BTS Mount Beatles-Style US TV Invasion On ‘The Late Show’

Pop idols BTS have found their inner Beatles, paying tribute to their forebears with an appearance on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert, filmed at New York’s Ed Sullivan Theatre. They played up their moptop looks and echoed the Liverpool quartet’s famous appearance on the show hosted by Sullivan himself in 1964.

The seven-piece played ‘Boy With Luv,’ the track featuring Halsey from their smash-hit set Map Of The Soul: Persona, preceded by an introduction by Colbert. Styled like Sullivan, echoing his words on that show and mimicking his mannerisms — on a monochrome set and with fans dressed in 1960s fashions — he said: “And now for the performance you’ve been waiting for. These fabulous young lads from Seoul — really impressed all of us here — performing their song ‘Boy With Luv,’ from their EP Map of the Soul: Persona, ladies and gentlemen, BTS.”

Earlier in the day, the group’s RM had told Good Morning America that they were all “fanboys of The Beatles.” In their interview with Colbert, BTS even delivered an impromptu singalong of ‘Hey Jude.’

The modern-day group were further billed with the tongue-in-check announcement: “On February 9, 1964, television history. The Beatles made their American debut on the Ed Sullivan Show. And now, on the same stage, exactly 50 years later — plus five more years, three months, six days — a new batch of mop-topped heartthrobs has landed.”

Colbert, as Sullivan, then pretended to be back-announcing a performance by “Cassius Clay and his spinning plates” and echoed the earlier presenter’s famous catchphrase and idiosyncratic pronunciation about having a “really big show.” He added: “These boys aren’t from America, no they’re from across the pond, the big one, the one with Hawaii in the middle. They really are a fine group of youngsters. In fact, you can call them the Fab Seven. It’s got a nice ring to it.”

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Format: UK English