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Liberty Media CEO and Live Nation chairman Greg Maffei appeared on CNBC on Thursday morning (Nov. 17) to discuss the issues with Ticketmaster’s Verified Fan program that resulted in frustrated Taylor Swift fans queuing up for hours in an effort to score pre-sale tickets to the singer’s anticipated Eras Tour.
Ticketmaster Postpones Sales For Taylor Swift’s ‘Eras’ Tour Due to ‘Historically Unprecedented…
11/17/2022
“I apologize to all our fans. We are working hard on this,” Maffei told Squawk on the Street on Thursday morning (Nov. 17) about the company’s efforts to straighten out the situation that caused fan (and parent) consternation from coast-to-coast. “Building capacity for peak demand is something we attempt to do, but this exceeded every expectation.”
Ticketmaster, which is owned by Live Nation — with Liberty holding a 30% ownership stake in the ticketing giant — has come under intense scrutiny this week for after the company’s website experienced mass outages and extreme delays that forced some to wait for hours in the virtual line, or just walk away empty-handed.
“Daily reminder that Ticketmaster is a monopoly. Its merger with LiveNation should never have been approved & they need to be reigned in. Break them up,” Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez tweeted on Tuesday after the Swift tickets meltdown. Maffie told Squawk on the Street that the Live Nations team is “sympathetic that the long wait times and fans who couldn’t get what they wanted… reality is it’s a function of the massive demand that Taylor Swift has.”
Maffei explained that the pre-sale was supposed to be opened to 1.5 million Verified Swift fans for Tuesday’s on-sale, but instead 14 million Swifties attempted to log-in, including, he added, bots that were not supposed to be able to join the line. Despite the challenges and breakdowns, he said TM sold 2 million on Tuesday, a gaudy number that Maffei said could have filled 900 stadiums.
In a blog post, TM said that more than 3.5 million people pre-registered through Verified Fan for the Swift shows, the largest registration in the program’s history. It further explained that historically “around 40% of invited fans actually show up and buy tickets,” so working with Swift’s team around 1.5 million were invited to participate in the sale, with the remaining 2 million Verified Fans put on a waiting list.
Maffei also noted that the show is not promoted by LN — but by rival AEG Live and Messina Touring Group — so, “though AOC [a common nickname for Ocasio-Cortez] may not like every element of our business, AEG, our competitor who is the promoter for Taylor Swift, chose to use us because we are, in reality, the largest and most effective ticket seller in the world. Even our competitors want to come on our platform.”
Ticketmaster shared a statement shortly after 1 p.m. ET on Tuesday, about three hours after the East Coast venue presales began. It said that the company wasn’t prepared for the “historically unprecedented demand” for tickets, and postponed presales for West Coast venues and Capitol One cardholders scheduled for later that same day. Swift has announced 52 dates so far for the stadium tour that will mark her first major outing in five years.
AOC wasn’t the only member of congress to weigh in on the debacle. Connecticut Sen. Ricard Blumenthal tweeted, “Taylor Swift’s tour sale is a perfect example of how the Live Nation/Ticketmaster merger harms consumers by creating a near-monopoly. I’ve long urged DOJ to investigate the state of competition in the ticketing industry. Consumers deserve better than this anti-hero behavior.” In addition, Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar agreed, writing on Wednesday, “What is going on with Ticketmaster is an example of why we need strong antitrust enforcement! Monopolies wreak havoc on consumers and our economy. When there is no competition to incentivize better services and fair prices, we all suffer the consequences.”
Ticketmaster and Live Nation merged in 2010 to form Live Nation Entertainment, rolling together the nation’s largest concert promoter and ticketing agency. The move that was drew intense scrutiny at the time and in the wake of the Swift pre-sale fiasco, Tennessee attorney general Jonathan Skrmetti said on Wednesday that his office will once again be looking into the company.
“There are no allegations at this time about any misconduct, but as the Attorney General, it’s my job to ensure that the consumer protection laws and antitrust laws in Tennessee are being honored,” Skrmetti told reporters, according to WJHL. Skrmetti said there have been “a number of complaints” lodged with his office about the pre-sale and that his team planned to look into the “severe” lack of customer support in what is the latest probe into possible antitrust allegations involving TM and LN conducted by Tennessee authorities.
Watch Maffei’s interview below.
Some things go without saying. Well, they should anyway. But after Harry Styles was pelted with a shower of Skittles while performing “Kiwi” at the Kia Forum in Inglewood, California on Monday night the candy company issued a very important bulletin on how to properly taste the rainbow.
“Didn’t think I needed to say this: Please don’t throw Skittles,” read a message from the official Skittles Instagram account on Thursday (Nov. 17) along with the comment “In case you didn’t see.” The winky post came after Styles dodged a fistful of the colorful candies during the show, causing him to cover his eyes amid the sugary assault.
A disgruntled fan who caught the moment on camera and tweeted, “whoever the f–k threw a solid object at his eye, u literally ruined kiwi bc he wouldn’t open his eye for the whole song.” Another worried fan, who shared video of the moment in slow motion, wrote, “like are you joking?? look how hard he recoils hope your eye is okay @Harry_Styles.”
Total pro Styles seemed to be okay, as he plowed ahead with the show while his bandmate Pauli the PSM shared an update about his condition during an Instagram Live DJ set later in the evening. “H came through, confirming his eye is okay,” Pauli said, adding, “But do me a favor, don’t throw no more Skittles on stage.”
Styles appeared to also have a good sense of humor about SkittlesGate. Tuning into Pauli’s Live, he commented, “See you tomorrow AVEC eye patch.” It’s just the latest on-stage incident in which Styles has been hit with stage shrapnel, coming after an August show at Madison Square Garden when a fan threw a handful of chicken nuggets on stage as well as the time last month when someone tossed an object that hit Harry in the groin area.
Check out the Skittles post below.
Pink loves a challenge. Whether its learning a new instrument and playing it live, touring with her babies, or dangling from a building on national TV, Pink flicks a middle finger at her comfort zone.
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On Wednesday night’s (Nov. 16) episode of Jimmy Kimmel Live, the pop star relived some of her heart-stopping moments with the mic, and hinted at more to come.
Earlier in the week, the Philadelphia native announced a 21-date stadium tour of North America next year, under the banner Summer Carnival 2023. Special guests include Brandi Carlile and brand new Rock and Roll Hall of Famers Pat Benatar & Neil Girlado.
Does her family join her on the road? “Always, everywhere,” she explains. “They’re older now, so now I tour around Willow’s theater schedule.”
Touring with babies is a fool’s errand, working a routine where you step off stage at 11.30pm, you’re wired until 2.30am, and repeat it for 200 days. She’s managed it. “I can’t do everything,” Pink admits. “So you have to decide. Like okay, what is this one thing I’m going to give to myself and try not to feel guilty about, and for that it was breakfast.” With the help of sleep trainers, the super-mom, super-performer plan “worked brilliantly,” she explains.
When other touring moms caught wind of her wins, she was asked her to write a playbook. That’s another win right there.
Pink also discussed her walk on the wild side… of a building, the JW Marriott in Los Angeles, for her performance of “Beautiful Trauma” at the 2017 American Music Awards. “That was a lot,” she recounts. “I was a lot higher than I wanted to be.” She had just three days to learn the ropes, we learned, and she had some Dutch courage before the performance, in the form of a nip of whiskey.
Pink also discussed forgetting words to her own songs (Willow keeps tabs on her blunders), life on the farm, the Nov. 20 AMAs (where she’ll perform a tribute to Olivia Newton-John), and she sang a never-before-seen number, written for “wing it and sing it,” a spot that left her “terrified.”
Pink’s Live Nation-produced North America tour will kick off on July 24, 2023 in Toronto at the Roger Centre and hit Cincinnati, Boston, New York, Pittsburgh, Chicago, Detroit, Nashville, San Antonio, San Diego and Los Angeles before wrapping up on Oct. 9 at Chase Field in Phoenix.
She recently released her second new song of the year, “I’m Never Going to Not Dance Again.”
Even though ENHYPEN prepared heartfelt remarks to share with fans at their Radio City Music Hall concert, a stream of tears and a group hug were not part of their plan. But the unexpected and, according to the boy band, uncharacteristic wave of emotion led to a collective epiphany.
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While it’s standard for each member of a K-pop group to individually address the crowd throughout a concert, the final moments during an encore usually the most sentimental, ENHYPEN member Sunoo couldn’t hold back tears as he spoke to the group’s teamwork “as seven” and “the amount of love I received from my members as well as the love from the thousands of ENGENEs,” shouting out the group’s fandom name.
After group leader Jungwon quickly ran over to wrap Sunoo in a hug, ENHYPEN members Jay, Heeseung, Jake, Sunghoon and Ni-ki all huddled together, linking arms and patting one another on the back, as their band mate finished his speech.
With the sold-out crowd chanting their names, Jake told them, “Through our Seoul concert to the American tour, I feel like the seven of us have really grown stronger together because of all the incredible love and support you guys gave us.”
As ENHYPEN was showering one another with hugs and compliments while lending an occasional sleeve to wipe tears away, the K-pop act says they rarely open up to one another as they did in front of thousands on stage in NYC.
“It’s kind of cringey,” laughs the group’s eldest member Heeseung, who celebrated his “happiest” 21st birthday at their NY live debut that doubled as the final date in the U.S. leg of the group’s Manifesto tour. “I think it’s cringey when you compliment each other a lot.”
“We’re just 20-year-old boys so it’s a bit awkward for us,” adds Jake, 20, the group’s affable Australian native who took the lead in conversations with audiences on tour and in this Billboard interview, partly from being the most comfortable member with English but also from a puppy-like energy of excitement. “We don’t really compliment; we just sort of give each other feedback…but I feel like the times that we do show our love for each other is why it’s so genuine.”
After wrapping seven concerts in six states for the U.S. leg of their Manifesto world tour, the group notes their first time performing in multiple cities on the road together, highlighted the importance of all seven individuals that make up ENHYPEN.
“That’s really important for me because we started together as seven members and it has an absolute value for me,” Heeseung says of the multinational act with members representing Korea, America, Australia and Japan. “We spent a lot of time together and, each and every member, I hold them dearest to my heart. So, I think that after this tour I realized that it’s our golden time together. So, yeah, I really love my members” before, naturally, laughing as he adds a “cringe” to round out his thoughts.
ENHYPEN’s understated, soft-speaking leader Jungwon says private moments pointed out their compatibility to him. “The little things that I did with my members really cheered me up,” he explains. “We’d rehearse a lot, and saying things like, ‘Let’s go, together’ before we go on stage; those little things really lifted me up.”
Jake adds that the close quarters for concerts also created a natural camaraderie. “Between stages, we have like a little booth thing where we had to get changed really quickly but it’s really crowded and we can’t really move around,” he says. “But I can really sort of see our chemistry showing because we have to look out for each other—it’s always really messy in there.”
ENHYPEN was born out of the singing competition I-Land where 23 K-pop hopefuls fought for a spot in a new boy band with HYBE founder Bang Si-Hyuk overseeing the competition as Rain, BTS, Zico, SEVENTEEN and Tomorrow X Together guest mentored. Despite the high stakes of making the band, ENHYPEN never saw one another as rivals.
“I-Land was sort of a competition, but I don’t think any of us really felt like it was,” Jake explains. “I feel like to the viewers that watched the show, it might seem like that but we had this feeling that we all had to do well and make good performances.”
Jay adds that some members already had an established brotherhood from their early days in the K-pop system. “I had trained with Heeseung for about four years, it already feels like he’s family.”
After I-Land wrapped in September 2020, the septet told an unfolding story as growing superstars through albums. From their debut EP Border: Day One discussing their start in the industry (and peaking at No. 14 on Billboard‘s World Albums chart in early 2021) to this past July’s Manifesto: Day 1 soaring to No. 6 on the Billboard 200 and earning the group their first No. 1 on Top Album Sales with 69,000 album copies sold in its first three weeks, global fans are growing with the band. Earlier this year, ENHYPEN scored their first No. 1 single on the Japan Hot 100 as well with their electro-pop/rock hybrid “Tamed-Dashed,” no doubt with help from Japan-born member Ni-ki, who’s loudest when making his band mates laugh throughout the interview as much as they do him.
“I feel like every album and every song we put out sort of portrays what we’re feeling in that moment and what we’re going through,” Jake says. “Our first album was about moving on from I-Land, becoming an idol, and debuting as an idol. Our second one [Border: Carnival] was sort of saying what we felt while performing as an artist. Now, it’s been two years since we became an idol and now we’re sharing our story to the whole world. Every album has its own meaning and I think that’s one of our strongest points.” Jay calls it ENHYPEN’s “history.”
When it came to Sunoo, one of the younger members known by fans for his cute and sunny disposition that radiates even during an early Monday morning interview, his concerns about completing the career milestone in ENHYPEN’s first U.S. tour were daunting. He says the tearful chat at the concert was more of a release of relief.
“Personally, I had a lot of concerns during the tour,” the 19-year-old says. “The main concern being, ‘Would I be able to successfully round up this concert?’ I think it would have been impossible to actually successfully wrap up this concert and tour without ENGENEs, members, and our staff members who always support me. So, I got teary-eyed because I was really touched by the fact that we really successfully ended this tour but I also want to mention that I also got a lot of energy from this tour.”
Jake adds their the tour experience played a big part in naturally rushing to Sunoo’s side: “We knew what he was going through. Before the last show, he would talk about being sort of tired and just not feeling 100 percent. We could all agree and sort of empathize.”
While Jay’s warm side comes through in concert and during this interview despite his deadpan delivery (he’s the first to say “never” when asked if the group opens up to each other), the Seattle-born star had his own worries about coming Stateside as well.
“I’ve been nervous because it was the first time I came back to States as an artist,” he says. “I already went to almost every city we performed, but it really feels different since I was a little boy. I think I was just proud of all of us doing performances in my home country; it really touched me a lot.” Jay told his members “all of us did incredible, all of us awesome” on stage at the concert’s end.
Looking ahead, the septet thinks and speaks excitedly about future directions after this first extensive tour.
The quieter but undeniably well-spoken Sunghoon, who’s gained fame in K-pop for his hosting abilities, says the tour experience opened his eyes to a new way of creating music. “Up till now, we’ve focused more on our music itself and the album itself,” he explains. “But after the U.S. tour, I thought that it would be good if we can actually envision our concert and performance while we make the album and that would improve our delivery.”
Heeseung is curious about adding city pop into the group’s sound. At the same time, Jungwon wonders how the group could fare if they opted for songs that mix fewer genres after blending punk-rock and electronic production on “Drunk-Dazed” or swirling influences of Chicago drill with dance-pop buildups on “Future Perfect (Pass the MIC).”
Either way, ENGENEs are sure to enjoy wherever the group’s story heads next which comforts the group and inspires them to look excitedly forward together.
“If we focus on our albums, concerts, and tours, the results will naturally follow,” Sunghoon believes. Jungwon says, “Charts and rankings are not something we can control, but what we can control is the focus on our performance and give a lot of happiness and entertainment.” Notably, no one has a funny comment or adds a “cringe” to their leader’s final words, perhaps because it’s an undeniable sentiment that they all feel comfortable and confident sharing with one another.
Zoë Kravitz spilled the tea in a new interview about quarantining during the early days of the coronavirus pandemic with none other than Taylor Swift.
“She was my pod,” the actress told GQ of hunkering down with the superstar and her boyfriend Joe Alwyn as she filmed Matt Reeves’ The Batman in the U.K. “She was a very important part of being in London, just having a friend that I could see and that would make me home-cooked meals and dinner on my birthday.”
For her part, Swift had equally nice things to say about her pal, telling the magazine via email, “Zoë’s sense of self is what makes her such an exciting artist, and such an incredible friend. She has this very honest inner compass, and the result is art and life without compromising who she is.”
Part of that art included the duo collaborating on music, with Kravitz credited with co-writing and providing backing vocals on the opaque Midnights opener “Lavender Haze.” (The actress also sang backup on bonus cut “Glitch” from Midnights [3am Edition].)
When The Batman was released, Swift cheered on her friend in the role of Selina Kyle. “@zoeisabellakravitz IS THE CATWOMAN OF DREAMS,” the “Anti-Hero” singer wrote on her Instagram Stories at the time. “The Batman was PHENOMENAL!!!”
And though it has yet to officially see the light of day, Kravitz has already confirmed that, in addition to contributing to Midnights, she’s also recorded her debut solo album with Tay’s trusty producer of choice Jack Antonoff, which she described as feeling “vulnerable” and “a little scary.”
Read Kravitz’s full GQ interview here.
Taylor Swift brought fans a more mature version of “Red” with “Maroon,” off her new album Midnights.
With her 10th studio album, Swift made one of the most historic weeks in the 64-year history of the Billboard Hot 100 songs chart, as she became the first artist to claim the survey’s entire top 10 in a single frame. “Maroon” came in at No. 3.
If you need a guide to follow along with Taylor Swift’s “Maroon,” find the lyrics below:
When the morning came we were cleaning incense off your vinyl shelf‘Cause we lost track of time againLaughing with my feet in your lapLike you were my closest friendHow’d we end up on the floor anyway? You say“Your roommate’s cheap-ass screw-top rosé, that’s how”I see you every day now
And I chose youThe one I was dancin’ withIn New York, no shoesLooked up at the sky and it was
The burgundy on my T-shirt when you splashed your wine into meAnd how the blood rushed into my cheeks, so scarlet, it wasThe mark you saw on my collarbone, the rust that grew between telephonesThe lips I used to call home, so scarlet, it was maroon
When the silence came, we were shaking blind and hazyHow the hell did we lose sight of us again?Sobbin’ with your head in your handsAin’t that the way shit always ends?You were standing hollow-eyed in the hallwayCarnations you had thought were roses, that’s usI feel you no matter whatThe rubies that I gave up
And I lost youThe one I was dancin’ withIn New York, no shoesLooked up at the sky and it was maroon
The burgundy on my T-shirt when you splashed your wine into meAnd how the blood rushed into my cheeks, so scarlet, it was (maroon)The mark you saw on my collarbone, the rust that grew between telephonesThe lips I used to call home, so scarlet, it was (maroon)
And I wake with your memory over meThat’s a real fucking legacy, legacy (it was maroon)And I wake with your memory over meThat’s a real fucking legacy to leave
The burgundy on my T-shirt when you splashed your wine into meAnd how the blood rushed into my cheeks, so scarlet (it was maroon)The mark you saw on my collarbone, the rust that grew between telephonesThe lips I used to call home, so scarlet (it was maroon)
It was maroonIt was maroon
Lyrics licensed & provided by LyricFind
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group, Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
Written by: Jack Michael Antonoff, Taylor Alison Swift
It’s 4 in the afternoon at the Kia Forum in Los Angeles, two-and-a-half hours before doors open for Harry Styles‘ Monday night show, one of the final 15 residency-style concerts the Grammy-winner is hosting at the iconic venue. But the atmosphere outside is hardly the calm before the storm. In fact, it’s a glittery, brightly colored, feather boa-filled party filled with hundreds of young fans, lined up through the parking lot and down the street to ensure a spot standing as close to the stage as possible.
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“We got out here at 3 a.m.,” 26-year-old Jalyssa Brown tells Billboard, as she’s sitting on the pavement with her friend, Kaitlynn Beeler, 22, so close to the front of the line that they’ve seemingly guaranteed a great spot. “We didn’t sleep because it was so cold, but we wish we could have slept.” Ahead of her are dozens of fans who have been waiting even longer.
Beeler then explains that they waited in line with other fans from 3 a.m. to 10 a.m., and then after seven hours, they receive an “early general admission” wristband, which allows them to be one of the first to enter the venue. The fans are then encouraged to go home, rest and get ready, before returning at 3 p.m. to get back in line until doors open at 6:30 p.m. To pass the time, the groups keep it fun with card games, making TikToks or simply just talking to each other.
While there is inherently some risk of danger when young women are camping out overnight in a major city like Los Angeles or New York City, where there were similar scenes outside Styles’ shows at Madison Square Garden in August and September. But there’s strength in numbers when it comes to Styles fans, affectionately called Harries. “I fully slept on the street by myself, two feet away from a random car,” 19-year-old Julianna Malek, who was standing with a group of friends she just met, shares. “Harry is the only artist that I would feel safe camping by myself for. I knew this morning that I could come and make friends and be OK.”
“If we meet someone and they’re a die-hard Harrie, we know they’re going to be a good person,” one of Malek’s new pals, Darcy Callaway, 28, adds, before 24-year-old Olivia Nicholas agrees. “I would trust anyone here,” she says.
Julianna Malek, Cressie Rynne, Olivia Nicholas and Darcy Callaway.
Rania Aniftos
And, yes, they have a specially planned bathroom schedule. “I’m queen of pee,” Brown jokes. “You pee before you leave, and then again when you get here because there are Porta Potties. You get through the line and they let you pee again. Hopefully, by then, you’re fully drained but, if not, our number is lower so we’ll get inside then have five minutes to pee. But we haven’t been drinking water. It’s planned all day long.”
For the average music fan, waiting more than 15 hours outside in the cold just to see a concert might sound strange or even absurd. But talking to these fans for just a few minutes, it quickly becomes clear that all the time, effort and money spent is for more than their love of the 28-year-old star. There’s a sweet sense of community among the Harries, something that Styles himself often encourages throughout his shows and in songs like Fine Line‘s “Treat People With Kindness.”
“I think it speaks for itself when we can be like, ‘Oh we can name everyone in the line around us.’ Everyone is so open and kind and wanting to connect,” 24-year-old Cressie Rynne explains, before Malek chimes in, “Most people here have followed Harry since his 2011 One Direction days, so we have such a huge piece of our lives growing up with this man. It’s surprisingly a very connecting factor.”
“I mean, we just met her 10 minutes ago,” Rynne says, pointing at Malek, who begins to gush over the noticeable variety in races, ethnicities and sexual orientations among the fans in line. “His message is so positive and he provides such a safe space for so many different identities of people. That’s one of his biggest attractors,” she says.
And, of course, his looks don’t hurt. “Have you seen him?” Nicholas says with a laugh.
Swifties across North America will forever remember Tuesday (Nov. 15) all too well. After an unprecedented number of fans visited Ticketmaster in the hopes of buying presale tickets for Taylor Swift‘s 2023 Eras Tour online, the company’s website experienced mass outages and extreme delays that caused some to wait for several hours in a virtual queue, just to walk away empty handed.
Naturally, people had some thoughts. Even before the whole debacle was said and done, droves of Swifties took to social media to air out their frustrations with Ticketmaster in hilarious posts, videos and homemade memes. Someone, for example, photoshopped the company’s logo over Tay’s face in the “Anti-Hero” music video, captioned with one of the song’s lyrics: “It’s me, hi, I’m the problem it’s me.”
“Taylor swift walking onto stage with no one in the audience, because that ticketmaster queue never did move,” quipped one fan, sharing a photo of a concert arena, completely empty except for one single person in the audience.
“Being stuck in the ticketmaster queue really has you wondering how different your life you be if you never listened to Our Song on the radio in 2006 that one time,” joked another.
Ticketmaster shared a statement shortly after 1 p.m. ET on Tuesday, about three hours after the East Coast venue presales began. It said that the company wasn’t prepared for the “historically” large demand for tickets, and postponed presales for West Coast venues and Capitol One cardholders scheduled for later that same day.
Many frazzled Swifties felt confused as to why so many presale codes had been sent out if the site wasn’t ready for them all to be cashed in, and couldn’t resist cracking jokes at Ticketmaster’s expense. “Raise your hand if you have ever been personally victimized by ticketmaster,” wrote one fan, quoting Mean Girls and sharing a screenshot from the film.
See more of the best reactions to the Taylor Swift Eras Tour Ticketmaster crisis below.
what is joe biden’s plan to unpause the ticketmaster queue for taylor swift’s eras tour— kay (@slutforfeelings) November 15, 2022
Being stuck in the ticketmaster queue really has you wondering how different your life you be if you never listened to Our Song on the radio in 2006 that one time— ava (@avesstwt) November 15, 2022
8 billion people in the world and every single one of them is ahead of me in the taylor swift ticketmaster queue apparently— shawty lynn 🧣 (@HereComesShawty) November 15, 2022
Since ONEUS‘ 2018 debut on the K-pop scene, the boy band has consistently toured across countries like Japan and the U.S., but 2023 will see them meeting more of their fans in their first proper world tour.
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Following the conclusion of their ‘USA Blood Moon’ tour earlier this year, ONEUS revealed the 2023 Reach for Us World Tour with stops announced in Asia, North America, and South America so far. The group will kick the new year off by opening the U.S. leg on January 12, 2023, at New York’s Apollo Theater, before visiting countries like Mexico, Chile, and Brazil in February.
Since wrapping their last U.S. tour in March, ONEUS released two new EPs—Trickster in May and Malus in September—which led to the group’s best album sales yet in Korea. The group’s record label RBW says their return to the States will deliver a mix of ONEUS hits and other pop culture–inspired performances.
“ONEUS is so excited and honored to be coming back to the U.S.,” RBW shares in a statement to Billboard. “The boys have been working hard on giving America the ultimate mix of music, dance, and fashion, including an electrifying Top Gun-inspired dance number and a BLACKPINK cover. The band can’t wait to meet all their American friends and show them they have many musical surprises and even more new moves.”
Take a first look at ONEUS’ rehearsals for Trickster lead single “Bring It On” and 2020 hit “Come Back Home” in the exclusive video below, and then peep the dates and locations for the Reach for Us World Tour below.
ONEUS 1st World Tour Reach for Us dates:
January 12 – New York (Apollo Theater)January 14 – Washington, DC (The Theater at MGM National Harbor)January 16 – Atlanta (Coca-Cola Roxy)January 18 – Orlando (House of Blues Orlando)January 21 – Madison (Orpheum Theater)January 24 – St. Louis (The Factory)January 27 – Dallas Fort Worth (Will Rogers Auditorium)January 29 – Houston (713 Music Hall)February 2 – Phoenix (Marquee Theatre)February 4 – Los Angeles (The Pasadena Civic)February 7 – Puerto Rico (Coca-Cola Music Hall)February 10 – Mexico City (Pepsi Center WTC)February 12 – Santiago (Teatro Coliseo)February 15 – São Paulo (Audio Club)
ONEUS
RBW
From a profane, punk-rock single to a modernized opera aria inspired by Marilyn Monroe — not to mention, a world tour in between — (G)I-DLE has made 2022 their year to show the ways they are shaking up norms in the K-pop scene with the perspective to refresh everything they previously knew.
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While more than a year without new music in the fast-moving K-pop scene is risky for a younger group like (G)I-DLE, the outfit spent most of 2021 focusing on their individual careers with solo albums, acting, TV work, overseas trips and more. When they returned in March this year, the group could have opted for something safe—this comeback made all the more complicated following member Soojin’s departure in August 2021—and rehashed an easy return to the top of the charts. Their electro-pop collab with Madison Beer “Pop/Stars” was (G)I-DLE’s first No. 1 on World Digital Song Sales, plus all five of their past EPs have charted on World Albums since their first appearance in 2018—they knew what worked.
Instead, (G)I-DLE looked in a new direction with bolder messages and sounds and, as they say, begin “starting from scratch” again.
Full-length album I Never Die from March was centered around songs meant to inspire confidence to break prejudices. (G)I-DLE leader Soyeon spoke to the heart of the LP’s message like the the hard-hitting rock-pop single “Tomboy” (with its “Yeah I’m f—ing tomboy” hook) alongside tracks like “Never Stop Me.” At the same time, members Yuqi and Minnie contributed in production and songwriting across other tracks. “Tomboy” resulted in the group’s biggest hit in Korea to date, helped them reconnect with fans across the world during their Just Me ( )I-dle World Tour that ran from June to October, and attempt to break records again with their next step.
For the newly released I Love EP, Soyeon, Minnie and Yuqi are once again all over the album credits that explore the concept of love by being, literally, stripped down to one’s most genuine self, and incorporating inspiration from Kurt Cobain’s famous quote, “I’d rather be hated for who I am than loved for who I am not.”
Ahead of the release of I Love, (G)I-DLE opened up more the honesty that comes from such punk inspirations. “‘Nxde’ uses the word ‘nude’ metaphorically to explain the genuine and confident side,” Soyeon explained. “The word ‘nude’ can be perceived as a provocative word, and people may think, ‘Why is it ‘nude’? Isn’t it too explicit?’ But when I thought of the word ‘nude,’ I thought of my true self, not an undressed version of me…your true self isn’t you with makeup on but your bare face is. You don’t call it ‘makeup-less face.’ It’s just a face. I think that’s how I saw ‘nude,’ wearing the real version of yourself.”
Miyeon added, “Just like the name itself, this album is an album that only talks about love. And the one who receives love can be our family, friends, or one of the many kinds of love out there. So we left the object blank [in I Love] on purpose because we respect all those kinds of love.”
(G)I-DLE also pointed to starlets like Marilyn Monroe as another point of inspiration. “When Marilyn Monroe was active as a star, she was the blonde beauty, being consumed as a sex symbol,” Soyeon says of the Hollywood icon. “I heard that she was actually very intelligent and into books, especially philosophical ones. The standards change with time. Nowadays, if you carry designer-brand bags, then people would judge you by your looks. Each era has a different stereotype.” While Miyeon added, “Regardless of positive or negative stereotypes, you can’t judge a book by the cover.”
The group’s messages are connecting more than ever: I Love became (G)I-DLE’s first album to enter the Billboard 200, debuting at No. 71, after nearly four-and-a-half years into their careers. The six-song also starts at No. 9 on Top Album Sales (dated Nov. 5) with 10,000 copies sold, according to Luminate.
Read on for more reflections from Soyeon, Minnie, Yuqi, Miyeon and Shuhua on their rebuilding process, reuniting with worldwide fans, and continuously pushing each other to the next big step.
First, I want to congratulate you on how successful things have been since the I Never Die album. Have you had a moment to think about why you’re connecting so well with the audiences?
Soyeon: I think what we presented with this album was very bold and audacious for a K-pop group, which is why a lot of people loved it. It was very honest too.
Minnie: I Never Die was the first full album—many fans were waiting for this album for so long because we hadn’t made a comeback in a year and a few months.
Do you feel a sense of relief about the fact that it did well? You’ve shared that it was a tumultuous journey to get here. What’s your mindset these days?
Soyeon: I’d have to say “no” right away. Because now that we’ve brought ourselves back to this position, we want to make sure what we present next is also just as amazing, just as fresh and surprising to the audience.
Yuqi: No one knew how pressured we were at the time because (G)I-DLE always looks like we are strong and really stable in our team, but we were apart for about a year. We separated to our countries to do personal activities. So when we came back to Korea, we got together and just said, “Wow.” We didn’t realize how strained we were at the time. We came back thinking this was our last time together—that’s how strained we were at that time.
Minnie: We put everything into it.
Yuqi: No one knew it because we always look so strong and like nothing happened, but it actually wasn’t like that. And life is like that! [Laughs] Life is about challenges, life has ups and downs, but if you give up, everything will just end. Actually, our fans were our kind of energy at that time too because everyone was waiting for us and we couldn’t just give up. So, we just put everything into it and just didn’t want to let down the people loving and supporting us.
What does that look like when you say you put everything into it? Lots of rehearsing? Late nights in the studio?
Yuqi: It’s not only about the physical practicing, but a collective feeling. We were apart for a long time, but when we just gathered up again, I could feel the vibe and strength everyone gave. That’s teamwork. That’s just called teamwork because everyone has the same goal, they have the same dream they are trying to achieve, so I just feel “That’s (G)I-DLE.” It’s our teamwork, right? It’s mental, not physical. I think the mental had to be super different.
Minnie: But even the choreography, we’re always brainstorming, like, “Oh, should we do this or that?” We want to pick best version of everything.
Soyeon: And “Tomboy” has the censored beep, right? But there were many different versions of the beep. And also, aside from “Tomboy,” there were a lot of other candidates, many other candidates for the lead single. I had a lot of thoughts on how should we approach this single and what kind of song do we do for this type of track? I worked on the songs with the mindset, “Oh, maybe I should try this genre for the type of music. Maybe I should talk about this or try this kind of concept.” We also did additional recordings a thousand times; we were very careful when making a decision.
The sound of “Tomboy” was striking. This harder, punk sound wasn’t expected and I’m curious how you decided to go that way to make such a long-awaited comeback?
Soyeon: I grew up listening to a lot of punk rock, I liked Avril Lavigne a lot too. I had always thought that I want to try pop-punk, or like teen rock, kind of music at some point. With this group comeback, I wanted to do something that no one else has done so I thought this was the time to give that genre and that kind of sound a try.
Yuqi: I’m a super fan of rockers and in my solo album, I did a rock too so I was super excited about the track the first time.
Minnie: I think we all love “Tomboy” and its style. It’s very challenging for us to try a new style too, but we enjoyed preparing for it.
How was the U.S. leg of your Just Me ( )I-dle tour?
Soyeon: Since this is our first U.S. tour, we’re really happy and grateful to meet our Neverland, our fans, in the U.S. for the first time. Although this is our first time touring the U.S., we’re amazed by how the fans will sing along to everything and enjoy everything. It’s been just great for us to feel all our fans’ excitement and passion.
Minnie: We went to cities like Dallas, Houston, Chicago and, except for New York and San Francisco, it was the first time we visited these cities so it was all very new.
Miyeon: I like to capture my own moments in each of the cities because all the cities are so different and I want to enjoy all the different vibes. That’s why fans saw so many of my updates through social media every day.
You describe the “Tomboy” single as taking on a new persona. Do you embrace different personas on tour?
Yuqi: Before, we just attended KCON or joined another concert with the other artists, but this is the first time for us to have a full concert. So, we can show the title track [singles], b-side tracks, and other genres. We’re doing rock, ballads or hip-hop for the first time and I think our fans will feel, “Oh, it’s so fresh for seeing idols in this kind of music genre.” We all do the raps in “My Bag,” you know? It’s the first time we’re doing something like that and it’s very fresh. But we can also have an emotional mood like when we sing a lot of ballads whenever we hold a concert in Seoul. I think it’s a good to show a lot of different sides to our fans.
Soyeon: I think rather than seeing it as a new persona of us, I think that the lyric “just me I-DLE” [from “Tomboy”] is real. We had never shown people this side of (G)I-DLE before, but it’s our true selves, and we’re just being honest with what we’re doing.
I also liked how you spoke about how you want to be “I-DLE,” with not as much focus on the “G.” There’s your lyric, too: “It’s neither man nor woman, just me I-DLE.” I’d like to hear more about the inspiration behind that.
Soyeon: As you know, the “G” represents yeoja, or “girl” [in Korean], right? We came from a mindset that we do not want to conform to any kind of social boundary or prejudice. It doesn’t just have to do with gender but that was one of the easiest ways of showing that mindset, especially since we have the “G” in our names. That’s just one of our ways of showing that we don’t want to be stuck in any boundaries, regardless of gender—and not just gender but prejudices in general.
Artists are opening up when they’re more comfortable using gender-neutral pronouns for themselves and in their lyrics. When there can be certain expectations of girl groups, is this a related idea?
Soyeon: We’re very aware of gender-neutral terminology, but what we’re doing now isn’t primarily because we want to find a gender-neutral term but it’s more of trying to make a genre of our own. We want (G)I-DLE to be a genre of our own, regardless of gender, age, anything.
Minnie: And we respect everything.
Does being on tour help you find more of the (G)I-DLE genre?
Soyeon: We are fascinated by how we can still interact and communicate with their audience when we’re singing in Korean so we’ve felt that music does not have any language boundaries.
Yuqi: When I do the concerts, I receive a lot of different responses from our fans. Different countries have different cultures, as we know, so maybe when I do it in Korea, the Korean fans have certain kinds of responses for us. But when we do this in America, I can get to a part like, “Oh, they are more excited about this part.” So I can get inspiration actually to make my music more fun and have more of those “killing” parts.
Miyeon: The hotel that we were staying in New York is right in front of where we did our flash mob a few years ago. So, we looked back at that moment and thought a lot. That was a big motivation for us to come back to New York, see that spot, and think back to our rookie days.
Minnie: Because at that time, we were a very new group with only one single and one mini album. But now we are having a world tour, which is like, “This is crazy.” It’s a big dream come true.
We met for Billboard then. Can you think back to that time and remember your mindset?
Minnie: We were such rookies and so young.
Yuqi: Yeah, we were such rookies but super excited to be here for the first time in New York City. We had our very first flash mob, I think we did a cover “Fake Love”? We had the BTS cover and we didn’t perform “Hann,” right? Because we were preparing for our “Hann” comeback.
Minnie: But we’re happy to be back.
This tour is about old material, new material, everything, including “Hann.” How was it been preparing specifically all these songs as five now?
Soyeon: We had to practice our blocking—all the movements, transitions, and everything—from scratch. So our mindset was, “Okay, we’re starting from scratch…again.” That’s how hard we worked for it and we wanted to show a new side of (G)I-DLE by preparing this way.
Shuhua, I’ve seen you taking up many more lines now too, specifically. How has your experience been?
Shuhua: Aside from all the group practices, I also dedicated a lot of my time doing individual practice. I would have private lessons with our teachers and share ideas to think, like, “How can I put my style into this? What kind of gesture should I do to make this my style?” I practiced a lot with that mindset for this tour.
You’ve all worked on your own in 2021. How does that contribute to your group work as (G)I-DLE this year?
Minnie: I went to Thailand where I had some time promoting solo and I started to realize again how important and how precious that I have my members by my side. When I have to do everything on my own, it’s hard and tiring. I think it was a good experience to try things on my own, but when I came back to Korea and I met them, I was like, “Oh yeah. I feel like I’m home.”
Soyeon: There is no time where we are not working on new music so we’re always thinking about the next album and the new music. We want to present a new kind of fun and new message with I Love and “Nxde.”
Anything else to add right now?
Yuqi: (G)I-DLE never die.
Minnie: We’re back! We’re all back. We were so happy to have a world tour finally and very touched and happy to meet our fans in the States in person. Thank you for always waiting and supporting us. We will never let you down, and we’re back again with a new album, so please continue to stay tuned.
