K-popped Around the World

[RECAP] KCON LA 2019 Concert Day 2

Date: August 18, 2018
Venue: Staples Center
Organized By: CJ E&M

Sunday, August 18, 2019, embarked KCON LA’s second and final concert night with guest line up VERIVERY, ITZY, N.FLYING, FROMIS_9, STRAY KIDS, MAMAMOO, and SEVENTEEN.

Danny Lim was this year’s pre-show host who introduced the first opening performance acts for the night. Each year KCON LA brings K-pop dance cover groups together to enter a dance cover contest. The winning dance group opened up with their performance in front of all the fans attending each night. This year dance cover group “SEOULA”, which consists of 8 dancers; Nicole Chun, Jadyne Dela Vega, Jorge Kcomt, Natalie Ceciliano, Ria Julian, Matthew King, Tia McArtis, and Karen Zheng, won first place and performed a fantastic cover of rookie group ATEEZ’s “Hala Hala”. They were presented with their well-deserved trophy at the end of their performance, letting the audience know how grateful they were! You can definitely tell that this group came to prove that they deserved the Kcon stage. For more K-pop covers of Seoula check out their Youtube Channel here.

Check out their dance cover of ATEEZ “Hala Hala” below.

For the last performing act, you might know him as JuNCurryAhn on YouTube for his violin covers, but tonight he was an idol performer. Jun was welcomed with big cheers as he’s been on the LA stage more than once to perform his violin covers, but tonight he was performing two of his singles. Before the song began, fellow K-pop dance cover queen and king known as Ellen and Brian, joined Jun on stage for his first song “Admit”. Afterwards Ellen and Brian left the stage for his fellow backup dancers to join him on stage for his latest single “Switch”.

Check out his Official Music Video “Switch” below!

As the Pre-Show comes to an end, the lights began to dim for the official opening act of the night. As the big LED screens shows 3 characters losing themselves, unable to follow their dreams, soon later each character goes on and finds their own path, realizing who they are and going towards their goals. Each one was placing a puzzle piece down to their own story that marks the start of their own dreams. KCON presents this year’s theme of “Dream” for the fans to remember to chase their dreams and soar high.

The first opening song Stray Kids Rap Trio “3Racha” consisting of Bang Chan, Han, and Changbin came out to start the night. They amazed the crowd with their fast lyrics and flow of the self-written lyrics, but that didn’t end the performance just yet as it was soon followed by N.Flying popping out from the stage below with a band version of Mamamoo’s “Gogobebe” and ITZY’s “Dalla Dalla”. Both groups joined in the center with all smiles rocking it out with the crowd for one of the best collaborating stages of the night, feeding off high energy from the crowd and each other.

The 2019 rookie boy group, Verivery is the first to appear with 7 members; Dongheon, Hoyoung, Minchan, Gyehyeon, Yeonho, Yongseung and Kangmin. They definitely caught their VERRER’s (fandom name) attention with their performance of “Tag Tag Tag” from their latest album “Very Chill” appearing on stage with the classic stage colors of black and white. After their introduction, they moved along to complete their stage with “Ring Ring Ring”. Even though they have only debuted in January of this year, these rookies have definitely shown the audiences their potential following in the footsteps of their senior group VIXX.

JYP’s hot rookie girl group ITZY, consisting of 5 members; Yeji, Lia, Ryujin, Chaeryeong and Yuna comes on next to perform their latest hit single “ICY”. They have gained plenty of attention before their arrival at KCON with their pre-debut activities from Chaeryeong being in Kpop Star Season 3 and JYP’s survival show Sixteen, Ryujin competing in Mixnine and Yeji who made her appearance on The Fan. They continued to the next song “It’z Summer” which was perfect for the season and ended their performance with their hit debut single “Dalla Dalla” which Billboard named as one of the biggest debuts for new K-pop act entering the charts at No.3.

N.Flying was next on the list to hype up the crowd. The 4 member rock band: Seunghyub, Hun, Jaehyun, and Hweseung sung “Rooftop” and did a QUEEN medley tribute to which fans chanted along with the lyrics of “We will rock you” and “We are the Champions” which definitely gave a different sound to our usual Korean pop concerts.

 Each year KCON gives the fans a special stage relating to the year’s theme. This year for the theme “Dream” we were able to hear Mamamoo’s power house vocal Solar perform a spectacular version of “Speechless” by Naomi Scott. She blew the roof off with her strong vocals along with the beautiful dress she was wearing, definitely making her look like a princess surrounded by millions of lights.

Visiting the stage once again was Fromis_9, the cute, bubbly 9-member girl group who returned to KCON since their last appearance in 2018. Members Saerom, Hayoung, Gyuri, Jiwon, Jisun, Seoyeon, Chaeyoung, Nagyung, and Jiheon was formed by CJ E&M through reality show Idol School in 2017. Having them all come out to enjoy the night with “Fun!” these lovely ladies captured the hearts of many with their adorable choreography of “Love Bomb” which was loved by many Flover’s (fandom name). From all the groups who’s attending KCON, Fromis_9 showed why they had an attendance streak of 2 years from NY to LA in 2018 and now NY to LA in 2019. Before heading off stage, they completed their performance set with “Love Rumpumpum” off their 1st single album “Fun Factory”.

Joining the stage was another JYP rookie group, Stray Kids. Stray Kids debuted in 2017 with 9 members, Bang Chan, Woojin, Lee Know, Changbin, Hyunjin, Han, Felix, Seungmin, and I.N. With their rap unit that already pumped up the opening act, you can already tell they were ready to rock the house as “Side Effects” was the first song to come on. STAY’s have already been making their voices heard all around the venue for the boys. Next up was definitely a song you couldn’t get out of your head once it’s been played: “Victory Song” followed up by “Miroh”. With the help of STAY’s, “Miroh” became their first song to win on a music show making this song even more perfect with the fan chants of “Stray Kids” that are placed into the song. Lastly ending their performance with a head banger “My Pace” proved just how international these rookies already are as the cheers continued with the lights dimming down.

Another special stage took over as SEVENTEEN’s dance unit, Hoshi, Jun, Dino and The8 appeared on stage shocking the audience. This was definitely something no one expected, not even their Carat’s (fandom name) but it got the crowd riled up as “Highlight” came on overhead. As the members stood on each side of the stage for the parts, they slowly came together in the middle to complete the song, pouring out nothing but their heart and soul into the performance. Gaining an all-around applause from the crowd, definitely made it a highlight of the night!

The long awaited vocal power house Mamamoo finally appeared on stage with their “Starry Night”. Mamamoo’s last appearance at KCON was back in 2016, since then they have skyrocketed to no one’s surprise and have made incredible comebacks year after year becoming one of South Korea’s top girl groups! Unfortunately, before their departure Whee In fell sick and was unable to set foot along with her fellow members. Hopefully their MooMoo’s (fandom name) will be able to see her next time in full health, nonetheless Solar, Moon Byul and Hwasa took over her parts and filled up the stage with just 3 members. “Egotistic” and “Decalcomanie” were the next 2 songs to be sung on stage as they ended their incredible presence with their single “Gogobebe”.

Last but not least, it gets bigger and better with none other than international superstar Seventeen, fully taking over the entire stage with 13 members, S.coups, Wonwoo, Mingyu, Vernon, Woozi, Jeonghan, Joshua, DK, Seungkwan, Hoshi, Jun, The8, and Dino. First to be performed was recently released “Hit” as all the members came out dressed in a complete black attire knocking Carat’s (fandom name) right out of their seats. Next to be performed was “Good to Me” and “Clap”, even taking us back in time to their debut days with “Adore U” and completely throwing off the crowd with “Very Nice” as the song played nonstop over and over until they called it quits, which was a VERY NICE way to end the final night.

(Photography by: CJ Entertainment)