[2023 K Forum] From ‘Squid Game’ to K-B-Boying… The power of K-pop shines at ‘K Forum’

The power of K-pop that shook the world was confirmed at the ‘2023 K Forum’.

The ‘2023 K Forum’, co-hosted by daily sports, Korea’s first entertainment sports newspaper, and The Economist, a traditional economic weekly magazine, was held at the JW Marriott Hotel Seoul in Seocho-gu, Seoul on the 11th. At this event, where the present and expandability of ‘K’, which has become a word representing Korea, was discussed, congratulatory performances by various artists were held.

The a cappella group Maytree opened the ‘2023 K Forum’. Matri is a group that attracted attention by covering the OST of the Netflix series ‘Squid Game’, which shook the world and led the interest in K-drama, with outstanding harmony. This video received a lot of attention, reaching 45 million views in about two weeks after it was released online. They also covered the OST of K-drama such as ‘Squid Game’, ‘The Glory’, and ‘Weird Lawyer Woo Young-woo’ at the forum on this day. In addition, he passionately sang Gaho’s ‘Start’ from the drama ‘Itaewon Class’ OST, capturing the attention of forum attendees.

Group Kim Wan-hyuk and Climax Crew showed off their spectacular b-boying under the theme of ‘Passion of the Korean Wave.’ Kim Wan-hyuk, who lost his right leg in a car accident, overwhelmed the scene with his flawless performance. When Kim Wan-hyuk and Climax Crew’s dynamic performance ended, applause and cheers erupted from the attendees.

The final congratulatory stage of the ‘2023 K Forum’ was decorated by K-pop idol groups BAE173 and CLASSi, which have established themselves as a genre in the global market.

BAE173 is a boy group that debuted in 2020 and is famous for its performances with sharp angles. At the ‘2023 K Forum’, BAE173 passionately sang ‘GT’, ‘I’ll Fall In Love’, and ‘Dash’, truly demonstrating K-pop’s premium performance.

BAE173 members said, “We are grateful for inviting us to the ‘2023 K Forum’,” and added, “In line with the slogan ‘Korea is a brand,’ we worked hard to ensure that people can feel the charm of K-pop through us.”

Classi is a 7-member girl group that was created last year through MBC’s idol audition program ‘After School Excitement’. Although they are just a year old, they are dreaming of becoming a global group by debuting in both Korea and Japan. Klari demonstrated this potential at the ‘2023 K Forum’. They performed the double title songs ‘Tick Tick Boom’ and ‘Jealous’ from their album ‘Day & Night’, which they were active until recently, and their debut song ‘Shutdown’. Kla left a greeting that fit the theme of ‘New Challenge of the Korean Wave’, saying, “We want to spread the charm of K-pop through our performance.”

The ‘2023 K Forum’, which was held under the slogan ‘Korea is the brand’, was sponsored by the Seoul Metropolitan Government, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, and the Ministry of SMEs and Startups.

Reporter Jeong Jin-young afreeca@edaily.co.kr