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BIGHIT MUSIC announced the upcoming digital single FRI(END)S by BTS' Taehyung, aka V. On March 3, 2024, at 12 a.m. KST, the music label uploaded the news on their official X account and Weverse. The forthcoming single by the 28-year-old singer-songwriter is a love song in the Pop Soul R&B genre and will be released on March 15, 2024, at 1 p.m. KST (12 a.m. ET)
After his first collaboration with the American R&B songstress UMI for her digital single wherever u r, Taehyung is set to release his solo single despite serving in the military. The announcement sent a wave of excitement over the internet as the news went viral right away, leading to the worldwide trending hashtags "FRI(END)S IS COMING" and "FRI(END)S BY V."
Incidentally, there is a song titled Friends from the BTS' 2020 album Map of the Soul: 7, which Taehyung and Jimin performed. This led fans to share their amusing take on the upcoming track, wondering if it is about the duo's "DUMPLING INCIDENT."
"Is he revoking our bestie status?": Fans share hilarious reactions to Taehyung's upcoming digital single FRI(END)S
The 2020 track Friends was co-written and released by the BTS subunit Taehyung and Jimin. The song is about Jimin and V's friendship and shared memories of several minor incidents over the years, most notably the now-famous dumpling incident initially depicted as a short-lived argument lasting a few hours.
However, the argument escalated to the point where Jimin and V hardly talked to one another for two weeks. Jimin eventually got drunk with band member Suga and met Taehyung at a park at 4 a.m. to make up. Although, the duo never revealed the actual reason for the fight to their fans.
It is important to note that on the same night and in the same park, Taehyung and Namjoon composed one of BTS' iconic tracks, 4 O'Clock at 4 in the morning. Later, BTS revealed that the song was also about V and Jimin. Both the songs were an excellent way to convey the duo's friendship. However, the song is still not uploaded on Spotify or Apple Music.
With BIGHIT MUSIC's (now HYBE) announcement of the V's upcoming digital single FRI(END)S, fans speculated if the singer would narrate the famous dumpling incident through his new music. Others joked if the BTS idol would "revoke" his friendship status with the ARMYs. Here's how the fans reacted on X:
Previously, Jimin shared the production process behind the song Friends at a 2020 Weverse broadcast. He elaborated that he created many demos and melodies while experimenting with different keyboard techniques. To acquire Bang Si-Hyuk's thoughts on three songs, he brought them to him. Jimin thought that Friends was mainly unfinished, and to his surprise, Bang PD selected it.
Later, Bang PD decided for V to sing a duet with Jimin on the track, and the two artists developed the final lyrics and composition of the song. The much-beloved song has surpassed 227 million Spotify streams (227,374,869), with daily average streaming of 66,461 worldwide.
Kim Taehyung of BTS enlisted in the South Korean military on December 11, 2023, to fulfill his mandatory 18 months of service. However, the artist pre-filmed and pre-recorded various projects and content to be digitally released during his absence from the showbiz.
