BTS' Suga kicks off world tour with two UBS Arena shows

Rapper-singer Suga of the global boy-band phenomenon BTS will launch his first solo tour on Long Island this spring, with two concerts at UBS Arena in Elmont, on April 26 and 27.

Following near-monopoly Ticketmaster's recent Taylor Swift ticketing debacle, which prompted federal scrutiny, promoter Live Nation on Tuesday issued directives in an attempt to forestall a repeat of the incident in the face of what is expected to be very high demand.

Tickets for the U.S. leg of the tour, which continues through May 17 before moving to Asia, can be purchased through the Ticketmaster Verified Fan platform. Fans can register for the two unique Verified Fan presales at Ticketmaster.com/suga now through Feb. 23 at 10 p.m. Only those who have received a unique code in response will have the chance to purchase tickets on a first-come, first-served basis. Additional details are at blog.ticketmaster.com/suga/.

Members of the "BTS Army" fan club have first crack at the Army Member presale beginning March 1 at 3 p.m. All tickets will be available during this presale. If any tickets remain, sale then opens first to the general public with Fan Verification, on March 2 at 3 p.m., and then to the general public without Fan Verification, on March 3 at 3 p.m.

Suga, born Min Yoongi and also known professionally as Agust D, who turns 30 next month, posted the tour schedule on his Instagram Tuesday for his 43 million followers there. Eschewing comment, he wrote only the emoji for fire.

BTS, an acronym of Bangtan Sonyeondan or “Beyond the Scene," is a K-pop septet consisting of RM, Jin, Suga, J-Hope, Jimin, V and Jungkook. The Grammy-nominated multiplatinum-selling group has scored six No. 1 hits on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart, with an additional four in the top 10.

Suga himself is known as well as a music producer for artists including Halsey, PSY, Epik High, ØMI and others. As a performer, he has been featured in music by Juice WRLD, Max and So-ra Lee. He co-wrote and co-produced 2022’s “That That,” released last April as the lead single on PSY’s latest studio album, "9th." Among his more obscure and fascinating work is Samsung Electronics Galaxy’s official ring tone “Over The Horizon.”

While fellow BTS bandmates J-Hope headlined Lollapalooza in Chicago last July and Jin performed his single “The Astronaut” with Coldplay in Argentina in October, Suga’s outing is the first full-fledged solo tour by a member of the group, according to Billboard.