Colombian Radio Show “La Mega” Under Fire For Defaming BTS’s Reputation And Claiming Their Success Was “Bought With Money”
Colombian radio show La Mega has come under some intense scrutiny all because of their most recent broadcast. The La Mega hosts are being accused of not only defaming and mocking BTS‘s reputation, but publicizing racist comments about the boy group and South Korea.
A Korean ARMY @liryonni discussed the situation on Twitter by detailing the entire controversy from beginning to end. She begins by sharing that La Mega’s most recent show not only “mocked the artists and their fans, but they also displayed disrespect to the entire nation of South Korea.”
The controversy arose when the hosts of La Mega began commenting on BTS’s global success before playing the group’s most recent track, “Permission To Dance” on their radio show. Rather than recognizing BTS for their talent, hard work, and passion, the hosts of La Mega instead credited money as the reason for the boy group’s mega-popularity, while referring to the Korean members as “Chinese.”
These Chinese boys are too fast. They only got here because of money. With [money], they were able to rank high on these music charts. They only reached the Grammys and other important awards ceremonies because of money. They definitely have a sponsor. They haven’t even won any awards though. Their song only made it because the Korean embassy probably requested it. We don’t have to like it just because it’s BTS’s song.
— La Mega Hosts
After the broadcast aired, Colombian ARMYs called out the La Mega hosts for their problematic comments and urgently requested that they apologize to BTS. Due to the backlash they received, La Mega agreed to air an apology on the following radio broadcast. Their apology episode, however, created even bigger problems for the radio program, as their “racist” agenda towards South Korea only continued.
La Mega‘s apology broadcast began with the male host of the show apologizing for “their aggressive expression of opinions,” which they believe should have been respected. However, they continued their “apology” by shifting the blame towards Colombian ARMYs and stated, “if it was hard for [ARMYs] to accept our expression, which they may believe was aggressive, then I believe we should apologize for that.”
And while they never actually apologized for their previous disrespectful comments, they created an even bigger problem for themselves when they continued with their “apology” — by playing the South Korean National Anthem, Aegukga, while laughing about and mocking the situation.
We will apologize in K-Pop’s language. This is our official Korean apology. (Plays ‘Aegukga’)
— La Mega Hosts
Their racist mockeries did not conclude here, as the hosts included a random, unrelated Korean empanada advertisement, which they snickered along with throughout the entire duration of the commercial. The hosts also wore wigs to go along with their Asian-themed apology, as they followed up the empanada commercial with the Dragonball Z theme song.
Dragonball Z is a Japanese anime television series that has remained popular ever since its release back in 1989. The issue didn’t arise from Dragonball Z itself, but rather the fact that the La Mega production team included another example of racism by playing the theme song of a Japanese animation series — while apologizing to BTS, who are Korean.
To make matters even worse, the male host of La Mega, Shirry can be seen wearing a t-shirt with the Rising Sun symbol on it. To South Koreans, the Rising Sun symbol is associated with the horrible war crimes and oppression that the nation faced while they were under Japanese rule from 1910-1945. Many Korean politicians, to this day, compare this symbol to that of the Nazi swastika.
After sharing the details about the controversy in her tweet, @liryonni then shared a method for ARMYs all over the world to send in formal complaints to the radio company in charge of La Mega, RCN Radio.
While the controversy continues to only grow larger, La Mega has yet to make a genuine apology for their actions. With that said, BTS’s Colombia fanclub, BTS DREAM LAB COLOMBIA released an official request asking for a formal apology from La Mega and the radio’s production team.
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