On Thursday, BTS announced via X that Jungkook will have a special event in New York City the next day with a tweet captioned, "Hello, NYC! Jung Kook has a surprise for you tomorrow! Stay tuned!"

With no other details in the tweet, ARMY - BTS fans - got curious. The tweet even gained 5.3 million views, over 65,000 retweets, 172,000 hearts, 2,500 bookmarks and 4,900 comments as of press time.

At the time, a BTS fan account, @_BTSMoments_, speculated that the special event might be a surprise performance at Times Square, New York.

A stage was then reportedly set up in front of a Jungkook billboard in Times Square, making fans more excited, per ABC7.

True enough, on Friday morning KST (Thursday evening ET), the "Golden" artist made a surprise performance in Times Square.

After a countdown on a huge screen, Jungkook and his backup dancers made a grand entrance with "Standing Next To You" as the background song. 

"Hey, New York City! I'm Jungkook of BTS. Let's have fun!" Jungkook said, opening his surprise performance.

According to one fan, Jungkook filled Times Square with thousands of fans in under 30 minutes. In another tweet, the "Golden Maknae" was seen singing to "3D" feat. Jack Harlow while looking at the screaming crowd.

Jungkook's performance at TSX, Times Square was also broadcast live on BANGTANTV's YouTube channel, making ARMYs from different parts of the world feel included in the surprise.

"I'm so proud of him. This was such an amazing surprise for ARMYs. Thank you for doing this livestream for us at home," commented one fan on YouTube. 

 

"This was the most amazing surprise gift for ARMY! While I'm envious of the folks in New York who were treated to a free in-person concert, I'm still thankful that the rest of us enjoyed a free concert livestream! How BigHit and Times Square kept this under wraps is pretty crazy! I can't wait for the Korean concert livestream later this month!" wrote another fan.

"It's amazing that this concert was announced 30 minutes before the actual concert and look how many people showed up!! So proud of you Kookie!" commented a third fan.

Jungkook released his highly-anticipated solo debut album on Nov. 3. Since then, the youngest member of BTS has been promoting "Golden" in the U.S. 

He is scheduled to hold "Jungkook Golden Live On Stage" with ARMYs on Nov. 20 at Jangchung Arena, Seoul. Online streaming will also be available.