Riya Choudhary (New Delhi), Nikhat Parveen (New Delhi), Kaamaakshi Bhat (Zirakpur, Punjab), Suhasini Singh (Pune, Maharashtra)

On 2nd July 2021, Simply K-Pop Con-Tour’s Twitter handle dropped an exciting online event for Indian fans for the very first time. You must be wondering, what is a Simply K-Pop Con-Tour ? Well, Simply K-Pop Con-Tour is a K-Pop music show that exclusively airs on Arirang TV and their YouTube channel. Several renowned K-Pop artists from around the world interact with their fans onstage and entertain them with performances of some of their most popular songs. K-Pop fans around the world get up close with this unique music program.

No More, No less – Only the Essential on “Simply K-Pop

This time, Simply K-Pop Con-Tour’s 7th virtual flight took off to India. The online live event took place on 12th July 2021 at 7 pm KST (3:30 pm IST). Many renowned and rookie K-Pop groups, solo artists and bands performed in this online event. Few lucky fans were selected from all around the world to join this con-tour as a live audience. Here is the review and walkthrough of the event, as attended and experienced by our team members Ms. Riya Choudhary, Ms. Nikhat Parveen, Ms. Kaamaakshi Bhat and Ms. Suhasini Singh.

Simply Kpop was hosted by Kevin & Jacob of The Boyz. The Boyz is an 11 member K-Pop boy group under Cre.ker Entertainment. They have been hosts of this show since 2018 and are smoothly conducting the show. Kevin and Jacob are both fluent in English as Kevin being from Vancouver and Jacob being from Toronto. During the Simply K-Pop Con-Tour, they introduced the destination of the Con-Tour, i.e India with their refreshing and sweet voices. They greeted all the fans who were in the live audience with their cheerful smiles. 

The Lineup for the performances was filled with many K-Pop groups, bands and solo artists. Let’s look up about the artists and what they performed one by one.

BXK/BOYS X KING (비엑스케이) is a 6 member boy group under New Planet Entertainment consisting of Sun, Chanseung, Inu, Taeon, Lee Han and Teen. They debuted on November 2, 2020 and performed their 1st Digital Single Excuse Me. Another performance was by JUST B (저스트비) which is a six-member boy group under Bluedot Entertainment. They debuted on June 30, 2021 with their mini album Just Burn. JUST B performed their title track Damage followed by the performance of AleXa (알렉사) who is a Korean-American singer based in South Korea under signed with Zanybros’ ZB Label.  She performed the title track Xtra from her second single album , ReviveR. 

Next was KINGDOM (킹덤) which is a Korean boy group under GF Entertainment. Each member represents a different king in history. They debuted on February 18, 2021 and performed the title track, Karma from their second mini-album titled, History of Kingdom: PartII. Chiwoo. Sinchongtiger (신촌타이거) and Rani (라니 ) performed their collaborated Song Fill the Summer. BDC (비디씨) is a 3-member boy group under Brand New Music. BDC stands for ‘BOYS DA CAPO’ (보이스 다 카포). They debuted on October 29th, 2019 and performed the Title Track Moonlight from the Album THE INTERSECTION: CONTACT.

Kang So-ri (강소리), who made a bold debut by the track Love Thief proclaiming the trot world, performed her song Woolrungwoolrung (울렁울렁). OMEGA X (오메가엑스) is an 11 member South Korean boy group under Spire Entertainment. They have no set positions, and they are all leaders of the group! They made their debut on June 30th, 2021 with the mini album VAMOS and title track with the same name. FISTBUMP (피스트범프) is a Korean boy band that currently consists of 4 members: Lee Jun-hee, Jang Bin, An Chi-hoon and Ju Hyun-woo. The Band debuted on August 29, 2020, under OGAM Entertainment. They performed on their song Rock N Roll Baby.

woo!ah! is a 5-members girl group produced by Han Ji-seok and Kim Kyu-Sang under NV Entertainment. They debuted on May 15th, 2020 with the album Exclamation. They performed the song Pandora from the album Wish. Pink Fantasy is a girl group under Mydoll Entertainment. They debuted on October 24th, 2018 with the digital single Iriwa. They performed their songs Iriwa and Poison from their album Alice in Wonderland. DONGKIZ is a 5 member boy group under Dongyo Entertainment. They officially debuted on April 24th, 2019 with the album DONGKIZ On the Block. They performed Crazy Night from their 5th mini album CHASE EPISODE 1.GGUM.

DRIPPIN is a boy group under Woollim Entertainment. They debuted on October 18th, 2020 with a mini album Boyager. They performed the title track Free Pass along side with Stay from their 1st single album Free Pass. Moon Jong-up is a former member of K-Pop group B.A.P. He debuted as a Soloist under Groove Company on May 7th, 2020 with the single album Headache. He performed the title track Us from his first mini album Us.

Minzy is a former member of K-Pop Group 2NE1 under YG Entertainment. She debuted as a solo artist under MZ entertainment on April 17th, 2017 with album Minzy Work 01 UNO. She performed on her third single TeAmo.

Special Guest from India – Keshav Tyohar and Armaan Malik

Keshav Tyohar is an Indian music producer, singer and songwriter. He is a K-Pop lover and enjoys Korean culture. Being on a platform like simply K-pop he shared his experience as a fan and also mentioned about the Hallyu wave in India. He talked about BTS and also gives the viewers a treat by singing Euphoria by BTS’s Jungkook. He will be coming up with I-pop music with a modern tint where he is collaborating with singers from all around the world including South Korea!

Armaan Malik’s recent song Echo has won hearts of many K-pop fans globally. This collaboration between I-pop and K-pop was a great experience for him. He shared his experience and process for this production. He also shared his K-Pop journey which was actually an experiment at first but now a part of his go to playlist. He mentioned that he really likes EXO, Super Junior, BTS and has now added Stray Kids to his list! It was obvious that our MCs won’t leave him without hearing him sing so he gave us a melodious stage by singing Beautiful Goodbye by Chen alongside with his first English solo Control and Echo!

At the end of the con-tour, Kevin and Jacob read a message from Indian K-Pop fan before wrapping up the show. They thanked the fans for supporting the artists on the show and introduced the next destination for con-tour i.e Peru. 

Concluding Remark

Simply K-Pop Con-Tour was an amazing online concert which brought back the memories of fans attending their favorite artists’ concerts. It was an amazing experience of seeing the live performances from our homes. As this pandemic made everyone sit in their homes, the concerts took over the technology and was organized virtually to meet fans despite the pandemic. It was fun seeing ourselves on the screens behind the artists while they were performing and when their performances ended, they just quickly glanced over the screens and waved to all the fans who joined the live.

Though their destination was India this time, many fans from India and all around the world joined this event and showcased their love for their favorite artists/groups by holding supportive banners in their hands. It felt like reliving the concert days in a fun way, by attending it online. We are thankful to the Simply K-Pop Team for organizing this fun tour for the fans all around the world. We hope this pandemic situation ends soon and we got to enjoy the offline events and concerts of our favorites. You can catch a glimpse of this event here: