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 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.
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.
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.
TODAY has reached out to the original poster for comment.