KCON LA 2018 Guide [Updated 7/27]

KCON LA 2018 Schedule

8:00 PM: KCON West Pre-event at Hammer Museum featuring

  • Ailee
  • Roy Kim
  • Echae Kang

6:00 PM: KCON West at Hammer Museum featuring a screening of The Fortress with Director Hwang Dong-Hyeok

7:00 PM: KLUB KCON at LA Convention Center South Hall featuring

  • Dynamic Duo
  • Crush
  • DJ FRIZ
  • Esna
  • Golden Child
  • Momoland

STAR Live Talk at KCON Stage featuring:

  • Momoland
  • TWICE
  • Chung Ha
  • Roy Kim

 

Concert night at KCON Stage featuring:

  • Ailee
  • Dynamic Duo
  • Crush
  • Golden Child
  • IN2IT
  • Momoland
  • TWICE
  • Wanna One
  • Davichi
  • Mia

Concert at KCON Stage featuring:

  • Chung Ha
  • fromis_9
  • IMFACT
  • NU’EST W
  • PENTAGON
  • SEVENTEEN
  • Dreamcatcher
  • JUN
  • Roy Kim

Los Angeles, CA (July 27, 2018) – Updated KLUB KCON and KCON WEST


[UPDATE 7/5] Los Angeles, CA (July 5, 2018) – KCON USA, the world’s largest Korean culture convention and music festival presented by Toyota, announced today that K-pop artists Ailee, Golden Child,  Pentagon and Roy Kim will join KCON 2018 L.A.’s artist line-up. KCON LA is taking place August 10-12 at the Staples Center & LA Convention Center. The concert tickets will go on sale July 11 at 10am (PST); and convention, Klub KCON, and Artist Meet & Greet tickets will go on sale on July 13 at 10am (PST).

Roy Kim began his singing career after winning Mnet’s talent competition series Superstar K4 in 2012. He officially debuted with his first studio album, Love Love Love, in 2013. The album features nine tracks and spawned two hit singles: The lead single “Love Love Love” AND the million-selling hit “Bom Bom Bom” which became the fourth most successful song of that year in South Korea. Following the album’s success, Roy Kim earned “Best New Male Artist” from the 2013 Mnet Asian Music Awards and “New Rising Star Award in Disk Album” from the 2014 Golden Disk Award. Since his debut, Roy Kim has 3 studio albums, 1 EP album and 10 singles, scoring two number-one singles on the Gaon Music Chart. In February 2018, his latest single “Only Then” took number 2 spot on Billboard’s Korea K-Pop 100 Chart.

Ailee is a Korean-American singer and songwriter. She was born in Denver, Colorado in 1989 and moved to South Korea in 2010, when she signed under YMC Entertainment. After being recognized for her singing on Singer and Trainee, she acted in drama series Dream High 2. Ailee received the “Best New Artist Award” at the Melon Music Awards, Golden Disc Awards, Gaon Chart K-Pop Awards and the Seoul Music Awards. She has also received a “Best Newcomer” and Four “Best Female Vocal Performance” awards at the Mnet Asian Music Awards for “U&I,” “Singing Got Better,” “Mind Your Own Business,” and “If You.” Ailee has currently released one studio album, four EP albums, and thirteen singles. She has also featured in the popular drama series Guardian: The Lonely and Great God’s OST “I will Go to You Like the First Snow” in 2017, winning her “Best OST” award at the Mnet Asian Music Awards.

Pentagon is a ten-member boy group formed by Cube Entertainment in 2016. The members are HUI, JIN HO, HONG SEOK, E DAWN, SHIN WON, YEO ONE, YAN AN, YUTO, KINO, WOO SEOK who were first introduced through the Mnet survival show Pentagon Maker. Pentagon made their official debut on October 10, 2016 with their first EP Pentagon, including title track “Gorilla.” The group released their second EP Five Senses in December 2016 and third EP Ceremony in June 2017. Ceremony became their first U.S. chart entry and took number 14 on Billboard’s World Album Chart. Pentagon then released their fourth and fifth EP Demo_01 and Demo_02 in September and November 2017. Recently, Pentagon made a comeback with their sixth Korean EP Positive with critically acclaimed lead single “Shine.”

Golden Child is a group under Woollim Entertainment who was first introduced through reality show 2017 Woollim Pick. Prior to their debut, some of the members featured in W Project which released music to spotlight Woollim trainees. The group currently consists of ten members: Daeyeol, Y, Jangjun, TAG, Seungmin, Jaehyun, Jibeom, Donghyun, Joochan, and Bomin. The group officially debuted on August 28, 2017 with their first mini-album, Gol-cha! With title track “DamDaDi.” On October 16, they released an OST soundtrack “Love Letter” for drama 20th Century Boy and Girl. On January 29, 2018, Golden Child had their first comeback with second mini-album Miracle featuring title track “It’s U.” The group also won “Global Rookie Top 5” award at the 2018 V Live Awards. In June 2018, Golden Child performed at KCON 2018 NY and announced the release of their first single album Goldenness.


UPDATE [6/28] Los Angeles, CA (June 28, 2018) – KCON USA, the world’s largest Korean culture convention and music festival presented by Toyota, announced today that K-pop artists TWICE, NU’EST W, IN2IT, and DAVICHI will perform at KCON 2018 L.A. which is taking place August 10-12 at the Staples Center & LA Convention Center. The highly anticipated KCON Los Angeles concert tickets will go on sale July 11 at 10am (PST); and convention, Klub KCON, and Artist Meet & Greet tickets will go on sale on July 13 at 10am (PST).

TWICE is a K-Pop girl group produced by JYP Entertainment through the reality program [SIXTEEN]. The group is composed of 9 members: NAYEON, JEONGYEON, MOMO, SANA, JIHYO, MINA, DAHYUN, CHAEYOUNG, and TZUYU. Debuted on October 20th, 2015 with the 1st EP [THE STORY BEGINS] that featured the title track “Like OOH-AHH”, the group then achieved bigger fame in 2016 with the 2nd EP [PAGE TWO] that featured “CHEER UP.” Since then, the group has won several big awards with TWICE’s own music style ‘color pop’ and continued to release the unique bright, energetic and catchy songs: “TT”, “KNOCK KNOCK”, “SIGNAL”, “LIKEY”, “Heart Shaker”, “What is Love?” and so on. Given the title of ‘one Top girl group’ in Asia, on growing with a meaningful expansion of more global presence.

NU’EST W is a sub-unit of NU’EST, a five-member boy group formed by Pledis Entertainment in 2012. The group officially debuted on March 15, 2012 with digital single “Face.” NU’EST W consists of four members from NU’EST: JR, Aron, Baekho, and Ren. NU’EST member Minhyun is currently not promoting in the sub-unit as he is promoting as a member of Wanna One after participating in Produce 101 Season 2. The character “W” The character “W” in NU’EST W stands for ‘Waiting’. It hopes to deliver both a gratefulness to fans who have waited for NU’EST long and a message to wait until complete NU’EST activity starts. NU’EST W released their debut EP W, Here with title track “Where You At” on October 10, 2017. The song earned the group their first music show win on M Countdown October 19, 2017, 5 years after their debut.

IN2IT is a seven-member boy group formed by MMO Entertainment in 2017. The members have previously participated in Mnet’s survival show Boys24 in 2016. The members are Hyunuk, Inho, Inpyo, Isaac, Jiahn, Sunghyun, and Yeontae. IN2IT debuted with their first mini album Carpe Diem, which signifies the shift from boy to man, released in October 2017. The group made their debut on M COUNTDOWN on October 26, 2017 performing title song “Amazing.” The song has charted 5th place on the M COUNTDOWN Chart on November 9. After announcing their fandom name “IN2U” on November 11, IN2IT held 4 concerts in December, attended “2018 Taipei High City” New Year’s Eve Countdown, and made their first Asian Tour in February 2018. In April 2018, the group made a comeback with new single “Snapshot.” IN2IT performed the song at KCON 2018 Japan ahead of their comeback as well as performed at the 2018 Dream Concert held in Seoul World Cup Stadium.

DAVICHI debuted as a pop-ballad duo in 2008 with the release of their first studio album, “Amaranth.” The album brought them almost immediate acclaim, winning the “Best New Artist” trophy at the Mnet Asian Music Awards, the Seoul Music Awards, and the Golden Disk Awards. They released their second studio album Mystic Ballad with title track “Just the Two of Us” in March 2013 and third studio album &10 to celebrate their 10-year anniversary with lead single “Days Without You” in January 2018. Besides the three full-length studio albums, the duo has also released six extended plays, twelve soundtrack appearances, nine collaborations, eight singles and eight promotional singles.


Los Angeles, CA (June 14, 2018) – KCON USA, the world’s largest Korean culture convention and music festival presented by Toyota, announced today that K-pop artists fromis_9 and SEVENTEEN will perform at KCON 2018 L.A. which is taking place August 10-12 at the Staples Center & LA Convention Center. As KCON Los Angeles returns for its seventh year, the K-Beauty, food, and gaming components of the convention will be bigger than before, while also offering even more access to K-pop artists.

fromis_9, an initialism for “From Idol School,” is a nine-member girl group formed through Mnet’s reality show “Idol School” in 2017, which ran from July 13 to September 29. As a result of live and online voting, Roh Ji Sun, Song Ha Young, Lee Sae Rom, Lee Chae Young, Lee Na Gyung, Park Ji Won, Lee Seo Yeon, Baek Ji Heon and Jang Gyu Ri secured spots in the final ranking and formed Fromis_9 on the same day. Before their official debut, the group performed their pre-debut single “Glass Shoes” at the 2017 Mnet Asian Music Awards in Japan. The group officially debuted on January 24, 2018 with their first EP “To. Heart” along with their lead single “To Heart.”

SEVENTEEN is a 13-member boy group who debuted under Pledis Entertainment in 2015. The members are S.Coups, Jeonghan, Joshua, Jun, Hoshi, Wonwoo, Woozi, DK, Mingyu, The8, Seungkwan, Vernon, and Dino. They are also active with three different sub-units: “Hip Hop Unit,” “Vocal Unit,” and “Performance Unit.” The group is known as the “self-producing” idol group as the members are deeply involved in the composition and production of their discography and choreography. Seventeen debuted on May 26 with a live showcase and was the first male Kpop group to debut with an one-hour live showcase on a major broadcasting channel. Their debut EP 17 Carat became the longest-charting K-pop album of the year in the US and was the only rookie album to appear on Billboard‘s “10 Best K-pop Albums of 2015” chart. In February 2018, Seventeen released a special album Director’s Cut with title track “Thanks” which topped iTunes charts in 29 countries. Time magazine named Seventeen one of the best K-pop groups during this promotion period. Seventeen is scheduled to officially debut in Japan on May 30 with their first Japanese mini-album, We Make You.


Los Angeles, CA (May 31, 2018) – KCON USA, the world’s largest Korean culture convention and music festival presented by Toyota, announced today that chart-topping K-pop artists Wanna One and Chung Ha will perform at this summer’s Los Angeles edition on August 10-12 at the Staples Center & LA Convention Center. This year, KCON Los Angeles will expand the K-Beauty, food, and gaming components of the convention, while offering even more access to K-pop artists as it returns for its seventh year.

Wanna One is an eleven-member boy group formed from Mnet’s survival boy group reality show Produce 101 Season 2. The final members as well as group name were chosen by the public audience’s votes. The members who took top 11 in the final were KANG DANIEL, PARK JI HOON, LEE DAE HWI, KIM JAE HWAN, ONG SEONGWU, PARK WOO JIN, LAI KUAN LIN, YOON JI SUNG, BAE JIN YOUNG, HWANG MIN HYUN, HA SUNG WOON. The group officially debuted through Wanna One Premier Show-Con on August 7, 2017. Their debut EP 1×1=1 (To Be One) combined with the repackaged album 1-1=0 (Nothing Without You) made Wanna One the first Kpop group to sell over one million copies of their debut album. In March 2018, Wanna One broke their own record by selling 700,000 copies in the preorders of their second EP 0+1=1 (I Promise You). The album was released on March 19 along with title track “Boomerang.”

CHUNG HA is a K-pop star who rose to prominence through Mnet’s reality girl group survival show Produce 101, where she was chosen as one of the top 11 contestants to debut in project girl group called I.O.I. After the fame of I.O.I’s title track “Dream Girls” in their first EP Chrysalis, CHUNG HA was also the main member of I.O.I’s unit group and known to arrange the choreography for title song “Whatta Man.” Following the project group’s career, CHUNG HA became one of South Korea’s most popular vocalists with her first EP Hands on Me in June 2017 featuring title track “Why Don’t You Know.” The talented singer and dancer has since gone on to work on collaboration tracks with other Korean artists, and in January 2018, she released her second EP Offset with an electropop song called “Roller Coaster.” CHUNG HA was chosen as one of the “10 Best New K-Pop Acts in 2017” on Billboard and is expected to broaden her activities in 2018.

KCON has grown exponentially since its launch in 2012, to become the undisputed epicenter for all things Hallyu (a.k.a The Korean Wave). The expansive event, that urges everyone to “Let’s KCON,” garnered more than 128,000 attendees last year between NY and LA combined. KCON 2018 USA will feature a line-up of A-list concerts, celebrity meet and greets, as well as workshops and panels that cover every aspect of Korean culture and entertainment. Not only does the programming offer insight into Korean pop music, it also covers food, fashion, television, film, e-sports and more.

The New York metro area edition of KCON 2018 is taking place at the Prudential Center in Newark, NJ on June 23 and 24.

KCON is produced by CJ E&M, Asia’s leading content company, and its global music channel, Mnet.

No Comments Yet

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.