According to Korea Times, Kanye West made his first appearance in Korea in 14 years, with a concert - taking place as part of a series of listening events for his album "Vultures, Volume 2" globally. The event was held at Goyang Stadium in Goyang, Gyeonggi Province (South Korea) last weekend.
This male rapper's last visit to Korea was in 2010, when he appeared at the hip-hop festival "Summer Week & T" at Naksan Beach in Gangwon Province.
However, after the event, controversy broke out when many Kpop stars were spotted attending the concert such as NewJeans members - Minji, Hanni and Danielle; Winter and Giselle from aespa, Seulgi from Red Velvet; CL and Minzy of 2NE1; Jeon Somi, Zion.T; Treasure group members - Jihoon and Choi Hyun Suk.
Aespa 's female idol Giselle even publicly posted photos of her attending the event on her personal Instagram with nearly 8 million followers. Although many fans asked to delete the post, Giselle did not respond.
Many posts criticized Kpop artists and asked whether they knew about Kanye West's controversial past. For example, he released the song "Famous" in 2016, whose lyrics were widely condemned as sexually harassing American pop singer Taylor Swift .
In 2022, West was criticized for attending the "Nyotaimori" event, commonly known as "body sushi", in which sushi is served on a naked woman's body, at a birthday party with her his then 9 year old daughter. He also praised Adolf Hitler and the Nazis in an interview.
However, there were also opinions defending the artists, they left comments: "Maybe they just came because it was a famous singer's concert", "We should separate personal controversies." from their artwork", "It seems like the stars attended because they were invited"...
Initially billed as a listening party for the new album, West's concert attracted massive global attention, unexpectedly becoming a 2 hour and 30 minute live performance with 74 songs, including his early hits "Stronger" and "Good Life".
