You had to be quick off the mark to secure a free ticket to see Jungkook’s al fresco performance of his recently-released single Seven for Friday’s edition of BBC’s The One Show. At LKL we don’t hang out in the right corners of social media and only heard about the event as the doors opened – at which point it was of course too late to get on the guest list.
The venue – a riverside location in the Isle of Dogs – had been kept a secret, only announced to successful ticket applicants. Performers and audience were lucky that the weather held. This has been an unpredictable week of weather – typical of an English summer.
The live performance was hosted by Radio 1’s Vick Hope, as the early evening magazine programme flipped between the main studio and the docklands outside broadcast location. By coincidence, one of the guests in the studio was comedian Rob Beckett, plugging his TV series with Romesh Ranganathan. The next episode of their series Rob and Romesh Vs has them experiencing K-pop – coming up in a few days’ time on Sky Max
Jungkook was on duty throughout the broadcast: a quick wave to the viewers at the start of the show, a brief interview with Hope in the middle, and then the stylish performance itself which ended the programme. Audience members sang along with the lyrics – having had seven days since the single’s release to learn them.
Even without Jungkook’s comment in the interview that the single has a UK Garage vibe, Brits of a certain age will have noticed a nod to Craig David’s 7 Days, both in the title and lyrics. But Jungkook’s Seven is completely fresh: for a start it’s more danceable, clocking in at around 120 bpm, a full 50% faster than David’s laid-back track from 23 years ago. Needless to say, Jungkook performed the clean version of the lyrics, the show being targeted at a family audience – though the choreography and backing dancers had the occasionally adult moves to be found in the official video.
The single has been the most-streamed song on Spotify for the past week, and entered the UK singles chart at number 3.
The previous day, Jungkook at covered the Oasis song Let there be Love for BBC Radio 1’s mid-day show Live Lounge:
You can catch Friday’s episode of The One Show on BBC iPlayer until 21 August; and there’s an excerpt on their Twitter feed here:
The moment you've all been waiting for 🤩
Here's #JungKook from @BTS_BigHit performing his record-breaking single, 'Seven' LIVE! 😍
Watch the full performance here 👉 https://t.co/KAiIEYTJpC #TheOneShow #BTS #BTSArmy pic.twitter.com/mynoZLWoy6
— BBC The One Show (@BBCTheOneShow) July 21, 2023
(Lead image credit: BBC Twitter feed)