Why Global Artists BTS Deserve to Speak At the United Nations for the UNICEF’s “Generation Unlimited” Partnership Inauguration
Recently, it was announced that South Korean boy group BTS will attend the UN Assembly to give a 3-minute speech on the inauguration of UNICEF’s new global partnership “Generation Unlimited”. This new global program aims at providing three essential needs to the youth by 2030: education, training and employment. The event will be held on 24th Sept at the UN Headquarters in New York.
On Twitter, while BTS fans were excited and proud of the boys, many people started to question why a “K-Pop group’ is invited to a huge ceremony. Some media outlets kept using the word “K-Pop” with the boys. Due to this labeling, the media gave this wrong impression to many people that UNICEF invited BTS because they are K-Pop, not because of their humanitarian work and ideology.
So, let me explain briefly why BTS totally deserves to be part of the launch of this initiative at the UN General Assembly.
The “Love Myself” Campaign
BTS is known to write socially conscious songs and speak for the people of their generation using their music. Their music talks about mental health, women empowerment, the youth etc. With their global success, BTS wanted to give back to the youth and the fans. So, on 1st November 2017, BTS became the first South Korean artists to start up a global movement called “Love Myself”. They partnered with UNICEF’S global campaign #ENDviolence which aims at safeguarding the young people and children from violence.
The official #BTSLoveMyself was also launched requesting the fans and supporters to promote the hashtag by posting photos of self-love in the social media platforms.
Donations
BTS and their agency Big Hit Entertainment donated 500 million KRW from their pockets to the campaign. 3% of the physical album sales of the “Love Yourself” album series are donated while 100% of all the official Love Myself merchandise are donated. The sales of the BTS’ LINE stickers and KakaoTalk Give-ticon are also sent as donations.
More platforms were opened up for donations besides the UNICEF donation desks like “Happy Bean” and “Together Value with Kakao”.
Success of the Campaign
According to their official website, the campaign has raised 1,154,593,599 KRW (1,034,391 USD) so far with the #BTSLoveMyself reaching up to 6,777,662 hashtags so far (within just 10 months).
On both the official UNICEF YouTube channel and Twitter, UNICEF Executive Director Henrietta H. Fore personally thanked BTS and the ARMY fandom for raising over a $1 million through “Love Myself”.
“Love Myself” is a global movement receiving donations through album sales, merchandise sales and general funds. It is because of the progress of this project that BTS earned the respect and acknowledgement from UNICEF. So, it is legitimate for UNICEF to give them the honor by making them a part of the “Generation Unlimited” partnership.
BTS and the “Generation Unlimited”
On 21st Sept, UNICEF published a press release which confirms that BTS is part of the “Generation Unlimited” program as a “global youth leader” with other business and education leaders such as United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres, UNICEF Executive Director Henrietta Fore, World Bank Group President Jim Yong Kim, UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador Lilly Singh etc.
The reason why BTS was chosen because both BTS and UNICEF share the same ambitions and doctrine. The “Generation Unlimited” initiative focuses on working for the welfare of the young people which similarly matches with BTS’ “Love Myself” campaign. This makes BTS a perfect partner for UNICEF for this campaign.
Conclusion
BTS are global artists doing philanthropic work and are using their music to heal and inspire people of all ages around the world.
They also inspired their fandom “ARMY” to be involved in philanthropic activities. On BTS members’ birthdays, the fandom donates money, blood and food to their country related campaigns in their honor.
The ARMY fandom also used their social media power to raise money for different funding projects such as the “Star Wars #RoarForChange”, “#EatLikeAPro”, “#GrabGerak”, “Thirst Relief” etc.
There is also an ARMY fan base account named @OneInAnARMY which is a global ARMY charity base and updates the fandom on different charity foundations, donation updates and social welfare projects.
BTS deserve the reverence and love for their efforts from the public and the media. They should not be restricted to mere “K-Pop”.
To learn more about “Love Myself”, go to their website.
