Why BTS never performed "Paradise", and what happened when it was finally picked as a surprise song

When BTS released Paradise on the Love Yourself 轉 'Tear' album in 2018, few could have guessed that this particular song would go years without a proper full-group live performance. Other tracks from the album found their place on tours and special stages, while Paradise somehow kept getting left on the sidelines.

Over time, it became one of those BTS topics that keeps coming back around in the ARMY fandom. The song is very well-loved among fans, and it's about the pressure to have a big dream or a clear goal and to constantly be chasing after something. RM, SUGA, and j-hope were all involved in writing it, but despite its popularity with fans, Paradise didn't find a spot on concert setlists for years.

Why? We honestly don't know. BTS never gave a specific explanation for why Paradise in particular went unperformed for so long. That lack of an answer became part of the whole story over the years. Fans requested it, brought it up during lives, and regularly put it on their lists of songs they'd love to finally hear live. A joke started going around the fandom that the members had maybe just forgotten they had it.

Jung Kook accidentally gave that joke new material in 2021. During his birthday V Live on August 31, fans requested Paradise in the comments, and at first he didn't recognize the English title and wondered, confused, whether they even had a song called that. Once he realized they meant 낙원 (Nakwon), the Korean title he knew it by, he found it and sang part of it. For a fandom that had already spent years wondering why BTS never performed Paradise, his reaction was perfect material to keep the joke going that the members had simply forgotten the song existed.

Even after that, Paradise still didn't make it to a concert stage. More years passed, BTS started a new chapter, the members released solo albums, completed their military service, and reunited, and Paradise remained one of those songs fans wanted to hear live.

Everything changed on August 5, 2026, at the ARIRANG tour concert at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough. During the part of the show reserved for the surprise song, the DJ picked Paradise. More than eight years after the song's release, BTS performed it as a group in front of an audience for the first time.

The members' reactions quickly became almost as entertaining as the performance itself. Fan footage shows the initial confusion, laughter, and attempts to recall their own parts. V in particular draws attention, visibly searching for the lyrics and trying to keep up with the verses during the performance. We can't really conclude from that that the members actually forgot their own song, especially after eight years without performing it live, but for fans who'd spent years joking about exactly that, the moment was almost too perfect.

The surprise song format on the ARIRANG tour is exactly what makes moments like this possible. The song isn't part of the regular setlist the members rehearse and perform every night in a set order, it comes as a surprise instead. In Paradise's case, that meant returning to a 2018 song they had never performed together as a group before.

That's why Paradise's first performance turned out to be a lot more interesting than if the song had simply shown up on a regular setlist. After years of people asking why BTS doesn't perform it, Jung Kook's confusion on that V Live, and the fandom jokes about them forgetting it, the song finally came to them as a surprise in front of tens of thousands of people. And then they had to make it work.

An official recording of the full performance hasn't been posted on BANGTANTV yet, but the members' reactions and the performance itself from the August 5 Foxborough show can be found among fan recordings on TikTok and YouTube. The easiest way to find them is by searching "BTS Paradise Foxborough 2026," "Paradise ARIRANG Foxborough," or "BTS Paradise surprise song."