Topic Guide
The Year BTS Almost Disbanded: Jin’s 2018 MAMA Confession & What Was Happening Behind the Success
If you only look at BTS’s achievements in 2018, it sounds like the kind of year no artist would ever want to escape from.
LOVE YOURSELF 轉 ‘Tear’ became the first Korean album to reach No.1 on the Billboard 200.
BTS released FAKE LOVE.
Then came IDOL.
The LOVE YOURSELF World Tour expanded across the world.
RM spoke at the United Nations as BTS joined UNICEF’s Generation Unlimited launch.
And by December, BTS were standing on the 2018 Mnet Asian Music Awards stage collecting some of the biggest awards of the night.
From the outside?
2018 looked like BTS winning.
But at the very end of that year, Jin revealed something that completely changed the way ARMY looked back at it.
December 14, 2018 — MAMA in Hong Kong
BTS won Artist of the Year at the 2018 MAMA Awards in Hong Kong.
The official MAMA archive also confirms that BTS won Album of the Year for LOVE YOURSELF 轉 ‘Tear’ and Worldwide Icon of the Year during the 2018 ceremonies.
The members began giving their acceptance speeches.
j-hope was already crying.
Jimin talked about how difficult parts of the year had been.
SUGA talked about how incredibly happy 2018 had also made him.
Then Jin took the microphone.
And the entire mood changed.
Jin said that at the beginning of 2018, the members had been having an extremely difficult time emotionally.
Then he revealed the part nobody expected:
BTS had discussed whether they should disband.
Not after a scandal.
Not after a failed album.
Not because their career was collapsing.
At the beginning of the same year that would later become one of their biggest breakthroughs.
The members immediately broke down.
Taehyung was visibly crying.
Hoseok was crying.
The moment became one of the most remembered award speeches in BTS history because it exposed something fans had not been able to see behind the performances and achievements.
This was not Jin being dramatic for an award speech
Years later, Jin returned to this exact moment.
During SUCHWITA EP.12 with SUGA, released in 2023, Yoongi asked Jin about the 2018 MAMA speech.
This time, Jin gave much more context.
He explained that during the period when BTS were promoting FAKE LOVE and later IDOL, their schedule had become extremely demanding.
For approximately three months, Jin recalled that they were getting roughly one day off per month.
He even remembered becoming upset about the difference between getting one day and one-and-a-half days off.
That detail sounds small until you actually think about what he was describing.
A month.
One day to stop.
Then start again.
Recording.
Rehearsals.
Flights.
Interviews.
Music shows.
Photo shoots.
Concert preparation.
Performances.
International promotions.
And repeat.
Jin said they understood why the company believed they needed to work that hard if they wanted to succeed.
And at that point, success was happening very quickly.
But understanding why a schedule exists does not make your body or mind magically able to handle it.
Jin explained that it became difficult both mentally and physically.
Eventually, the members reached the point where they wanted to let everything go.
The feeling became:
“We can’t keep doing this. Let’s stop.”
That gives the 2018 MAMA speech a completely different meaning.
They were not casually asking:
“Should BTS continue someday?”
They had reached a level of exhaustion where ending the group felt like a real option.
The strangest part: BTS were becoming MORE successful
This is what makes the story uncomfortable.
In May 2018, LOVE YOURSELF 轉 ‘Tear’ debuted at No.1 on the Billboard 200, making BTS the first Korean act to top that chart.
That should have been a dream moment.
In September, BTS stood at the United Nations, where RM gave the now-famous “Speak Yourself” speech as part of UNICEF’s Generation Unlimited launch.
The group was performing in larger venues.
Global attention was increasing.
Their influence was expanding at a speed almost nobody had predicted.
And behind all of that, the seven members had already reached a point where they had discussed ending BTS.
That is one of the most important things this story teaches:
Success and wellbeing are not the same thing.
Someone can be achieving everything they once wanted and still be exhausted enough to wonder whether continuing is possible.
The members did not all remember 2018 in exactly the same way
This part matters too.
During the MAMA speech, SUGA described 2018 as a year where he sometimes wondered whether he could possibly be any happier.
Then Jin revealed that early in that same year they had considered disbanding.
Those statements are not contradictions.
They show how complicated the year actually was.
2018 could contain:
historic success
AND exhaustion.
happiness
AND emotional strain.
gratitude
AND the desire to stop.
That complexity gets lost when fandom history turns entire years into simple labels like:
“their best era”
or
“their hardest era.”
It could be both.
Jin knew the confession might upset ARMY
During the later SUCHWITA conversation, Jin explained that he knew saying this publicly could sound negative to fans.
He understood that telling ARMY:
“We considered ending BTS.”
was not an easy thing to hear.
But by the time he said it at MAMA, the crisis had already passed.
The members had decided to continue.
Jin wanted to be honest about what the year had actually been like instead of pretending the success had come without a cost.
That honesty is part of why the speech became so important.
It was not:
“Look how sad we were.”
It was:
This happened. We nearly stopped. We stayed. And now we can finally tell you.
What ARMY should NOT turn this into
There is sometimes a temptation to turn the 2018 story into something overly romantic:
“They suffered because they were destined to become legends.”
No.
Exhaustion is not proof of destiny.
Being pushed to the point where a group considers ending their career is not automatically a beautiful sacrifice.
Jin himself described the schedule as physically and mentally difficult.
And years later, BIGHIT would announce BTS’s first official extended vacation in 2019, explicitly saying the members needed an opportunity to rest and recharge after relentlessly pursuing their goals since debut.
That context matters.
The lesson is not:
Work until you break because success might come.
The lesson is that even BTS had limits.
Why ARMY remembers the MAMA speech so clearly
Because the members’ reactions made it obvious that this was not distant history to them.
Hoseok crying.
Taehyung breaking down.
Jin struggling through the words.
Seven people standing onstage during what should have been one of their happiest professional moments and suddenly remembering how close they had come to not reaching it together.
ARMY watching at the time did not have all the context we have now.
The detailed explanation about their workload came years later.
So in 2018, the fandom essentially learned in real time:
There was a version of this year where BTS might not have continued.
And that is why the moment still appears in discussions whenever ARMY talks about:
OT7.
Seven staying together.
BTS contract renewals.
Burnout.
Or why the group’s continued existence should never be treated as something automatic.
The facts we actually know
FACT: Jin publicly said BTS discussed disbanding in early 2018.
FACT: The statement was made while BTS accepted Artist of the Year at the 2018 MAMA Awards.
FACT: Years later, Jin said that the FAKE LOVE / IDOL period involved an extremely heavy schedule and that the members were struggling physically and mentally.
FACT: They ultimately chose to continue.
FACT: 2018 also became one of BTS’s most successful years up to that point.
What we should NOT invent:
one secret fight that supposedly caused the discussion
one member who supposedly wanted to leave more than the others
a made-up company ultimatum
private arguments nobody publicly confirmed
the exact date the disbandment discussion happened
the claim that ARMY alone “saved” the group
The members made the decision together.
ARMY mattered deeply to them.
But their private conversations belong to them unless they choose to tell us more.
Why this belongs in the Dark Lore archive
Because this is the reality hidden underneath one of BTS’s brightest years.
2018 gave BTS:
Billboard history.
FAKE LOVE.
IDOL.
A world tour.
A UN speech.
Major awards.
And simultaneously:
one of the closest publicly known moments BTS came to ending as a group.
Those truths existed in the same year.
And when Jin finally said it out loud, ARMY learned something that has stayed important ever since:
Seven was never guaranteed.
It was chosen.
Again and again.
💜
LOVE YOURSELF 轉 ‘Tear’ became the first Korean album to reach No.1 on the Billboard 200.
BTS released FAKE LOVE.
Then came IDOL.
The LOVE YOURSELF World Tour expanded across the world.
RM spoke at the United Nations as BTS joined UNICEF’s Generation Unlimited launch.
And by December, BTS were standing on the 2018 Mnet Asian Music Awards stage collecting some of the biggest awards of the night.
From the outside?
2018 looked like BTS winning.
But at the very end of that year, Jin revealed something that completely changed the way ARMY looked back at it.
December 14, 2018 — MAMA in Hong Kong
BTS won Artist of the Year at the 2018 MAMA Awards in Hong Kong.
The official MAMA archive also confirms that BTS won Album of the Year for LOVE YOURSELF 轉 ‘Tear’ and Worldwide Icon of the Year during the 2018 ceremonies.
The members began giving their acceptance speeches.
j-hope was already crying.
Jimin talked about how difficult parts of the year had been.
SUGA talked about how incredibly happy 2018 had also made him.
Then Jin took the microphone.
And the entire mood changed.
Jin said that at the beginning of 2018, the members had been having an extremely difficult time emotionally.
Then he revealed the part nobody expected:
BTS had discussed whether they should disband.
Not after a scandal.
Not after a failed album.
Not because their career was collapsing.
At the beginning of the same year that would later become one of their biggest breakthroughs.
The members immediately broke down.
Taehyung was visibly crying.
Hoseok was crying.
The moment became one of the most remembered award speeches in BTS history because it exposed something fans had not been able to see behind the performances and achievements.
This was not Jin being dramatic for an award speech
Years later, Jin returned to this exact moment.
During SUCHWITA EP.12 with SUGA, released in 2023, Yoongi asked Jin about the 2018 MAMA speech.
This time, Jin gave much more context.
He explained that during the period when BTS were promoting FAKE LOVE and later IDOL, their schedule had become extremely demanding.
For approximately three months, Jin recalled that they were getting roughly one day off per month.
He even remembered becoming upset about the difference between getting one day and one-and-a-half days off.
That detail sounds small until you actually think about what he was describing.
A month.
One day to stop.
Then start again.
Recording.
Rehearsals.
Flights.
Interviews.
Music shows.
Photo shoots.
Concert preparation.
Performances.
International promotions.
And repeat.
Jin said they understood why the company believed they needed to work that hard if they wanted to succeed.
And at that point, success was happening very quickly.
But understanding why a schedule exists does not make your body or mind magically able to handle it.
Jin explained that it became difficult both mentally and physically.
Eventually, the members reached the point where they wanted to let everything go.
The feeling became:
“We can’t keep doing this. Let’s stop.”
That gives the 2018 MAMA speech a completely different meaning.
They were not casually asking:
“Should BTS continue someday?”
They had reached a level of exhaustion where ending the group felt like a real option.
The strangest part: BTS were becoming MORE successful
This is what makes the story uncomfortable.
In May 2018, LOVE YOURSELF 轉 ‘Tear’ debuted at No.1 on the Billboard 200, making BTS the first Korean act to top that chart.
That should have been a dream moment.
In September, BTS stood at the United Nations, where RM gave the now-famous “Speak Yourself” speech as part of UNICEF’s Generation Unlimited launch.
The group was performing in larger venues.
Global attention was increasing.
Their influence was expanding at a speed almost nobody had predicted.
And behind all of that, the seven members had already reached a point where they had discussed ending BTS.
That is one of the most important things this story teaches:
Success and wellbeing are not the same thing.
Someone can be achieving everything they once wanted and still be exhausted enough to wonder whether continuing is possible.
The members did not all remember 2018 in exactly the same way
This part matters too.
During the MAMA speech, SUGA described 2018 as a year where he sometimes wondered whether he could possibly be any happier.
Then Jin revealed that early in that same year they had considered disbanding.
Those statements are not contradictions.
They show how complicated the year actually was.
2018 could contain:
historic success
AND exhaustion.
happiness
AND emotional strain.
gratitude
AND the desire to stop.
That complexity gets lost when fandom history turns entire years into simple labels like:
“their best era”
or
“their hardest era.”
It could be both.
Jin knew the confession might upset ARMY
During the later SUCHWITA conversation, Jin explained that he knew saying this publicly could sound negative to fans.
He understood that telling ARMY:
“We considered ending BTS.”
was not an easy thing to hear.
But by the time he said it at MAMA, the crisis had already passed.
The members had decided to continue.
Jin wanted to be honest about what the year had actually been like instead of pretending the success had come without a cost.
That honesty is part of why the speech became so important.
It was not:
“Look how sad we were.”
It was:
This happened. We nearly stopped. We stayed. And now we can finally tell you.
What ARMY should NOT turn this into
There is sometimes a temptation to turn the 2018 story into something overly romantic:
“They suffered because they were destined to become legends.”
No.
Exhaustion is not proof of destiny.
Being pushed to the point where a group considers ending their career is not automatically a beautiful sacrifice.
Jin himself described the schedule as physically and mentally difficult.
And years later, BIGHIT would announce BTS’s first official extended vacation in 2019, explicitly saying the members needed an opportunity to rest and recharge after relentlessly pursuing their goals since debut.
That context matters.
The lesson is not:
Work until you break because success might come.
The lesson is that even BTS had limits.
Why ARMY remembers the MAMA speech so clearly
Because the members’ reactions made it obvious that this was not distant history to them.
Hoseok crying.
Taehyung breaking down.
Jin struggling through the words.
Seven people standing onstage during what should have been one of their happiest professional moments and suddenly remembering how close they had come to not reaching it together.
ARMY watching at the time did not have all the context we have now.
The detailed explanation about their workload came years later.
So in 2018, the fandom essentially learned in real time:
There was a version of this year where BTS might not have continued.
And that is why the moment still appears in discussions whenever ARMY talks about:
OT7.
Seven staying together.
BTS contract renewals.
Burnout.
Or why the group’s continued existence should never be treated as something automatic.
The facts we actually know
FACT: Jin publicly said BTS discussed disbanding in early 2018.
FACT: The statement was made while BTS accepted Artist of the Year at the 2018 MAMA Awards.
FACT: Years later, Jin said that the FAKE LOVE / IDOL period involved an extremely heavy schedule and that the members were struggling physically and mentally.
FACT: They ultimately chose to continue.
FACT: 2018 also became one of BTS’s most successful years up to that point.
What we should NOT invent:
one secret fight that supposedly caused the discussion
one member who supposedly wanted to leave more than the others
a made-up company ultimatum
private arguments nobody publicly confirmed
the exact date the disbandment discussion happened
the claim that ARMY alone “saved” the group
The members made the decision together.
ARMY mattered deeply to them.
But their private conversations belong to them unless they choose to tell us more.
Why this belongs in the Dark Lore archive
Because this is the reality hidden underneath one of BTS’s brightest years.
2018 gave BTS:
Billboard history.
FAKE LOVE.
IDOL.
A world tour.
A UN speech.
Major awards.
And simultaneously:
one of the closest publicly known moments BTS came to ending as a group.
Those truths existed in the same year.
And when Jin finally said it out loud, ARMY learned something that has stayed important ever since:
Seven was never guaranteed.
It was chosen.
Again and again.
💜