BTS’s ‘NORMAL’ Lyrics Capture the Surreal Emotional Cost of Fame

4 min read

BTS’s Jungkook, RM, V, Suga, Jimin, Jin, and J-Hope are candid about where they are in their music careers throughout the lyrics of their new album, ARIRANG. In the track “NORMAL,” the K-pop group touches on the strange emotional experience of fame.

Jimin tackles the challenge of being authentic and putting the band’s thoughts and feelings up for public consumption in the first verse, singing, “Heavy is the head when you chasin’ true / Will you color me red? Will you color me blue? / Two sides of a coin, and they both ain’t true / Is it different for mе? Is it different for you?”

In the chorus, he, V, Jungkook, and Jin reflect on how surreal it is to normalize A-list fame, a life experience that is far from normal (“Kerosene, dopamine, chemical-induced / Fantasy and fame, yeah, the things we choose / Show me hate, show me love, make me bulletproof / Yeah, we call this shit normal”). They also address their desire to turn off their larger-than-life images to make honest sense of themselves (“Run away, out of sight, don’t know what I want / Wish I had a minute just to turn me off”).

As their ARMY fans know, they also cleverly reference their original band name, Bulletproof Boy Scouts, and their past discography (“We Are Bulletproof Pt. 1” along with “We Are Bulletproof Pt. 2” and “We Are Bulletproof: the Eternal”) with their “Show me hate, show me love, make me bulletproof” verse.

During their Zane Lowe interview for Apple Music, the boys confirmed “Normal” was one of the songs that, as Lowe said, made them feel like “you had grown and were able to address some subjects that felt mature, like you’d lived some life.”

Making a comeback album and having the opportunity to establish their tone after years apart is “still a big challenge,” RM told Lowe during the interview, admitting, “I’m also really afraid of a new chapter. Because we have to show different things to convince the fans and the people out there. We want to reach maybe a different type of people as well. Since we love each other so much, we’re just here, still. And the fans are there.”

The lyrics of “NORMAL” show a vulnerable side to the group—and give fans an honest look at their perspective as they navigate life in the spotlight, their feelings about fame, and the profound way it has shaped their lives for over a decade.

Read the lyrics, via Genius, and listen to the song below:

Chorus: Jungkook, Jimin, Jin, and V
Kerosene, dopamine, chemical-induced
Fantasy and fame, yeah, the things we choose
Show me hate, show me love, make me bulletproof

Yeah, we call this shit normal (Woo-woo)
Run away, out of sight, don’t know what I want
Wish I had a minute just to turn me off
Kerosene, dopamine, what I gotta do?
Yeah, we call this shit normal (Ah-ooh)

Verse 1: Jimin
Heavy is the head when you chasin’ true
Will you color me red? Will you color me blue?
Two sides of a coin, and they both ain’t true
Is it different for mе? Is it different for you?

Pre-Chorus: V and Jungkook
Got me feelin’ things unusual
And I livе ’em all
Got me and my feelings up on this wall
And my knees-ees

Chorus: V, Jungkook, Jin, and Jimin
Kerosene, dopamine, chemical-induced
Fantasy and fame, yeah, the things we choose
Show me hate, show me love, make me bulletproof
Yeah, we call this shit normal (Woo-woo)
Run away, out of sight, don’t know what I want
Wish I had a minute just to turn me off
Kerosene, dopamine, what I gotta do?
Yeah, we call this shit normal (Ah-ooh)

Verse 2: J-Hope, Suga, and RM
How I’m ’posed to feel?
Used to think that I was built with a heart made of steel
Now I understand the truth, some pain don’t heal
If everything’s just happy, mm, that ain’t real (That ain’t real)
I breathe everything out like a thousand times
Normal and special, they are just some lines
One deep sigh, then it slips away, fades away
What I try to keep never want to stay
Runaway, pushin’ me, pullin’ me, said you wanted all of me
But what is even all of me?
Suddenly, part of me is hauntin’ me, heard the things they callin’ me
What the hell you want from me? (Want from me)

Pre-Chorus: V and Jungkook
Got me feelin’ things unusual
And I live them all
Got me and my feelings up on this wall
And my knees-ees

Chorus: Jimin, V, Jin, and Jungkook
Kerosene, dopamine, chemical-induced
Fantasy and fame, yeah, the things we choose
Show me hate, show me love, make me bulletproof
Yeah, we call this shit normal (Woo-woo)
Run away, out of sight, don’t know what I want
Wish I had a minute just to turn me off
Kerosene, dopamine, what I gotta do?
Yeah, we call this shit normal (Aa-ooh)

Outro: Jin
No, we, no, we, no, we call this shit normal
No, we, no, we, no, we call this shit normal, yeah
No, we, no, we, no, we call this shit normal