Up until this weekend, the Spice Girls were the only girl band to have performed at Wembley Stadium. The baton has now passed to Blackpink, the K-pop group who have broken numerous YouTube records for music video views and whose 2022 album Born Pink topped the UK charts. It was an appropriate time for them to take over the UK’s largest venue, given the dominance of KPop Demon Hunters on Netflix, an animated film about a fictional K-pop girl band that has also broken records. The Korean cultural wave, which hit a few rocks in recent years after high-profile stars took their own lives, still attracts zillions of fans.
This was evident in the willingness of thousands of concertgoers to hand over a hefty £70 for heart axes — a plastic piece of merchandise shaped like an axe but with light-up hearts. Clad in black and various shades of pink, they waved their purchases around during a two-and-a-half-hour show which comprised eight acts — four as a group and another four dedicated to showcasing each of the singers’ solo work. Yet despite the fans’ enthusiasm, it took a while for the group to get going, as out of Jennie, Jisoo, Rosé and Lisa, only the Thai-born Lisa looked as if she really wanted to be there to begin with, winking at the cameras and executing each move with vim.
Lisa is the most famous, having impressed with her acting in season three of White Lotus and collaborated with A-list artists such as Doechii, Raye and Rosalía on the majestic New Woman. But she chose not to perform the latter, opting for the tedious Thunder as the second choice for her solo section alongside the MIA-inspired hit Rockstar. The other three band members put on a desultory show for the first half, especially Jennie. It’s not what you’d expect, considering K-pop’s reputation for extreme rigour, but Jennie has spoken in the past about feeling the impact of the strain on her body. Anyway, she did rev up to deliver the show’s highlight with the pop rap number Like Jennie.
Rosé, who was raised in New Zealand, took on the spokesperson role, thanking the audience and sparking banter with her colleagues. Rosé’s vocals are the best; she channelled Taylor Swift and Olivia Rodrigo in Toxic Till The End before changing course for her bop APT — a Bruno Mars collaboration. If I don’t elaborate much on Jisoo, it’s because she’s the most forgettable, though her track Earthquake was quite fun.
By the final hour, they had fully warmed up, especially for their first single in three years, Jump, a diabolically catchy house explosion with the appropriate line “spice up your life”. A sceptic going in, I came out something of a convert — though I’m still not sure about the £70 heart axes.
★★★☆☆