“Where are the activist stans now?”: BTS Member Jungkook Faces Backlash For Performing in Controversial Qatar World Cup Despite Being an UN Ambassador
This year’s FIFA World Cup was embroiled in controversies ever since Qatar was announced as the host country. Several people brought up the middle-eastern country’s human rights issues and how hosting the most prestigious sporting tournament there seemed unfair and wrong on so many levels. The controversies kept piling up as artists started to deny highly lucrative offers to come and perform at the opening ceremony. Singers like Dua Lipa and Rod Stewart even took to their social media handles to share how Qatar’s non-inclusive human rights laws are the reason that they didn’t even consider the offer. Meanwhile, Shakira quietly refused the deal without making a public statement. However, several stars did end up performing at the opening ceremony and one of them is facing acute backlash for the same. It is Jungkook from BTS.
BTS: UN ambassadors gone wrong?
BTS was announced to be celebrity diplomat to the UN in 2021. The South Korean boy band went on to attend and talk at 2 UN sessions, run campaigns on youth welfare, collaborated with UNICEF, raised awareness about #BlackLivesMatter, and worked extensively for covid relief, among many other philanthropic ventures as well.
The uber-popular band with massive global outreach has a staunchly loyal fanbase as well, which calls itself the ARMY. And this ARMY is unquestionably one of the hardest sets of stans who support their favorites no matter what. And so they have risen again, to face the backlash that the youngest BTS member, Jungkook finds himself facing.
Twitter goes berserk
Celebrities like Shakira, Dua Lipa, and Rod Stewart refused to perform at the FIFA Qatar World Cup 2022 opening ceremony owing to the politics involved in the event. However, many artists gladly accepted the lucrative offer among whom were people like Nicki Minaj, J Balvin, Lil Baby, and several others. Jungkook from BTS was one of the most prominent names on the list. The South Korean singer released his World Cup track Dreamers and went on to perform the same at the opening ceremony as well. While the performance was fiery and garnered a lot of praise, several people couldn’t help but wonder how and why Jungkook agreed to perform in Qatar instead of taking a moral stand as a UN ambassador should.
Several people took to Twitter to share their disappointment with Jungkook performing at a place where even the state law is homophobic, among many other things. It had also been reported that a huge number of Indian immigrants died succumbing to hazardous deadlines to build 8 stadiums for the sporting event. Despite all this, FIFA is adamant about letting Qatar host the cup and now it’s too late to change anyway. However, several fans feel that like Dua Lipa and Shakira, Jungkook should also have refused the offer.
"Celebrities shouldn't have to be social activists uwu"
They can still refuse to play at the fucking world cup this year, dude
And yes this is about some people's response to Jungkook performing in Qatar, fuck that shit.
— Juno (@savana196) November 19, 2022
This is everyone's daily reminder that celebrities are not your friends, you do not know them, and they will end up disappointing you with shit like this if you give them your blind trust.
— Juno (@savana196) November 19, 2022
Really not a good look when the company says it stands with human rights, equality and basic decency.
— Yeekies ☾⁷ (@bingbunhe) November 12, 2022
dont act like a saint cause yall r also being hypocrite dragging someone for being a fake activist while your babying that grown ass man jungkook saying he’s got nothing to do with anything that’s going on in qatar. yall act as if he’s any better than dua
— blythe (@ad0raking) November 13, 2022
https://twitter.com/onemoonrabbit/status/1591332087264464898
https://twitter.com/bean_sshi/status/1594363527820607489?s=46&t=bfRon2g70zxE3ZQ6e4Qwdw
Jungkook or any member of BTS hasn’t had the time to address the backlash that he is facing. Anyhow, there is still the ARMY that has vowed to defend their favorites against any backlash and the latest fiasco is no different. The stans have religiously come forward yet again to defend their favorite against what they dub as ‘fake activism’.
Source: Twitter
