When You're BTS, You Can Eat Off Anything You Want
BTS celebrated a Spotify milestone with some well-deserved bibimbap.
There's something about eating a meal directly off a prestigious award plaque that feels decadent, like something a Roman emperor would do. Have you ever literally feasted on your accomplishments? For those in Spotify's "Billions club," it has become something of an unofficial tradition. And this week, reports NME, BTS is the latest group to take part in that tradition.
The K-pop sensation recently reached a milestone that few artists can lay claim to: more than one billion streams of a single track, in this case the BTS hit single "Dynamite." (Other high achievers include "WAP," "Shape of You," and "Watermelon Sugar.") To celebrate, BTS ate Bibimbap together, using the commemorative plaque as a plate.
Traditionally, Bibimbap consists of a bowl of rice with some combination of vegetables, kimchi, meat, and a fried egg, plus chili paste mixed in to taste. The group members all shared one serving from the plaque with the scrambled egg on top in the shape of the band's logo—clearly, the band knows how to engineer a
Eating with an award to celebrate victory isn't new or unique to BTS. When Drake won a Grammy for his album Take Care in 2013, he and his team drank shots out of the award, and then (as the video above shows) in 2020 he ate pasta from the Spotify plaque after hitting a billion streams with his song "In My Feelings." Other Spotify plaque diners include Halsey, Joe Jonas, Bebe Rexha, and others, reports Billboard. Halsey received two plaques and used each for snack time, munching on M&M's and Cheetos. Bebe Rexha interestingly filled her plaque with cereal, milk, and... ice.
This tradition is definitely a power flex. In general, it can be a little annoying when celebrities flaunt their awards, but in this case it's actually fun and intriguing. At this point, it's arguably more enjoyable to see artists choose the perfect eye-catching meal to eat off the plaque than hearing that they achieved this milestone in the first place. The decision tells us so much more about them, after all.
This, of course, has me thinking: What would I eat from the plaque? (She asks, lacking even a single ounce of musical talent.) What would you?