K-Pop is (finally) invading Quebec!

Because Purple Kiss may not be Blackpink or BTS, but it is the first K-Pop group to present a show in Quebec. And it was neither the Quebec Summer Festival nor the Videotron Center which was the precursor, but the former Jesuit college, whose performance hall manager Manon Boissinot received the call from the American promoter Bobby Gale who organized a Canadian tour for the group of six singers and dancers from South Korea. “I don’t regret at all having said yes, because the 600 tickets are sold (Editor’s note at a minimum price of $80 each), all without any other promotion than on social networks,” she explains.

Gale, who normally organizes metal, hip-hop and comedian performances, also doesn’t regret daring to think outside the box. “It’s my first K-Pop tour and my first Canadian tour and it’s sold out almost everywhere. There are very few tickets left for tomorrow (Monday) in Halifax,” he explained before the show, a big smile on his face as he watched the crowd which stretched as far as rue Joffre rush into the room.

Female majority

The crowd was mostly female and very young. “We’re here because we want more K-Pop in Quebec City. The shows are often in Montreal on weekdays and, because we go to school, it’s almost impossible for us to go,” explains Charlotte, who had gone there with her friends Aude and Anna. “It’s a style that’s becoming more and more popular and there’s some in every record store. There are also stores like Fanamanga that sell this music,” adds Anna. The three young women wore the group’s t-shirts and held small posters welcoming them to Quebec City.

And there are some guys in the mix too, and no, they don’t necessarily look like the Comic Book Guy in The simpsons. There were these two true K-Pop fans who had arrived at 1:30 p.m. to make sure they had a good seat for the general admission show that started at 7 p.m. “They’re not the most popular, but they have the support of the Rainbow Bridge World (RBW) agency that launched the career of the quartet Mamamoo in 2014,” explains, just before entering the venue, one of the two fans, who had also traveled to Montreal a few months ago to see another K-Pop group, Dreamcatcher, perform.

Ty Bruner is in a category of his own. An Arizona resident, he followed Purple Kiss on their entire American and Canadian tour after becoming a fan of the band in 2020. “Word is that they are going to do a show in Istanbul after this tour and I plan to ‘go there, and maybe to London too,’ he says in all seriousness. “I was once engaged to a Korean and it was she who introduced me to this musical style that I love,” he explains.

Crowd excited

But what does a Purple Kiss show look like? The atmosphere is literally hellish when Go-Eun Na, Dosie, Ireh, Yuki, Chaein and Swan arrive on stage. No need for a crowd leader to make the audience scream and applaud, madness quickly takes hold of the already excited crowd just at the sight of the six young women aged 20 to 24 dressed in denim overalls and a Tommy top Hilfiger. It screams, it screams, it waves luminous accessories.

Musically, it’s sweet, danceable pop that’s totally self-assured. The six members of the group, in addition to being fashion cards and having pretty faces, perform choreographies very well synchronized to the sound of a pre-recorded musical tape on which they sing a few verses from time to time. And no, we won’t play the grumpy old rocker who reminds us that Robert Plant would never have done that in the 1970s and that it was much better “back in the day.”

Because we are no longer in the era of Milli Vanilli and the lip sync (I know, the Office québécois de la langue française suggests lip-synching instead…) is something that is known and accepted among pop artists for whom dancing is an integral part of the performance, even more so in South Korea, the country of “idol” groups created from scratch for reality TV shows.

The audience knows it, they also hear the girls’ voices very well when they open their microphones to sing compared to the more polished sound with a lot of production of the pre-recorded tape. And you know what? The public doesn’t care about it like your last Metallica album. You may find it cheesy, but your 12 year old daughter loves it and laughs at you with her friends when you listen The Number Of The Beast of Iron Maiden in the car on the way to take them to soccer.

Bilingual conversations

For two hours, Nerdy, Pretty Psycho, My Heart Skip a Beat has BBB et Zombie, fans sing along with their favorites and ask for more. The girls of Purple Kiss fill up their downtime by answering questions from their fans. For example, Dosie tells us that her favorite hair style was when she had half of her hair dyed blonde and the other half black.

Swan tells us that his favorite TV show is, of course, Goblin, some scenes of which were filmed in Quebec. And she adds that she is jealous that some members of the public were able to visit these filming sites. Yuki prefers the climate of Quebec to the very hot one of Arizona. And the whole group seems to have been very impressed by the gulls of Quebec.

All this in English and, above all, in Korean with a translator behind the stage who makes sure to render in the language of Shakespeare the more complex sentences and ideas that the members of the group have more difficulty expressing in a language which It’s not their mother tongue. The girls will also please the Quebec public by saying a few “I love you” or saying “Hello, my name is Yuki”.

I can already hear you saying that it’s terrible that not everything was translated into French, the only official language of Quebec, but, once again, I didn’t see anyone screaming about anglicization in this passionate audience who had a superb evening.

Of course, the six young ladies were not going to leave for Halifax without giving an encore and they ended the evening by performing, lights on, Autopilot, 7HEAVEN et Twinkleeven allowing himself a crowd bath by blowing a few soap bubbles.

There are already rumors that they could be back in the capital as early as this fall. Not really surprising. Do you know many musical groups that generate revenues of more than $50,000 in a single evening in a small venue?