BTS swag is raffled off at an in-person occasion hosted by the Titas of BTS on March 10. Some 40 ladies gathered at a bar in Quezon Metropolis to have fun the March birthdays of BTS members Suga and J-Hope.

Ashley Westerman/NPR

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Ashley Westerman/NPR

BTS swag is raffled off at an in-person occasion hosted by the Titas of BTS on March 10. Some 40 ladies gathered at a bar in Quezon Metropolis to have fun the March birthdays of BTS members Suga and J-Hope.

Ashley Westerman/NPR

MANILA, Philippines — Some might imagine that stanning over South Korean pop bands and their music, style and relationships is just for younger folks. Nonetheless, in terms of the Ok-pop phenomenon BTS, one group of followers within the Philippines is proving them mistaken.

They name themselves the “Titas of BTS.”

However earlier than we go any additional… What’s a tita?

“A direct translation is an auntie, so someone who’s an older lady,” group founder Demai Sunio-Granali says. “Even when you’re not a relative, you handle somebody who’s an older feminine a ‘tita’ out of respect.”

Sunio-Granali, 38, began a Fb group for BTS followers in 2020 with a handful of buddies throughout her similar age. Three years later, that group has grown into a global on-line group of hundreds of ladies — and a few males — of their late 30s and older, all diehard BTS followers.

“It was actually simply began as a spot for us to convene and to share BTS content material with one another,” Sunio-Granali says, laughing. “We did not actually see every part it could grow to be.”

BTS members attend Dick Clark’s New Yr’s Rockin’ Eve with Ryan Seacrest in New York Metropolis on Dec. 31, 2019.

Astrid Stawiarz/Getty Photos for Dick Clark Productions

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Astrid Stawiarz/Getty Photos for Dick Clark Productions

BTS members attend Dick Clark’s New Yr’s Rockin’ Eve with Ryan Seacrest in New York Metropolis on Dec. 31, 2019.

Astrid Stawiarz/Getty Photos for Dick Clark Productions

The Fb group contains over 14,000 members and is a continuing stream of BTS updates, information and dialogue. From V’s latest Elle Korea picture shoot to Jimin’s new solo album, “Face” — if it is BTS information, the group is speaking about it. In addition they sometimes maintain in-person occasions to have fun birthdays and dance to their favourite BTS hits or simply to have dinner and make amends for the newest BTS gossip.

Sunio-Granali says everybody has a narrative about how they turned followers of BTS — quick for Batang Boys. Some received hooked via buddies; others via siblings and youngsters.

Sunio-Granali got here throughout the band after spending time watching Korean TV dramas, she says. After she fell in love with a track carried out by a member of BTS on one of many soundtracks, that led to a different track, then one other and one other.

Quickly, she realized this group was completely different from every other boy bands — primarily, she says, due to how they convey messages and inform relatable tales via their lyrics.

“I linked with them due to how they expressed themselves via lyrics, how they advised their story and the way they describe their struggles,” Sunio-Granali says.

Why do Filipinos love Ok-pop?

Ok-pop, as a style, has gripped the Philippines in near-obsession. Korean dramas are a standard entry level into the music. And whereas Korean popular culture could also be a worldwide phenomenon, stans — overzealous followers — within the Philippines are on a very completely different stage.

For years, the Philippines has topped international rankings in listening to Ok-pop on streaming providers and mentioning Ok-pop on social media. In 2022, the Philippines was the second-biggest viewers for BTS, after the U.S., in response to Spotify. In the meantime, Twitter knowledge reveals the nation additionally got here in fourth on the planet final 12 months for tweets mentioning Ok Pop. In 2021, it ranked third.

“The explanation why Filipinos love Korean tradition, basically, is due to our shared historical past,” says J.R. Igno, an assistant linguistics professor on the College of the Philippines. “Significantly, we have been colonized by completely different international locations.”

This relationship goes again to the Korean Battle, he says, when the Philippines despatched troopers to combat alongside South Korean forces. However the Korean wave — or Hallyu — actually took off within the Philippines within the early 2000s, with the popularization of Korean dramas and their soundtracks.

Due to the historical past of colonization, Philippine tradition has at all times been fluid and open to exterior influences, says College of the Philippines Baguio historical past professor Zuriel Domingo. “And due to globalization, you have got the web, which is free … so it is not being compelled on us.”

Domingo notes that Ok-pop is not simply music, it is a complete package deal: visuals, style, folks to idolize — all backed by a authorities in Seoul that has prioritized Ok-pop as a cultural export.

A spot to stan with out concern of judgment

Titas of BTS member Jabba Tantay, 39, says as a result of the aunties’ group is older than different BTS superfans, they respect that entire package deal in a different way.

“Whenever you’re a youngster, it is a completely different form of fan-girling, proper? It is extra about, he is so good-looking. He dances so nicely. There is a completely different appreciation,” she explains. “Whenever you’re a bit older, you see different issues. Like, we focus extra on their relationships with one another and the way in which they convey their messages.”

They’ll relate, the ladies say, to members like Jin, the eldest, who has taken over the function of huge brother to the remainder of the group. Or Suga, who is understood for his “arduous on the surface, however gentle on the within” persona. And whether or not it is writing in a uncooked approach about the price of a lot fame or being not sure of whether or not you’ve got achieved sufficient as you grow old, they are saying BTS is aware of methods to sing about real-life, relatable points.

Kaye Mora, 39, from Cainta, Rizal Province, holds up a poster that includes the members of BTS that she received in a raffle at a latest Titas of BTS gathering in Quezon Metropolis.

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Ashley Westerman/NPR

Kaye Mora, 39, from Cainta, Rizal Province, holds up a poster that includes the members of BTS that she received in a raffle at a latest Titas of BTS gathering in Quezon Metropolis.

Ashley Westerman/NPR

For a lot of titas of BTS, there is no such thing as a different protected area to stan for the band. Most of the ladies are professionals who maintain high-level positions or moms with households to deal with.

“There have been judgments from their very own circles,” she says. “The everyday statements could be: ‘You are too previous to fan-girl. Why are you want this? You are too previous, you are a mom, you have got X variety of youngsters.’ “

Tantay says that is once they realized how critical a platform they’d. “It was an avenue for individuals who wanted a spot to launch no matter it’s they had been feeling, the place they’d not be judged for it.”

And this mission will not change, Sunio-Granali says. The titas will help BTS even whereas it’s on a break, and can hold their Fb group working till the band is about to return — hopefully in 2025.

Finally, although, it does not actually matter what occurs to BTS, she says.

“I’d think about [our friendship] the most effective present that we now have acquired from being followers of BTS,” she says. “On the finish of the day, we’ll be left with this friendship.”