BTS and Justin Bieber? Why fans want Jungkook to collab with Bieber

BTS and Justin Bieber are two of the biggest pop acts in the world. They’ve expressed their admiration for each other in the past and now fans are campaigning to get them together on the same song.

Billboard took an online poll to determine who Bieber should collaborate with next and fans came out in droves to nominate Jungkook. The BTS member won the poll with 57 percent of the vote, far outpacing the second and third-place options. This dream collab is not without precedent, as Jungkook recently posted a cover of Bieber song’s “10,000 Hours” on the BTS Twitter account.

Dan & Shay, the “10,000 Hours” songwriters, told eTalk that they were blown away by Jungkook’s cover. “That’s a tremendous honor,” they said. “Those guys are so talented and for him to stumble upon our song and to do a whole cover of it. You know it takes a lot of time to do something like that. To go into a studio and put the vocals in and record the whole thing and then upload it – that’s super kind of him to do that.”

Mutual admiration

Jungkook has a long history of Bieber fandom. He told celebrity host OZY that Bieber was his biggest musical inspiration in 2017 and he danced onstage to Bieber’s “Sorry” during one of BTS’s concerts. He also showed support for the Canadian pop star when he retweeted a link to Bieber’s comeback single “Yummy” in January.

Bieber returned the favor when he performed a voiceover for E! News. He praised BTS for their English-language single “Dynamite” and dubbed them the future of pop music. “‘Dynamite’ has the most views in a single day in YouTube history and most comments on any video on the platform,” he stated. “‘Dynamite’ debuted at number one on the Billboard Hot 100, making BTS the first all-South Korean group to top the chart.”

The pop star also praised BTS for their historic impact. “If any group knows how to make history, it’s BTS,” Bieber added. “The K-pop group has broken records across the global music industry. From ringing in New Year’s in Times Square to Carpool Karaoke with James Corden, they performed in Grand Central Station for The Tonight Show and wowed at this year’s virtual VMAs.”

Diverse collaborators

Bieber even participated in a BTS fan chant on social media. He posted an Instagram Story of him singing the words to BTS’s “Spring Day” in April and the internet blew up with theories regarding a collaboration. Neither act has discussed working together, but their track records suggest that a duet would not be out of the question.

BTS has worked with a number of English-language pop stars, including Halsey, Nicki Minaj, Ed Sheeran, and the Chainsmokers. The Nicki Minaj remix to “Idol” peaked at number eleven on the Billboard Hot 100, while “Boy with Luv” featuring Halsey soared to number eight.

The group has helped to normalize collaborations with Western artists, as they pointed out during an Entertainment Tonight interview. “Just a few years ago, a collaboration between a Korean artist and an American artist rarely happened,” Suga stated. “It’s positive that today we can see more of these collabs. I think it’s great that we could become one through music.”

Teasing fans

Bieber has a similarly diverse history of collaborators. He worked with Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee on the Latin pop smash “Despasito” and he popped up on the hit single “Cold Water” for Jamaican DJ Major Lazer. His last two projects have embraced genres like electro-R&B and house music, so it makes sense that he would look to diversify his sound further with a BTS crossover.

BTS’s new album BE (Deluxe Edition) is set for release on November 30, and the group has teased the inclusion of more English-language music. It’s possible that Bieber could pop up for a song and cause the fandoms of both acts to have a collective meltdown.