A number of American musicians who have collaborated with BTS then provided support to the boy group from South Korea. Among them are Halsey, MAX, to Lauv.
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| BTS (Bangtan Boys) - Twitter / bts_bighit |
BTS (Bangtan Boys) had received comments that were considered racist from a German radio host named Matthias Matuschik during a broadcast on the Bavaria Bayern 3 station on February 25, 2021. Matthias described BTS as "some ugly virus that hopefully will have a vaccine soon too." He also called the cover of Coldplay's "Fix You" that BTS sang for MTV Unplugged recently as a "blasphemy".
A number of American musicians who have collaborated with BTS then provided support to the boy group from South Korea. Among them are Halsey, MAX, to Lauv.
Through Instagram Stories, Halsey wrote that he was horrified by the comments Matthias made to BTS. Moreover, said Halsey, violence and hate speech for the Asian community is currently increasing during the pandemic.
"Racism and xenophobia cannot be confused with 'broadcast humor'," Halsey stressed. "This is unacceptable. I hope that better apologies to BTS, and to the Asian community around the world, will come soon."
Instagram / @ iamhalsey
Meanwhile, MAX, who had hooked Suga in the song "Blueberry Eyes", also criticized the comments made by radio host Bayern 3. MAX stated that BTS is one of the most humble and hardworking groups in the music industry.
"They (BTS) deserve all the success they have had. Hearing the hateful words radio broadcasters at Bayern 3 use against them makes me sick," MAX tweeted on his Twitter account on Saturday. "The hatred for them and the Asian community as a whole is unacceptable."
Twitter / @ MAXMusic
The same thing was also expressed by Lauv. The singer who had hooked BTS in the song "Who" provided support through a tweet on his Twitter account.
"Stand with the @bts_bighit brother and all those who are continually influenced by hurtful racist remarks like the ones we heard in Bayern 3," wrote Lauv. "No one has to endure this and together we must stand to stop it."
Twitter / @ lauvsongs
On the other hand, Matthias and Bayern 3 have published apologies online for the comments regarding BTS. They published statements in German and English on the Bayern 3 website. Bayern 3 said in their second statement that they were working on issues with Matthias and the team to prevent similar incidents in the future.(wk / Bert)
