K-pop group Ateez performing at KCON LA 2022. The world’s largest K-pop convention returned with a bang last weekend with a huge physical event. – Photo: Instagram/KCONofficial
The world’s largest K-pop convention, KCON LA 2022, returned with a bang last weekend with a huge physical event, after being held online the past two years due to restrictions brought about by the Covid-19 pandemic.
The 10th edition of the annual Korean culture and music convention ran from August 19-21 at the LA Convention Center and Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles, United States and was also live-streamed online on its official YouTube channel for the benefit of global fans.
This year is KCON’s 10th anniversary, and the star-studded line-up included the likes of WJSN (Cosmic Girls), NCT Dream, The Boyz, Stray Kids, Itzy, Enhypen, Loona, Ateez and more.
Here were the five most memorable moments of the event.
Ateez opened the first day of the event, performing eight songs, including the KCON theme song, Poppia (a play on the words ‘K-pop’ and ‘Utopia’).
The song was a mix of pop rock genres topped with powerful synth sounds, with the Ateez members also adding their own personal touches to the song by participating in the rapping.
The group’s performance was a theatrical one, full of swinging swords and punchingboxers, and featuring hits like Wonderland, Wave, Say My Name and latest release Guerilla.
Itzy sprung a huge surprise on the first day when American singer Bebe Rexha made a surprise appearance to sing Break My Heart Myself with the K-pop group’s members Yeji and Ryujin.
This was the first ever live performance of their recent collaboration with Rexha on her 2021 song, which was previously covered by the duo for Studio Choom’s “Mix & Match” series.
You can watch the performance HERE.
Day One ended with a bang with the final act, Stray Kids performing their four hit songs, Maniac, Back door, Thunderous as well as God’s Menu.
Their stellar performance of God’s Menu was the highlight of the set, with some of the other other artistss in attendance also head-bobbing and putting their hands up in the air as they made their way to the stage for the ‘goodbye stage’.
This year, KCON came up with a new program called ‘Relay Performance’ where the performers are given an opportunity to cover and relive KCON’s most memorable past performances. Launching first in KCON LA, the ‘Relay Performance’ program will be continued around the world, wherever KCON takes place in the future.
The K-pop groups Enhyphen and Nmixx were chosen for this year’s KCON LA ‘Relay Performance’. The former covered Permission To Dance by BTS, while the latter covered Aju Nice (Very Nice) by Seventeen.
You can watch Enhyphen's performance HERE.
KCON LA also launched its very first ‘Dream Stage’ segment, where the fans were given once in a lifetime opportunity to appear on stage alongside their favourite K-pop acts.
Lucky fans who passed several auditions were given the chance to experience the idol grind by performing Wa Da Da by Kep1er and PTT’ (Paint The Town) by Loona, together with the K-pop idols on stage in KCON LA.
