“Wishing On A Star” is the 9th track of BTS’ Japanese album Youth. It is a song which, towards the end, makes you feel hopeful - as though you could keep going on towards your dreams and ambitions. Wishing on a star is a very popular idiom which means: hoping that a wish will become fulfilled. The song was released September 2016 after the The Most Beautiful Moment in Life era and before the starting of the Wings era. At that point, BTS were working hard, looking forward, and running towards their dreams. This song is a reassurance with a message that says ‘you need to keep working hard and being yourself and wishing that your dreams become reality.’
Written by Matt Cab, Willie Weeks, Daisuke, RM, Suga, and j-hope, this song falls in the R&B genre. While listening to the song, you can imagine yourself near a bonfire with your friends under a starry night, the artists performing just a few meters away from you. Without realizing it, we often look up to the sky when we hope for something, right? This song is no different; it is the one that makes us look up to the sky and hope.
The song opens with Jung Kook’s soothing voice which goes straight to the main message of the song's lyrics. Where all the stories we make - in this case, dreams - come true if we continue to hope. We also see a reference to a shooting star in the lyrics:
I’ll continue to hope
Like tracing the stars
I’ll wish again and again, I can’t wait
Because I want to catch it
Wishing on a star
Shooting stars are a paradox because as a star enters old age, it will explode. Although a shooting star is just an astronomical term for a meteor that hits Earth's atmosphere from outer space. It moves so fast that it heats up and glows as it moves through the atmosphere. However, throughout modern world history, it has been said that if we look up at the night sky and see a shooting star, we should close our eyes and make a wish. A shooting star has become a symbol for opportunity, the opportunity to make dreams come true. This is why BTS uses that reference. BTS wants us to know that every part of us has the same opportunity to make our dreams come true.
Dreams are often represented as stars, which are high in the sky as if to indicate not everyone can achieve those dreams; it requires maximum effort. As far as our belief in our dreams is accompanied by effort and hope, the universe will not betray us. However, there are some regulations in it, including being by ourselves. We don't have to worry about the future of our dreams. In carrying out the mission towards a dream, the most important thing that must be underlined is that we can still be happy and enjoy it without being too rushed while it is in the process of coming true.
As we go on with the song, j-hope sings his verse with a high energy and bright voice which brings a smile to our faces. In addition to his bright voice, here j-hope wrote lyrics related to the inspiration for his name, namely Pandora's box.
So my baby, even if Pandora lies ahead, there’s hope
So my baby, don’t be scared, just be yourself, uh
If your heart continues to beat, uh
Don’t change, continue to have big dreams
You’ll shine again, baby
Pandora's Box is an ancient Greek mythological story written in the book Works and Days by Marya Hesiod. Although the box contains all kinds of bad things for humans - such as old age, pain, madness, pestilence, theft, lies, malice, hunger, and other calamities - with the opening of the box, all the bad things are free to infect humans. Pandora deeply regretted her actions, but when she looked back into the box, there was one thing left inside and unable to fly freely; that was hope (Hope). As long as we have hope, then everything will come true. Although Pandora's existence is just a myth, j-hope wants to emphasize that Pandora's message will always be there to help those of us who are desperate to achieve our dreams, namely the wishing on star song itself.
RM’s rap is an emphasis on the fact that in the journey of achieving dreams, nothing is smooth. Everything will be accompanied by blood, sweat, and tears as evidence of our hard work.
Even if I have to endure it, I’ll continue to move forward
Even if all these tears dry out
Right, just being myself, just the way I am
If I can sing, nothing will ever be hard
Likewise for BTS, for them the most important thing is to be original, which is to be themselves - the message they have conveyed through the “Love Yourself Speak Yourself” campaign with UNICEF. It holds a message that we all don't need to be someone else in order to make our dreams come true because that will actually make us fall into a hole that we unconsciously built ourselves. Suga’s verse tells us that whatever happens, we need to continue our dreams. If we fail, we can start over. Failure is essentially just a simulation to achieve the best version of ourselves. The lyric ‘Life is one coin clear’ says that life is like a coin, we can dream as we like, but we only have one life. In other words, while we live, try to take our dreams seriously, because we only live once.
Since the song is in Japanese, it is important for us to look at the translations to understand it more. Here, we have used translations provided on genius website and by bts-trans on Tumblr to have a deeper understanding of it. The song leaves ARMYs with reassurance that even though everything seems impossible if we still have hope then everything will become possible. BTS will always pray for us and sing all our hopes to the universe. We are not alone; we are with BTS and vice versa.
DISCLAIMER: We do not own any audio & visual content in this video except for the editing. ALL RIGHTS BELONG TO THE RIGHTFUL OWNERS. No copyright infringement intended.
Written By: Celestia
Edited By: Aury
Checked By: Shelley
