K-pop fans in Auckland are in for a treat with AleXa announcing that she will be performing in Auckland next month.
This comes a week after the heartbreaking news that girl group BlackPink were pulling their Born Pink World Tour to New Zealand.
Where The Asians At founder Yee Yang Square Lee, whose organisation promotes Pan-Asian Kiwi musicians, says New Zealand was missing out on having top Asian artists here because of its failure to position itself as a “concert-worthy destination”.
“New Zealand misses out on artists primarily because it is a smaller market, albeit a highly engaged and promising market,” Lee said.
“Take K-pop for example, it may seem like the Korean population in Auckland is too small to be worth the effort and investment, but that ignores the interest and ticket buyers not just from other Pan-Asian-Kiwi fans, but the very strong interest in Hallyu from Pasifika, Māori as well as Pākehā audiences.
“Aotearoa is missing out on valuable opportunities - both export and import - by ignoring the Asia-Pacific region in terms of its music and creative arts exchanges.”
Lisa, Rosé, Jennie and Jisoo onstage at their BlackPink World Tour Born Pink held at the Banc of California Stadium on November 20, 2022. Photo / Getty Images
Lee said generally speaking, New Zealand sees Australia, the United States and the United Kingdom as “default markets” for music export.
“There isn’t actually much to support these as superior markets compared to emerging markets in Asia.”
BlackPink, a hugely popular K-pop girl band, consisting of singers Jisoo, Jennie, Lisa, and NZ-born Rosé, were due to perform at an unconfirmed venue in Auckland on June 21, but this month Frontier Touring announced via Twitter that the NZ leg of the tour was “no longer feasible” because of “unforeseen logistical challenges”.
The shows in Melbourne will be going ahead, and no rescheduled dates were made for New Zealand.
BlackPink are famous for hits such as Pink Venom, Typa Girl, Ice Cream and Boombayah.
Group member Rosé was born and raised in Auckland before moving to Australia with her family when she was 7.
K-pop singer AleXa will be performing in Auckland at the Powerstation on March 23.
Auckland-based company Prime Entertainment has however announced that singer AleXa will be performing at the Auckland Powerstation on March 23.
AleXa is here to promote her new EP, Girls Gone Vogue - her first release sparked by the success from winning NBC’s American Song Contest last May.
The main track in the five-track’s package is Back in Vogue, which is inspired by music from the 1980s and 1990s combining a mixture of old-school hip-hop, jazz and vogue-inspired music.
The other songs are Star, Endorphin, Black Out and Please Try Again.
AleXa is based in Oklahoma, in the United States, but said at a press conference in November she was seeking opportunities to perform globally.
She began her music career in 2016 after winning the second season of a fan-voted audition for international K-pop hopefuls called Rising Legends.
