During a recent interview, Louis Tomlinson opened up about BTS breaking One Direction records when they separated, drawing attention on social networks for this unexpected connection between these two renowned boy bands.
In conversation with Billboard to promote his upcoming solo album, ‘How Did I Get Here?’, he also took the opportunity to reflect about his days as a boy group member and many of the experiences and learnings it brought to his life.
The interviewer asked Louis Tomlinson about what it has been like seeing other groups taking the mantle from the success of One Direction, after all, to which he answered with much sincerity, confessing there were old times paying much attention to the BTS growth.
“There was a time where, like BTS, they just like got to their peak kind of—they’re still there—but when they were on the way up, I felt like… every time I logged into Twitter, they had just taken one of ours—we’ve got, you know, some record for some, the fastest-selling thing—and they were taking it.”
“And I just felt like every week I was going… I just saw a new thing taken away from BTS when I was reading that, and that was about probably about six or seven years ago now.”
“Did make me a little… it was just a bit of a shame, you know? It’s like, ‘Oh, we had all this; we had all these things.'”
.@Louis_Tomlinson opens up about seeing new groups, like BTS, break One Direction's records:
"I don't begrudge them […] that's the nature of the music industry, it just keeps moving." pic.twitter.com/5jKy4cC9h9
— billboard (@billboard) January 12, 2026
He explained that he does not have anything against the K-Pop group because he finally understood that this is the nature of the music industry:
“But I don’t—I don’t—I don’t begrudge them that. It’s not something that I’m listening to all the time, obviously, but no, I think that’s the nature of the music industry. It keeps moving, you know?”
On social networks, fans reacted to his wise and sincere words with comments like: “thank you for your wise answer Louis, respect!! 🥺💜,” “I love that he’s so honest and respectful. So sweet. 🥹💗” “I love when any 1D talks about BTS, they all have been very nice and respectful 💜,” “Always an honest, man, I respect that from him.”
