On Christmas Day, the evening of December 25, the 2024 Gayo Daejeon music festival of Korean television station SBS was held at Inspire Arena in Incheon.
The event brought together nearly 30 performing artists, bringing diverse performances. Lee Young Ji, (G)I-DLE, izna, NCT Wish, RIIZE, NMIXX performed songs that were remade into Christmas versions.
2NE1, NewJeans, aespa, IVE, NCT U, ENHYPEN, Baby Monster also stirred up the music festival by bringing their famous songs.
But the most anticipated performance was definitely Big Bang leader G-Dragon’s comeback after eight years. The male singer was the last artist to appear, performing a medley of three songs: “Power,” “Sober,” and “Crooked.”
However, after the event, online communities posted many criticisms of G-Dragon's performance, saying it was a disappointing stage for him.
Many viewers pointed out that G-Dragon mostly used backtracks (pre-recorded recordings to support artists on stage) and only opened his mouth to sing a few lines of the song. G-Dragon's performance at SBS Gayo Daejeon was considered far inferior to his performance at MAMA 2024 a month ago.
On theqoo, Korean viewers commented: “So disappointing, nothing lasts forever”, “His throat is really ruined”, “I used to be a fan of GD but it's really sad. If he wanted to be praised, he should have done better”, “Apart from not being able to sing, I was even more surprised to see that he only sang the parts he wanted to”, “I don't even feel like singing the way he sang in the digital version”, “He doesn't sing and calls himself a singer?”, “He dropped half the song”...
Besides, some fans defended G-Dragon, saying that the sound and mic of the organizers had problems. Not only G-Dragon but many previous artists also had problems.
G-Dragon's close bodyguard further revealed that G-Dragon is "not in the best condition" (health is not guaranteed), but still devoted himself to the SBS Gayo Daejeon stage.
