- All seven BTS members have now completed their mandatory South Korean military service and reunited publicly on July 1, 2025, with a new group album set for early 2026, marking their first full release since Proof in 2022
- Every single BTS member has achieved a solo Top 10 album on the Billboard 200, making BTS the first K-pop group in history where every member accomplished this feat individually
- Two members have achieved solo number ones on the Billboard Hot 100: Jimin with “Like Crazy” and Jungkook with “Seven” featuring Latto, making them the only K-pop soloists to ever reach the very top of America’s biggest chart
Here is the thing about BTS that casual listeners never fully grasp. It is not just that they are a great group. It is that every single one of the seven men inside that group is, individually, a generational talent. Take them apart, and you do not get seven smaller versions of the same thing. You get seven completely different artists, seven different sounds, seven different stories, and seven different sets of records that have rewritten what a K-pop soloist can do on the world stage.
This is their individual story. All seven of them. One by one.
RM: The Leader Who Turned Loneliness Into Art
Real name Kim Nam-joon. Born September 12, 1994. Age 31.
Before he was the leader of the biggest group on the planet, RM was a teenager rapping in Seoul’s underground scene so convincingly that a Big Hit Entertainment CEO built an entire group around him. RM was a trainee under Big Hit Entertainment for three years before debuting, where he honed his songwriting skills in pre-debut tracks and cuts for other K-pop groups. He has since collaborated with artists like Fall Out Boy, Lil Nas X, Erykah Badu, and Anderson. Paak and Tablo.
His solo work is not background music. It is a diary. His debut solo studio album Indigo debuted at No. 15 and later peaked at No. 3 on the Billboard 200, making RM the first Korean soloist to achieve a Top 3 spot on that chart. It became the longest-charting album by a Korean soloist on the Billboard 200 with seven non-consecutive weeks. He described it as the last archive of his twenties, and it sounded exactly like that. Raw, searching, and achingly real.
In 2024, he released his second solo album, Right Place, Wrong Person, which received critical acclaim for its lyrical depth and maturity. He also made history as the first Korean rapper nominated at the American Music Awards. Outside music, RM channels his passion for art through gallery visits, sharing contemporary pieces online, and making generous donations totaling more than 100 million won to cultural institutions. He is an artist in every direction he turns.
Jin: The Funny One Who Turned Out to Be Fearless
Real name Kim Seok-jin. Born December 4, 1992. Age 33.
For years, Jin played the role of BTS’s comedian. The dad jokes. The “Worldwide Handsome” confidence. The windshield wiper laugh that somehow became iconic. And then he went solo, and absolutely nobody was laughing anymore, in the best possible way.
Jin’s debut solo album Happy debuted at No. 4 on the Billboard 200 and sold over 953,000 units in its first week in South Korea, becoming the country’s best-selling solo album of 2024. That single release meant something far bigger than just his own career. It meant that every BTS member had now individually cracked the Billboard Top 10 for albums. All seven. A record that had never been done before by any K-pop group in history.
He released a second album, Echo, in May 2025, followed by his first solo world tour, RunSeokjin Ep. Tour, with shows stretching from Goyang to Newark, London, and Amsterdam. He also carried the Olympic Flame through the Louvre Pyramid during the Paris 2024 Summer Olympics torch relay. Jin became the highest-grossing Korean solo artist for a European tour in 2025. The funny one turned out to be one of the hardest working ones, too.
Suga: The Quiet Genius Who Said Everything Out Loud
Real name Min Yoon-gi. Born March 9, 1993. Age 33.
Suga does not perform happiness he does not feel. That is what makes him so compelling and so necessary. His stage name comes from “shooting guard,” a position he played in basketball, but as Agust D, his solo moniker, he creates music that addresses mental health, social pressure, and the personal cost of ambition in ways that stop millions of young people in their tracks.
His solo album D-DAY under the Agust D moniker received critical acclaim for its raw and honest portrayal of his experiences, topped charts globally, and solidified his position as a solo force entirely separate from BTS. Suga has produced songs for artists including IU, PSY, Epik High, and Coldplay, and in June 2023, reworked Halsey’s song “Lilith” for the video game Diablo, showcasing a darker, more gothic creative range that most people never expected from him.
He was the last BTS member to complete military service. He served as a social service agent due to a previous shoulder surgery, an alternative form of mandatory service, and was discharged on June 21, 2025. The moment he walked out, the full BTS reunion clock officially hit zero.
J-Hope: The Sunshine Who Headlined Lollapalooza
Real name Jung Ho-seok. Born February 18, 1994. Age 32.
Nobody in BTS carries their stage name more truthfully than J-Hope. Before BTS, he was a street dancer who competed and won multiple competitions. His personality is so warm and organisational that the other members affectionately call him the group’s “Mom.” But do not let the sunshine fool you. His solo music goes somewhere much darker and more vulnerable than his stage presence suggests.
J-Hope became the first BTS member to notch a solo Billboard Hot 100 entry when “Chicken Noodle Soup” featuring Becky G debuted in October 2019. He then became the first South Korean artist to headline Lollapalooza in Chicago in 2022. He released a six-part docuseries titled Hope on the Street on Prime Video in 2024, exploring his artistic roots and street dance background, accompanied by a full album. He then completed his first solo tour, Hope on the Stage, in 2025 across Seoul, Brooklyn, Chicago, Los Angeles, and San Antonio, before headlining Lollapalooza Berlin in July.
After his discharge, J-Hope told Rolling Stone that the military experience was invaluable and that the thoughts he had during that time had become an inseparable part of who he is today. Coming from someone who once described his entire identity around bringing joy to others, that kind of reflection lands differently.
Jimin: The Record-Breaker Who Made History Twice Over
Real name Park Ji-min. Born October 13, 1995. Age 30.
Jimin trained as a ballet dancer specialising in modern dance before BTS. Watch any BTS performance, and you will immediately understand how that background shaped him. Every movement is intentional. Every note carries weight. He made history when “Like Crazy” hit No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100, making him the first South Korean solo artist ever to achieve that feat.
And then he did it again. His second solo album, MUSE, included the single “Who,” which broke BTS’s own “Dynamite” record as the longest-charting K-pop song in Billboard Hot 100 history. “Who” also became the longest-running No. 1 by a K-pop soloist on the Billboard Global 200 chart.
As of early 2026, Jimin’s total Spotify streams across his solo catalog stand at approximately 7.94 billion when collaborative releases are included, with more than 80 percent of his streams coming from pure solo songs alone. As of early 2025, he had accumulated an estimated total of over 115 awards in his solo career. These are not group numbers. These are one man’s numbers. And they are staggering.
V: The Visual Who Became a Fashion Icon and a Record-Setter
Real name Kim Tae-hyung. Born December 30, 1995. Age 30.
V is the member who makes you stop scrolling. There is a magnetism to him that photographers, designers, and directors have spent years trying to bottle, and none of them have fully managed it. He holds the record for the fastest time to reach 1 million followers on Instagram after the platform opened to Korean celebrities.
His solo debut album Layover sold over 1.67 million copies on its opening day, setting a new record for the highest first-day sales by any solo K-pop artist at the time. The album debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard 200 and was certified Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of Japan.
Beyond music, V has become one of the most visible faces in global fashion, regularly appearing at major luxury brand events and on international magazine covers. In 2026, he is set to reveal a new creative side with a 278-page photobook titled “TYPE 非,” featuring intimate portraits of the artist taking on completely different personas. And if that is not enough, he once recorded a posthumous duet with Bing Crosby. Yes, that Bing Crosby. V contains multitudes.
Jungkook: The Golden Maknae Who Broke Spotify
Real name Jeon Jung-kook. Born September 1, 1997. Age 28.
The youngest. The Golden Maknae. The one they have called golden since he was a teenager, because there is genuinely nothing he cannot do. Sing, dance, produce, act. He does all of it, and he does all of it at a level that would be the defining skill of someone else’s entire career.
In 2023, Jungkook became the first Korean artist to perform at the FIFA World Cup Opening Ceremony and the first Korean artist to release a song with the football association itself. Then he dropped “Seven.” Seven featuring Latto topped the Billboard Hot 100 and reached No. 1 on the Billboard Global 200 for seven consecutive weeks. It became the fastest song in Spotify history to reach 1 billion streams, doing so in just 108 days, breaking Miley Cyrus’s Flowers. It also holds the record for the most played male track in a single week worldwide with approximately 90 million streams.
His debut solo album Golden debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200, making Jungkook the first BTS member to lead the chart with a solo project. By late 2025, his total solo Spotify streams had surpassed 9.4 billion, and Golden alone had crossed 6.2 billion streams, making it the most-streamed solo album by any Asian artist in Spotify history.
He is 28 years old. He is just getting started.
Seven members. Seven completely different artists. Seven sets of records that most solo acts spend entire careers chasing. And in 2026, all seven of them are back in the same room, making music together again. Whatever happens next is going to be something the music industry will be talking about for a very long time.
ARMY already knew that. The rest of the world is about to catch up.
