himself to be especially fearless. He charted a new course and proudly represented BTS when he became the first K-pop artist to headline Lollapalooza in 2022.
With “Hope on the Stage,” as he and Jin wait for their five bandmates to reconvene, j-hope has once again taken up the mantle of representing the team out on the global stage — but one of the wonders of j-hope performing is that, despite how much effort went into preparing the performance, it hardly appears to be work for him at all. From the kickoff above a striking tent of red fabric for “What if…” to the detailed choreography and immersive production that followed through 26 subsequent tracks, j-hope hardly broke a sweat. He is a joyful performer, and as the name of the tour suggests, he’s back where he’s meant to be.
According to details shared with press, “Hope on the Stage” is a show broken into five chapters: Ambition, Dream, Expectation, Fantasy, and Wish. The fiery first section pulled entirely from his full-length solo LP Jack in the Box, appropriate for the umbrella of “ambition.” The 2022 release was a sharp pivot away from the rainbow hues that had largely defined his solo identity until that time, and the live stagings of “Arson” and “MORE” here in 2025 underscored a trait j-hope shares with his bandmates, which is a refusal to stay stagnant.
The portion dedicated to songs from the BTS discography fell under the heading of “expectation,” and there are a number of ways to interpret this, including the fact that expectations are something BTS have consistently defied. It’s a theme woven into the lyrics of “MIC DROP,” which j-hope performed with gusto to a crowd ready to rip the roof off of Barclay’s: “Another trophy, my hands carry ’em/ Too many that I can’t even count ’em,” he sang in unison with the audience. While the familiar choreography of “Airplane pt.2,” raucousness of “Silver Spoon,” and bouncy thrill of favorites like “Dis-ease” were clearly delighting the people present, j-hope himself looked just as happy to have the songs in the spotlight again. He then thrilled the audience by debuting an unreleased cut, a sultry and upbeat track titled “MONA LISA” that wouldn’t sound out of place in Bruno Mars’ discography.
In his time in the public eye, j-hope has always been a confident performer. As the dance leader of BTS, he’s famously detail-oriented and diligent, and his background in various forms of street dancing melded with the synchronized performance methodology of K-pop, resulting in a style as fluid and flexible as it is entrancing. For “Hope on the Stage,” he was backed by a number of similarly versatile dancers who were able to run the gamut of popping and breaking to the more structured choreography required for tracks like “Ego.” One of the best productions decisions was bringing along a live band, who made “Silver Spoon” into an even more heart-pounding affair and amplified “Hope World” into an all-encompassing party.
BTS love to pretend like they’re leaving the stage long before they intend to do anything of the sort, and j-hope continued to the tradition by giving a heartfelt goodbye in Korean through a translator ahead of two encores. He then returned to wrap with equality anthem “= (Equal Sign)” and the optimistic “Future” before leaving again and finally stepping back to officially close with “NEURON,” an ode to his early days in an underground dance crew.
The performer at the core of “Hope on the Stage” doesn’t seem like someone who had to step away from his craft for a full year and a half, nor does he look like someone who was discharged less than six months before hitting the road. There are still a few months left before BTS will reunite, and j-hope is making the most of them by stepping back into a role he knows well: the contagiously optimistic all-rounder of an entertainer. Spread the good news — Hope is back on the stage indeed.
“Hope on the Stage” Set List:
What if…
Pandora’s Box
Arson
STOP
MORE
on the street (solo version)
lock / unlock
i don’t know
i wonder…
Trivia 起 : Just Dance
Sweet Dreams
MONA LISA
1 VERSE
Base Line
HANGSANG
Airplane
Airplane pt.2
MIC DROP
Silver Spoon
Dis-Ease
Outro : Ego
Daydream
Chicken Noodle Soup
Hope World
= (equal sign)
Future
NEURON
Get tickets to the remaining dates for “Hope on the Stage” here.
English (US) · 