From ‘Butter’ to ‘Lovesick Girls,’ K-pop songs set mood at Tokyo Olympics

K-pop anthems are in strong presence at the Tokyo Olympics, with a plethora of them being played during the games to pump up the mood despite the lack of spectators.

More than 10 K-pop acts including BTS, BLACKPINK, EXO, NCT 127, Seventeen, ATEEZ, ITZY and OH MY GIRL have had their songs played during the world’s biggest sporting event since its opening on July 23, further spreading their names and helping Korea boost its soft power.

Global sensation BTS’s 2020 smash-hit “Dynamite” — the septet’s first song to conquer the Billboard Hot 100 songs chart — was featured during the archery mixed team event on July 24, where Korean archers An San and Kim Je-deok clinched a berth in the quarterfinals after defeating Diya Siddique and Md Ruman Shana of Bangladesh. Another anthem by the seven-piece act, “Butter” (2021) was also the background music for the women’s boxing match between Uganda and Japan, July 25. The upbeat number was repeated during a rugby game between Korea and New Zealand on July 26.

Girl group BLACKPINK’s “Lovesick Girls” (2020), the lead track off the quartet’s first fulllength album, was played during the women’s volleyball match involving Turkey and China on July 25. OH MY GIRL’s May release “Dun Dun Dance” (2021) moved air during Team Korea’s volleyball games with Japan and Brazil, which took place on July 31 and July 25, respectively.

In addition, many other pieces such as EXO’s “Don’t Fight the Feeling” (2021), WINNER’s “Really Really” (2017), Seventeen’s “Very Nice” (2016), ITZY’s “Don’t Give a What” (2020), TXT’s “Magic” (2021) and TWICE’s “Feel Special” (2019) were included in the Olympics playlist.

K-pop tunes are believed to be big mood-lifters that can help the Olympics capture the attention of more young people. In fact, once a K-pop anthem is featured in a game, it immediately generates buzz on multiple social media platforms such as Twitter and there are even some accounts counting how many times these tracks have been played.

“Frequent uses of K-pop songs in a mega-event like the Olympics implies that K-pop is now a familiar genre to people across the globe,” music critic Han Dongyoon told The Korea Times, Monday.

“Most of them include English lyrics and are bright and uplifting… They are also likely to suit the tastes of numerous young athletes.”

It is usually a job for the Tokyo Organizing Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games and the sports federations to select the tracks for each event, but there are some athletes who make a song request.

“I asked the committee to play a BTS song for our event,” Korean archer Kang Chae-young, who won gold in the women’s team event with An San and Jang Min-hee on July 25, said after the match. But on the day, BLACKPINK’s “Boombayah” (2016) was featured.

In fact, a number of athletes already disclosed that they are fans of K-pop. Among them are Korean table tennis player Shin Yu-bin and archer An San, who said they were fans of BTS and MAMAMOO, respectively.