According to an announcement from BIGHIT MUSIC on the 20th, BTS appeared at the “2026 iHeartRadio Music Festival,” held at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, U.S., on the 18th (local time), and delivered four explosive performances.

The “iHeartRadio Music Festival” is one of the major music festivals in the U.S., bringing together some of the world’s top pop superstars. This year’s event featured big names including BTS, Cardi B, Snoop Dogg, Benson Boone, LE SSERAFIM, and more. Returning to the festival for the first time in six years since 2020, BTS had the honor of taking the headliner spot for the show on the 18th.

Under the theme “BTS 2.0,” marking a new chapter for the group, BTS delivered a spectacular stage that perfectly combined visual effects, lighting, and special effects. Opening with “SWIM,” the title track from their fifth studio album ARIRANG, the group continued to heat up the atmosphere with a string of four energetic performances, including “2.0,” “MIC Drop,” and “FYA.”

Not only did the K-pop superstars leave a strong impression with their stage performance, but they also sparked widespread discussion on social media afterward thanks to a notably gentlemanly gesture backstage at the event!

Specifically, a topic about how male and female celebrities are positioned when taking photos recently appeared on social media and received more than 600,000 views. One of the most notable images was a photo of BTS with LE SSERAFIM backstage at the iHeartRadio Music Festival. In the photo, the BTS members can be seen sitting or kneeling in the front, leaving the standing positions behind them to the female idols, who were wearing short outfits and could pose more comfortably.

The photo was placed alongside another image featuring a group of famous Thai male artists and actors from GMMTV. The male celebrities stood comfortably posing in the back, while the female celebrities lined up in front of them were wearing short dresses but had to sit or kneel on the floor, with their knees even coming directly into contact with the ground.

Faced with the two situations, netizens could not stop praising BTS for their gentlemanly behavior and respect toward women. They also recalled that during many collaborations or photo sessions with female artists, BTS would often proactively give them the more prominent positions or gesture with their hands to direct attention toward the female artists. The members also tend to maintain an appropriate distance and choose polite, respectful poses while still showing their friendliness.

Proactively giving women more favorable positions and making them as comfortable as possible during interactions shows that the BTS superstars have a keen awareness and a natural sense of respect. The true clαѕѕ of a global group can be seen in these instinctive reactions, and this is also why BTS has continued to receive immense respect from their fellow artists, seniors and juniors in the industry, as well as the public for nearly two decades.

Beyond photo-taking situations, BTS have long been known for their gentlemanly behavior toward women whenever they interact with female artists over the years. At KCON 2016, when Ailee had a little difficulty going down the stairs, RM proactively reached out his hand to help her. The moment has since been mentioned by fans many times as one of the BTS leader’s most memorable “gentleman” gestures.

At MMA 2016, Jin noticed that the GFRIEND members had not been given water, so he immediately gave his own bottle to Sowon. Likewise, when Red Velvet went up to receive an award, j-hope quickly pulled out a chair so the female members could walk through easily without getting caught or blocked.

These small but consistent actions have clearly reflected the qualities of BTS as true gentlemen, making fans proud of the group. On social media, many ARMYs could not hide their excitement, leaving comments such as: “Thank God I stan the right people”, “BTS, you could never be the villain people paint you to be", "And the fact that they are their decade older senior but still knelt the humility. So proud of my boys", "The BTS but they didn't care...they knelt ....bts could never be the bad guys people want them to be", "Every woman who has interacted with BTS has had nothing but nice things to say about them, yet the way they’re dehumanised and vilified by kpoppies, you’d think they were the worst people on earth",...