On June 17, 2026, a video featuring Hollywood celebrities singing lines from BTS song SWIM was shared widely on social media. The video is produced by W Magazine as part of their Lyrical Improv series and directed by Lynn Hirschberg. It showed actors performing parts of the track in a studio setting with a black backdrop.
Participants included Chase Infiniti, Charles Melton, Jason Bateman, True Whitaker, Sarah Pidgeon, Lox Pratt, Sadie Soverall, Rachel Sennott, Rhea Seehorn, and others. Many of them held papers and appeared to read the lyrics while singing.
The song SWIM is the lead single from BTS album ARIRANG, released on March 20, 2026. It features production by Ryan Tedder, Diplo, Flume, Kevin Parker (Tame Impala), Mike WiLL Made-It, JPEGMAFIA, and El Guincho. It also includes a music video starring actress Lili Reinhart.
Following the spread of the W Magazine video, criticism appeared in replies, quote posts, and comments, mainly because users said the celebrities looked unfamiliar with the song. They pointed out that the celebrities did not seem to know the melody and were just reading the lyrics from papers. Some users described the song as “unknown” outside BTS fandom circles.
“and they want a Grammy for every release lmaooo when the main track is unknown everywhere but among their fandom 😭😭🙏🏻🙏🏻”
Terms such as “payola” and “PR move” also came up in the reactions.
In response to the criticism, BTS fans pushed back on the claims. They described the celebrities reading the lyrics exactly as the words are meant to be read from the page.
One fan said:
“it’s literally meant to be read like this literally, like a movie script reading”
More fans came forward in defense of the group.
More fans shared their thoughts.
BTS’ SWIM crosses 600 million Spotify streams, ARIRANG best albums list, and more
On June 17, 2026, BTS track SWIM reached 600 million streams on Spotify. The song achieved this in 89 days since its release. This made it the fastest song of 2026 to hit the mark.
SWIM came out on March 20, 2026, as the lead single from the album ARIRANG. Within just a few months of its release, the album appeared on several mid-year best-album lists. Complex placed it at number 22 on its list published on June 11, 2026. Rolling Stone included it on June 15, 2026. NME added it on June 16, 2026.
On the other hand, ARIRANG also became the first album to chart for 12 consecutive weeks on Billboard Global Excl. U.S. with all its songs.
Additionally, BTS will release the music video for the album track Merry Go Round on June 19, 2026. The video drops exclusively on Spotify through the K-Pop ON! Hub. It will be available only to Premium users in selected regions.
Fans are also expecting NORMAL music video after the tease on the FESTA exclusive vinyl. The group will perform at the Riyadh Metropolitan Stadium on June 26 and 27 for their ongoing world tour.
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Edited by Toshali Kritika
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.sportskeeda.com ’
