April 29 marks the seventh anniversary of BTS's 2015 comeback “I NEED U,” a song that allowed the group to harvest the fruits of their labor two years after debut and rise to the top of the music charts. 

Signaling the end of the “School Trilogy” album series, BTS transformed from boys in love to young men facing the anxieties of growing up in the “Youth” album series. Fitting for a season when flowers are in bloom, the album’s title The Most Beautiful Moment in Life Pt. 1 comes from the Chinese expression “花様年華,” which can translate to “flower like years.” 

Fans got an early taste of the album’s new songs when BTS previewed “Converse High” and “Boyz with Fun” at their 2015 BTS Live Trilogy: Episode 1. BTS BEGINS concert. In between touring for The Red Bullet and RM’s release of his first self-titled mixtape, BTS finished producing The Most Beautiful Moment in Life Pt. 1 a month ahead of schedule and released SUGA’s solo “Intro: The Most Beautiful Moment in Life” as the comeback trailer on April 17. 

As SUGA described The Most Beautiful Moment in Life Pt. 1 as embodying the “worries, concerns, and thoughts that youth our age could have,” the intro trailer sets the tone for the album’s theme. Through the lyrics, SUGA paints a picture of a young person dueling between enjoying life in the moment, but feeling encroaching anxiety as they are forced to move forward into an uncertain future and face societal pressures. The trailer also previews some of the symbols that would continue to be used in BTS’s videos throughout the album series, like blooming white lilies and re-occurring running scenes. 

After nearly a month of teaser photos, showing a softer side of BTS and contrasting their darker looks shown in previous comebacks, the group debuted “I NEED U” on Naver Starcast’s BTS ON AIR on April 29, 2015. Through the song’s lyrics, BTS captured the feeling of brokenness left behind after a tumultuous relationship and the conflicting desire to have the person back. The Most Beautiful Moment in Life Pt. 1 also showcased the group’s growth as artists, having expanded their musical palette to include more EDM and dance-pop styles and allowing the four vocalist members to have a heavier hand in song production and lyric writing. 

In an interview, RM once described youth as something where one can “end up wandering and encountering many shadow-like hazards,” and the music video of “I NEED U” follows the members of BTS through such encounters. The video also signaled the start of the BTS Universe, an intricate story that fans have enjoyed examining to uncover the stories surrounding the members’ video personas.

A three-minute version of the video was released alongside the album on April 29, but a little over a week later, a fuller story was told in a cinematic five-minute director’s cut. Echoing the theme of being forced to grow up too fast, the members each seem to be at different stages of emerging adulthood and are plagued with problems like heartbreak, domestic violence, and mental health, all of which come to a violent end. Between these painful scenes, they also have moments of “heaven” in which the seven of them travel together and indulge in childlike antics.

The group kicked off live promotions for “I NEED U” in sailor-style school uniforms on the April 30 episode of M!COUNTDOWN. With a simple stage that only used dramatic lighting to match the song’s beat, BTS allowed their sharp choreography to be the center of attention. They also treated fans to the live performance of “Converse High” for the first time since their solo concert, although it had to be re-named “Lovers High” and re-written to remove brand names from the lyrics to fit broadcast standards. 

“I NEED U” quickly rose to No. 1 on multiple real time music charts like Genie, Daum Music, and Soribada while also breaking into the top 10 on MelOn, Bugs, and Naver Music. It also marked a new milestone for BTS, peaking at No. 5 on the Gaon Digital Song Chart, a significant jump from the group’s previous peak at No. 45 with “Boy in Luv.” But it became apparent that the song would usher BTS into a new era of their career when the members celebrated their first music show win on SBS’s The Show on May 5, 2015.

Over the course of a month, BTS took home five music show awards for “I NEED U” and rounded out the year by winning the “Disc Bonsang” at the 2016 Golden Disc Awards as well as “Top 10 Artist” and “Best Male Dance” at the MelOn Music Awards. BTS’s growth in international popularity was showing too, with “I NEED U” becoming the group’s third song to appear on the Billboard World Digital Song Sales Chart, peaking at No. 3. 

BTS developed modest popularity in the two years before “I NEED U,” but that track and their album The Most Beautiful Moment in Life Pt. 1 helped bring them to the forefront of the public eye. Despite facing some critics with their increasing popularity, the group set the stage for the success of their follow up album The Most Beautiful Moment in Life Pt. 2 and the compilation Young Forever.