Thought I’d shine some light on a group I don’t see posted about super often that have rapidly developed into one of my favorites – izna just kicked off their first ever tour and I’ve been obsessed with watching footage from it.
Some of early 5th gen like Kiss of Life, Babymonster, and illit have already toured at this point, and a lot of big hitters like H2H, KiiiKiii, and Rescene seem poised to start next year. It’s going to be interesting to see how the landscape changes after groups show themselves live performing at bigger events than just fan concerts.
Izna to me is in the same boat a lot of 5th gen ggs are in – putting out good music and well-liked by their own fans but sort of waiting on that breakout hit that catapults them into general public success. Some other groups being – Rescene before their explosion, meovv, ifeye, BDC, saymyname…successful groups that seem poised to break out but also face the struggles that come with not being from the big4.
Rescene has obviously found their path to overwhelming success, and now the rest of the groups are also going to have to find theirs. Some might hope to find their path by being impressive performers, and I think that’s going to be izna
For some background, izna debuted less than 2 years ago from a survival show. They’ve had some struggles – losing one of their most popular members right away, iffy title track choices, a long delay between comebacks recently, and their company, Wakeone, isn’t known for being the biggest or best.
There was a lot of negativity I feel going into their first concert. Korean fans were mad about ticket prices, people were mad at Wakeone for their handling of things and lack of promotion for certain members, etc. Yet, I don’t know that I’ve seen such a universally positive response to a debut concert in some time. Korean fans, concert goers, people at home like me watching, every single fan of the group seems extremely happy and satisfied with no complaints.
The highlights for me
- The stage was utilized amazingly. You see where the budget went. Props were tastefully used for songs and things were clearly meticulously planned from start to finish. One of my favorite parts was when they had a rotating spotlight on the members dancing as a lead-in to Metronome
- Set list was perfectly divided into three themes, showcasing the different styles of the group. I know people online have complained about the groups musical identity being all over the place but I think in a concert setting this works so well and shows such a depth to the group. When you can do fierce songs with insanely difficult choreo and also do slower, emotional songs and do them both very well there’s no downside. It highlights their versatility and I feel pretty strongly that izna could perform most other 5th gen group’s songs well, but I don’t think many other groups could perform their songs SASS or Mamma Mia well. It makes them unique and that’s great when so many groups sound similar right now
- Brand new choreo for b-sides, new hand choreo for their ballads, new arrangements, band inclusions, remixes, new covers. Tons of new additions and all of them fun and positive
- Live singing the entire time. These days this is very worth remarking on sadly, and it’s impressive considering how difficult their choreo typically is. They sounded very good and I was shocked at their stamina. They did songs back to back to back with no breaks. The girls clearly live for the stage and that makes the whole experience more enjoyable
- Choi Jungeun, their main vocalist, is unbelievable. She’s so stable live, she’s so great at singing AND dancing and I seriously think she might be the single best performer of 5th gen.
- Very little time spent on the game segments I typically see at kpop concerts
- High energy, thankful and grateful members, and great fanservice for the crowd. I feel like this has really been missing in some of the shows I’ve seen from some 4th gen groups recently – a gratitude towards fans.
I’ve seen a lot of discussion on this board about Kpop concerts and performances recently. A lot of debate on lip syncing and energy and standards. All I can say is that from a personal standpoint, I don’t see a point in paying to go to a concert that’s essentially the same as listening to the songs at home. All these highlights then are very important to me – as full live singing, new additions and arrangements of songs, impressive stage usage, great performances are all things I could only get in a concert setting.
It was the first 5th gen gg concert that really wow’d me and made me feel like I HAD to see one of their shows if I get a chance, and so I thought it was worth highlighting.
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