BTS turned Stade de France into a purple ocean as the Arirang World Tour hit Paris on July 17, with an estimated 88,000 fans roaring through a 23 song stadium show. Onstage, the members called it the biggest concert crowd in BTS history.
The night marked BTS’s first full group Paris concert since 2019 and the start of a sold out two night run expected to draw around 160,000 ARMY. It was a high pressure test for the new Arirang era, and a preview of how this comeback plays in the biggest stadiums on earth.
BTS’s Arirang Stade de France Moment
For French ARMY, the wait stretched seven years between BTS’s last Stade de France show and this weekend’s return. “We have not been to Stade de France in seven years. We missed you,” the members told the crowd early in the set.
The Paris dates sit at the heart of the Arirang World Tour, an 88 show run across 34 cities and 23 countries backing BTS’s sixth Korean studio album. Released March 20, 2026, Arirang is their first studio project since BE in 2020 and frames the tour around Korean roots and resilience.
Night one was treated like a national event. President Emmanuel Macron and First Lady Brigitte Macron appeared on the giant stadium screens, drawing huge screams, while fans from teenagers to people in their 40s and 50s held up banners reading messages like “Your songs healed me.”
BTS Stade de France 2026 Setlist and Show
The concert opened after traditional Korean percussion and strings filled the stadium. A performer with a red flare led ninja style dancers across the floor, fireworks cracked overhead, then BTS emerged in different leather jackets on a raised circular platform to launch straight into new tracks Hooligan and Aliens.
Act I leaned hard into the Arirang album, with “Run BTS,” “They Don’t Know ’Bout Us,” “Like Animals,” “SWIM” and “Merry Go Round,” plus a darker reworked “FAKE LOVE.” Twelve giant screens and a 360 degree stage with cross shaped runways pulled the members toward every corner of Stade de France.
For Act II, they switched into leopard print jackets, sparkling denim and long white cardigans, driving the energy through “2.0,” “NORMAL,” “Not Today,” “MIC Drop,” “FYA” and a fiery “Fire” and “FYA” mash up, complete with dancers carrying flamethrowers. “Body to Body” threaded in the traditional “Arirang” melody, and “IDOL” turned the floor into a moving parade of flags and banners.
- Hooligan
- Aliens
- Run BTS
- They Do not Know ’Bout Us
- Like Animals
- FAKE LOVE
- SWIM
- Merry Go Round
- 2.0
- NORMAL
- Not Today
- MIC Drop
- FYA
- Fire / FYA
- Body to Body
- IDOL
- Come Over
- Butter
- Dynamite
- Boy With Luv
- Jump
- Please
- Into the Sun
From Paris to the Rest of the Arirang Tour
The encore in Paris doubled as a global preview. BTS dropped “Butter” and “Dynamite” back to back, turning the stadium into a sing along, before Jimin introduced the surprise song slot, which changes every tour stop. Paris got a nostalgia heavy combo with “Boy With Luv” and 2014 favorite “Jump.”
Across earlier Arirang dates, that surprise section has already shifted, with London hearing “Life Goes On” and “Dionysus,” Munich getting “Louder than bombs” and “Blood Sweat and Tears,” and Belgium receiving “Tomorrow” and “Boy With Luv.” Paris showed that fans at upcoming stops can expect the same core structure, but a different emotional twist each night.
BTS closed the show with “Please” and the slower Arirang track “Into the Sun,” as ARMY Bombs glowed warm and fireworks lit the sky. After a second sold out Stade de France concert on July 18, the group is set to fly straight to the United States to co headline the FIFA World Cup 2026 final halftime show at New York New Jersey Stadium, giving American fans their first live glimpse of this era on home turf.