A Golden Birthday for our Golden Maknae: Happy Birthday Jungkook

A new season is upon us, and there's no better way to mark the beginning of fall than by celebrating Jungkook's birthday on September 1. It's no secret that Jungkook loves to do it all: pitch-perfect singing, dancing, drawing and painting, martial arts, bungee jumping, cooking, playing video games, etc. On top of that, he has a heart of gold, whether it be crying at the sight of ARMY at concerts, or making cute, bunny-like facial expressions. Jungkook's sweetness, determination and enthusiasm encourage us all to follow his lead.

But what made this birthday truly sweet? Well, Jungkook gifted ARMY with a surprise two hours and a half-long live concert and received lots of love from ARMY in the form of amazing fan events around the world. Let's get into the birthday festivities!

A VLive Concert That Was Truly “Paradise”

Jungkook is well-known for holding casual livestream concerts on VLive, particularly since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. His birthday was no exception, as over 20 million viewers tuned into his VLive broadcast. Usually, Jungkook treats ARMY by singing a combination of his favorite songs and song requests that heavily feature BTS' discography. However, this VLive began with a special surprise. A day earlier, Jungkook had requested ARMYs on Weverse to post their birthday messages in a song-lyric format. With ARMY's lyrics, our birthday boy then composed an impromptu song! It was a truly impressive, on-the-fly musical endeavor that instantly trended on Twitter. As Jungkook transitioned into his regular concert content, the gifts kept on coming. On social media, it is often discussed amongst ARMYs that BTS has never performed a handful of songs live, including fan favorites, such as Paradise. However, the Paradise drought ended as Jungkook began singing the long-maligned anthem from Love Yourself: Tear. Hilariously, it turned out that all ARMY needed to do was request the Korean title (낙원) of the song instead. After fans rejoiced, Jungkook continued singing his heart out, performing songs such as Dimple, Born Singer, Pied Piper, Let Go, 2!3!, Mic Drop, Autumn Leaves, Spring Day, Heartbeat and many more!

What started out as a traditional birthday VLive became a wonderful, mini concert and a special gift to ARMY everywhere.

Still With ARMY: Jungkook's Gifts Around the World

Of course, ARMY gave Jungkook a remarkable number of gifts too, pouring all their love and gratitude into organizing breathtaking and meaningful projects. In addition to over 40 countries showcasing LED birthday celebration ads, there were many highlights of Jungkook's birthday celebrations around the world.

In South Korea, one of the most striking birthday projects of the year was Jungkook's Still With You promo stage mockup in I-Park Mall in Seoul, which featured two gorgeous, purple sculptures.

Birthday balloons also graced the Han River park and floated around Seoul throughout the day. Transit ads were displayed throughout the country, including buses and a cruise ship in Seoul, and a birthday train in Jungkook's hometown of Busan. 100,000 print magazine ads graced trains and express buses, and 14,014 LED support screens have been running throughout South Korea’s subway system for the first half of September.

Fukuoka Tower and Japan Sapporo TV tower turned purple in celebration and an LED Birthday Truck was found roaming around Tokyo. In the Philippines, Jungkook became the first Korean artist to be featured at the center of the megamall landmark, “Festive Walk” in Iloilo City. Across the world, New York ARMYs also organized a COVID-19 safe “Euphoria Cruise” around a local harbor.

As always, it wouldn't be like ARMY to not have some extraordinary gifts for our Golden Maknae. Adorably, Indonesian ARMY adopted over 4,000 turtle hatchlings, raised them, and released them back into the ocean in order to preserve endangered species. Even in outer space, Jungkook now owns 4,000 sq ft. of land on the moon, located fittingly in the Lake of Happiness. How incredible is that?

In honor of Jungkook’s birthday, hundreds of thousands of USD were raised for many different, phenomenal causes. Egyptian ARMYs paid for liver disease medical care, South African ARMYs donated to a center for childhood cancer, New Zealand ARMYs raised funds for essential childhood supplies, and the multinational #BreakTheSilenceWithJK raised around $25,000 towards ending sexual and gender-based violence in Kenya.

This year, Jungkook's birthday was bigger and better than ever! Both our Golden Maknae and ARMY made their voices heard in celebration, their love and respect spreading across the world. Although ARMY will continue to celebrate the slew of BTS' birthdays to come, it can be said that we will relive all these amazing memories with Jungkook forever.

Written by: Mariko

Edited by: Sanam

Designed by: Achan

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