You would have thought you were in the heart of Gangnam in South Korea – the home of K-Pop – if you were the Atterbury Theatre on May 1. The Theatre, which hosted the regional round of the 2019 Changwon K-pop World Festival South Africa, was filled with K-pop fans. They were in for a treat. Local dancers and singers put on an incredible show with their renditions of their favourite K-pop performances.
The Changwon K-Pop World Festival is celebrated around the world. The competition started in 2011 with Korean embassies all over the world taking part. The way it works is that each participating country has a regional round where one vocalist and one dancer are chosen as the overall winners. Recorded videos of the winning performances are sent by the embassy to Korea. Judges from Korea then choose 12 finalists to compete for the world title in October.
Last year, dance winner Lindsay Setlema was one of the finalists chosen to represent South Africa in South Korea. Setlema returned a winner, having won the People’s Choice Award at the festival.
The Daily Vox caught up with Setlema after his epic performances at the festival. This was the second time he performed at a Changwon Festival.
Setlema says the K-pop wave is definitely growing in South Africa. “This year’s performances were even better than last year’s. There were also more people who came out to perform. Last year there were fewer performances and they were not as rehearsed. This year they put in time,” he said.
The festival was an incredible celebration of K-pop in South Africa and gave fans a platform to showcase their talents. After a number of stunning vocal and dance performances, the judges chose two winners.
This year’s winners were Persis Joy Lupiya and Susan Tafadzwa Nkata.
Lupiya who won the vocal section in 2018 was overjoyed to win it again. She took the win after a stunning performance of SHINee Onew’s song ‘Blue’. She said: “He is one of my favourite voices in K-pop. When he released his first solo album last December I was like, ‘Yes I found my song’.”
By SHAAZIA EBRAHIM and FATIMA MOOSA, The Daily Vox Team