BTS’s V Wins Over Chilean Fans With a Local Meme and Empanada Praise

The singer’s Spanish remarks during BTS’s Santiago concerts drew attention from Chilean broadcasters and radio.

BTS’s V found a particularly Chilean way to connect with the crowd in Santiago: a sentence that sounds strange in translation but needs little explanation locally.

“Chile, el mejor país de Chile,” he declared during the group’s concert, borrowing a familiar national meme.

Literally meaning “Chile, the best country in Chile,” the phrase brought a burst of recognition from fans. Chilean outlets 24 Horas and ADN Radio both highlighted the moment in their coverage of BTS’s opening night.

The group performed at Santiago’s Estadio Nacional on October 14, 16 and 17 as part of its ARIRANG world tour, returning to Chile nine years after its 2017 visit.

A local joke that landed immediately

V used the phrase during his closing remarks, turning an expression of affection for the audience into a shared joke.

For listeners unfamiliar with it, the wording might sound like a translation mistake. In Chile, its unusual construction is precisely what makes it recognizable.

The phrase became famous after a football supporter said it during celebrations of Chile’s 2015 Copa América victory. It has since become an affectionate, humorous expression of national pride.

By bringing it into his concert remarks, V gave the audience a reference rooted in its own popular culture.

Empanadas and Chilean expressions

V also told fans that he had tried an empanada after arriving in the country.

Both 24 Horas and ADN Radio reported that he praised the food using a distinctly Chilean colloquial expression. His comments gave local coverage another detail beyond the performance itself: a visiting artist trying the food and vocabulary familiar to his audience.

According to Sports Seoul, he continued the locally tailored remarks on the second night with “Tiki tiki ti,” an expression associated with Chilean festivities and folk culture.

Together, the references added a playful local thread to BTS’s three-show visit.

A concert moment that reached local news

The attention extended beyond fan accounts. ADN Radio devoted a separate article to V’s use of the meme and his comments about empanadas, while 24 Horas highlighted the Chilean expressions that marked the opening concert.

The appeal was easy to understand. Alongside the songs and choreography, fans heard something immediately familiar from their own everyday culture.

Editor’s Note

Chilevisión traces the “best country in Chile” meme to its own news coverage of celebrations following Chile’s 2015 Copa América win. An excited supporter’s unusual wording became the joke itself. Preserving that wording in English helps explain why V’s remark connected with the crowd: it was a recognizable quotation, rather than a conventional compliment about the country.