Kiss of Life at the Rockhal, will Luxembourg finally succumb to K-pop?

In the wake of musical heavyweights BTS and Blackpink (and their members’ various solo projects), K-pop continues to rule the world. According to figures recently published by Spotify, it accumulates a total of 7.97 billion streams each month.

Until now, Luxembourg and its concert halls remained fairly sealed off from the phenomenon. There was indeed the concert by BI, a former member of iKon, in September 2023 at the Atelier. But that’s about it.

Emerging artists, 8 million monthly listeners

At least until this Monday and the Rockhal’s announcement of the arrival of Kiss of Life in Esch-sur-Alzette on March 1st. “This is one of the emerging artists on this Korean scene,” says Arnaud Velvelovich, one of the programmers at the Eschoise venue, about this “girl band” made up of four young girls aged 19 to 24. “The project is relatively recent, since it dates from 2023. But in a few months and only around twenty pieces, this quartet has already managed to find a (nice) place for itself.”

And won nearly 8 million monthly listeners on Spotify. A very nice score which certainly still places them quite far from the big names in the sector such as Blackpink (16 million) or BTS (26 million), but which is only growing month after month. Some songs have already exceeded 100 million plays. “They are truly on the rise,” argues Arnaud Velvelovich.

On a world tour

Rockhal has been trying to attract such a big name in K-pop for three or four years now. History to see in particular to what extent the demand exists in Luxembourg and in the Greater Region.

“Until now, this has never come to fruition. As is often the case, it’s all about opportunity. In Asia, we don’t operate quite like we do at home. Music is considered more entertainment than art. And decisions are often made based on data. This time, we are fortunate that Kiss of Life is today at a level of notoriety that allows us to host their world tour. Which will probably no longer be true in six months or a year…”.

After an American tour played almost sold out everywhere (in medium-sized venues) and before notably passing through the Zénith in Paris, Kiss of Life will play on March 1st in a Rockhal in a seated configuration, as is often the case. the case with K-Pop groups. Which will limit capacity to 2,500-2,700 places on March 1. What to quickly display sold out? Start of response this Thursday morning, places being on sale from 10 a.m….