BTS Kicked Off Their Grammys Performance With An Olivia Rodrigo Cameo

By Deepa Lakshmin

If BTS’s Grammy performance is a sneak peek of what to expect for their upcoming “Permission to Dance” series of Las Vegas shows, then their Army fandom better skip the fancy shoes and stick to something they can comfortably dance in. At the awards show Sunday night (April 3), BTS brought their sleek choreography and hit song “Butter” to Vegas’s MGM Grand Garden Arena. They’re the first K-pop group to perform at the Grammys and are up for Best Pop Duo/Group Performance this year, the same category they were nominated in last year for “Dynamite.”

“It’s an award voted on by the peers in the music industry, so that means so much,” RM told E! News about what it would mean to them to take home the Gramophone. “These two years were so exhausting and devastating and if we got any Grammys it would all pay off.”

Win or lose, BTS put on a show to remember, kicking off their set with a whisper in Grammy-winner Olivia Rodrigo’s ear and a sleight of hand that doubled as a charming magic trick. Then, Jungkook dropped on stage in true spy-kid fashion, and, well, things escalated from there.

Jungkook, Jin, Jimin, V, RM, J-Hope, and Suga — dressed in matching all-black suits, as spies do — launched into the moves they do so well, dodging lasers and using their blazers as fake guitars. (Perhaps they know we all get the urge to bust out an air guitar while listening to their songs.)

Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty Images

At the 2021 Grammys, the septet performed “Dynamite” remotely from Seoul, Korea, so it must have been especially exciting to be able to take the stage on the ground in Vegas this year. Fortunately for them, the live music’s just getting started. They’ll be taking over the nearby Allegiant Stadium for a line of shows this month. Though they made headlines and broke records for their livestream concerts during the COVID-19 pandemic, the fact that their “Permission to Dance” shows sold out is proof the city is hungry for more in-person moves from BTS.

Stay tuned for continued coverage of the ceremony, and find the list of winners here.