The objectively most impressive girl group stages at KCON LA 2025 were...

    ...easy to decide on.


    As the ultimate girl group connoisseur, you can trust my opinion over any other. I've seen many, many girl group performances over the years, so I have a fairly accurate internal barometer for judging girl group live stages.


    In fact, next month I will actually achieve the unexpected but welcomed achievement of seeing every top 4th gen girl group live, once I see LE SSERAFIM.


    That list is:


    NewJeans

    IVE

    aespa

    IDLE

    NMIXX

    Itzy


    Soon I will likely rank all of them based on their lives.


    But without further ado, here are the ACTUAL most impressive girl groups I saw at KCON, and I'm going to keep this concise after such a long preamble.


    Best Overall Stage: idle


    This may surprise some, but I thought idle were the best combination of live vocals, incredible stage presence and high energy.


    There is a reason they opened the concert for the final night, and their 7+ years of experience shined through.


    Wife was probably my favorite stage closely followed by Queencard.


    Most Impressive Stage: MEOVV


    They very nearly took best overall stage, and maybe it's semantics, but MEOVV impressed me the most considering they're rookies and I didn't know what to expect from them on such a big stage.


    They used very minimal backtrack, engaged with the crowd constantly, did an awesome Abracadabra cover, and I could hear the crowd buzzing about them all night. I gave idle the edge slightly just due to their advantage in performance experience, but it was close.


    Biggest Crowd Response: aespa


    This was easy. aespa is the only girl group that got a pop from the crowd as loud as the most popular boy groups. If you've ever been in an arena full of boy group stans, you know that's LOUD. The arena went into a frenzy for aespa, and then Whiplash started and they went even more berserk.


    It was also a really good stage. Not my absolute best, since Soyeon is a cheat code, but talking about cheat codes, going from Whiplash to Supernova in that environment? Insane. I thought I was back at the aespa concert. Also, Dirty Work live slaps. I don't care what anyone says.


    Most Memorable Stage: IVE


    Dives, you know why. Please someone tag me the moment IVE has their first live stream post-KCON. I need to know what they say about the biggest mic drop in KCON history.


    No, really. What a magnificent meme moment. Liz's mic hitting the ground sounded like a gunshot going off, but IVE were professionals and recovered smoothly enough. They're also very, very pretty, but we knew that already.


    Most Surprising Stage: ifeye


    You're probably wondering "who?", but this rookie nugu group absolutely impressed me and made the most of their opportunities.


    I had no idea who they were before KCON, but after seeing their insane dance choreography and synergy, as well as their legitimately great songs and confidence on stage despite their rookie status, I will be keeping tabs on them.


    I saw them at different stages during the festival and they also were the pre-concert opener for the final night.


    r u ok? is an absolute bop


    STILL THE QUEEN: Hwasa


    I don't really need to explain this choice. The vocals, the charisma, the aura, the stage presence, and she even did a Mamamoo hit song medley to close her set; that made this MooMoo so happy.


    Special mention to, of course, NMIXX, izna and Kep1er. There wasn't a bad stage any night; I just chose my personal standout stages.


    And I would've placed ALL DAY PROJECT on the list for MOST LIT stage, but they're a co-ed group.


    THEBLACKLABEL artists killed it last weekend.

  • AllKill VIP

    no wonder you liked ifeye! I saw r u ok? performance which someone posted on twitter, sadly it's now deleted but they've did well, they've danced with swag


    ah and of course


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    Quote from bartkun

    no wonder you liked ifeye! I saw r u ok? performance which someone posted on twitter, sadly it's now deleted but they've did well, they've danced with swag


    ah and of course


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    Through the activation of external content, you agree that personal data may be transferred to third party platforms. We have provided more information on this in our privacy policy.

    ayo she absolutely killed those killing moments with the hair tie maneuvers. The aura she gave was insane.


    I saw r u ok? about 3 times? Twice at the festival grounds and once at the concert. The first time might be my favorite, since it was a smaller stage and they taught us the fan chants to sing along with them


    Such a bop :twerkingpepe:

    Thanks for the write up, and nice to see you had a good time.


    Maybe I have a good algorithm but it's nice to see a lot of the group that performed received praise. Watching some of the performances on YouTube it made me realize 5th gen groups are underrated. I find it rare for rookie groups to own a stage that big and many of them left a good impression.

    Quote from StanGIDLE

    Thanks for the write up, and nice to see you had a good time.


    Maybe I have a good algorithm but it's nice to see a lot of the group that performed received praise. Watching some of the performances on YouTube it made me realize 5th gen groups are underrated. I find it rare for rookie groups to own a stage that big and many of them left a good impression.

    I almost did a separate write up for the rookies that practically nobody will talk about due to the fact they're not from big companies or well known at all.


    ifeye were the biggest stand outs among them all, but groups like 82MAJOR, HITGS and NewBeat had some really fun moments with their fans and did a great job keeping the energy high and the vibes positive during their busking stages.


    I gained a renewed appreciation for the lesser known groups. The fact there aren't thousands and thousands of screaming fans swarming around them makes it easier to just SEE them and actually talk to them.


    People who aren't fans of nugu groups would never understand.


    I have the unique experience of stanning a group from their nugu era to their top star era in Mamamoo. And my favorite artist/fan interaction moments are from BEFORE they became superstars. Mostly.

    WOW! I'm actually surprised you picked i-dle, at first I wanted to pick them too, but I chose NMIXX instead.


    Your list is pretty good, can't believe we finally agree on something, must be Christmas or something.


    AKP is weird today. 🤣


    As for rookies, for me the most impressive was Baby DONT Cry. I mean, MEOVV were better, probably, but BDC was more surprising. Also, there were a Japanese group ISSUE or what's their name, that was also dope.


    Hwasa and the MAMAMOO medley was insane, especially with people barking. :cooldog:

    Smaller groups need our support more than ever. There's just too many groups being pumped out from the big 4 company (mainly Hybe) that is over-saturating the market and hurting the smaller groups. There's a lot of talent and good music being made but visibility is hurting these groups. It would be nice to have a rise like Mamamoo again. I don't think it was anywhere close but it seemed Kiss of Life was somewhat on that path but most likely ruined their chances with international audiences. Hopefully another group gets a chance to level up.

    Quote from selfmate

    Yama-Chan


    what was the most disappointing stage in your opinion

    Among the girl groups?


    Hmmmmm


    I wasn't expecting to be asked for a negative review.


    I would probably say I expected a little more from Jackson Wang. He did more dancing than anything else on stage, which is OKAY, but plenty of artists did a lot of everything so...

    I always ask that question when people talk about going to concerts or festivals


    the best and worst parts of them since no kpop artist ever comes to my area!!!

    Quote from selfmate

    I always ask that question when people talk about going to concerts or festivals


    the best and worst parts of them since no kpop artist ever comes to my area!!!

    Maybe one day K-Pop will be in your area. I used to be like you a decade ago. But now I've had some big acts come to my city.


    Anything is possible!


    Unless you live in Alaska or some place equivalent to that.


    Beautiful. Thank you :pepe-joy:

    I forgot to mention Baby Don't Cry. They were very cute.


    I actually legitimately nearly bumped into them and their security during the festival; they were on their way to a small barricaded area to greet fans and give away albums. They are as tiny as babies, compared to me at least. As you probably know, Hwasa also brought them out for her artist stage. So I saw them 3 times in total, including their actual KCON set.

    Quote from Yama-Chan

    Unless you live in Alaska or some place equivalent to that.

    something like that lol


    I think Lisa once came to see the quokkas...and that's about it


    I live in Western Australia - it's cheaper and faster and closer for me to fly to singapore to see a kpop act as oppose to the East of Australia where kpop groups do tour

    Quote from Yama-Chan

    I forgot to mention Baby Don't Cry. They were very cute.


    I actually legitimately nearly bumped into them and their security during the festival; they were on their way to a small barricaded area to greet fans and give away albums. They are as tiny as babies, compared to me at least. As you probably know, Hwasa also brought them out for her artist stage. So I saw them 3 times in total, including their actual KCON set.

    Yeah, the Hwasa interaction was cute. I'm actually surprised because PN doing a good job with them.


    Those high five or waves or whatever it's called was weird tho, not BDC but the whole Kcon thing, I don't get why people paying a lot of money so they can wave their hands, but it's their money not mine.😂

    Quote from David33

    Yeah, the Hwasa interaction was cute. I'm actually surprised because PN doing a good job with them.


    Those high five or waves or whatever it's called was weird tho, not BDC but the whole Kcon thing, I don't get why people paying a lot of money so they can wave their hands, but it's their money not mine.😂

    Hi Touch/Meet and Greets at KCON have worked that way for almost a decade at this point.


    Anyone who pays for it and then complains about it deserves what they get.

    Quote from CaraFIMIE

    Yes, among the ggs ;judgingpepe:

    There were no bad girl group stages :finger-heart:

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