What happens when a radio host decides to come after BTS, the biggest K-Pop group in the world, with racist comments? The whole BTS Army and the American music industry comes for him! A German radio show host  made the mistake of being casually racist against BTS and it has now turned into a huge controversy. During a recent radio broadcast on the Bavarian station Bayern 3, the host Matthias Matuschik compared BTS to COVID-19 and called them “some crappy virus” for which he hoped there will be a vaccine soon.

In a rant on his show, the radio host commented about BTS’s recent cover of the Coldplay song ‘Fix You’ calling it blasphemy.

Further targeting BTS, Matthias said, “I have nothing against South Korea, you can’t accuse me of xenophobia (meaning: dislike of or fear against people from other countries) only because this boyband is from South Korea… I have a car from South Korea. I have the coolest car around.”

The radio host went on to say: “This is sacrilege, for this you will…for this you will be vacationing in North Korea for the next 20 years!”

After these comments went viral, BTS fans slammed the host and the radio station. The ARMY trended hashtags such as #Bayern3Apologize, #Bayern3Racist #RassismusBeiBayern3 and #ApologizeToBTS on Twitter. BTS fans were appalled by the comments and said that his racist comments were not an opinion. They also demanded an apology from Matthias and Bayern 3.

Several famous American music artists such as Halsey, Lauv and MAX also came to the defence of the seven-member Korean boy band and slammed the host for his racist comments.

Halsey, who is a close friend of the BTS members and made the song ‘Boy With Luv’ in collaboration with BTS, wrote this on her Instagram story: “I am horrified to read the comments made by Matthias Matuschik. Racism and xenophobia cannot be thinly veiled as ‘on-air humour’. Irresponsible and disgusting statements in a time where hate speech and violent behaviour towards Asian communities are skyrocketing. This is unacceptable. I hope a better apology to BTS, and the Asian communities across the world, is on its way.”

Lauv, who is the singer of hit song ‘I Like Me Better’ and has collabed with BTS a few times, took to Twitter to defend BTS and said, “Standing by my BTS brothers and everyone continuously effected by racist remarks as hurtful as what we heard on Bayern 3. No one should have to endure this and together we must stand up and stop it. (sic)”

Another American artist MAX, who recently collaborated with BTS’s SUGA for the song ‘Blueberry Eyes’, tweeted saying, “BTS is one of the hardest working and most humble groups in the industry. They deserve all the success they’ve earned. Hearing such hateful words used against them by the radio host at Bayern 3 made me sick. The hate to them and the Asian community as a whole is unacceptable.”

Meanwhile, Bayern 3 has issued an apology were the radio station wrote: “This [expression] was about his personal taste, with no regard paid to the band’s origin and cultural background…but this doesn’t change the fact that many of you have found his statements hurtful or racist. We apologize wholly for this. We will be discussing the issue in detail again with Matthias and the team in the coming days.”

However, BTS fans were not happy with the company’s statement and the host Matthias Matuschik finally released a statement where he said: “I have given this a lot of thought over the past few hours and understand and accept that my words racially offended many of you, especially the Asian community. That was never my intention, but I realise that, in the end, what matters is only how words are perceived – not how they were intended.”

Here’s how BTS fans reacted to the controversial comments on Twitter: