NewJeans Had Planned a Rebirth. The Performance Ended in Tears.

For most of the last three years, the most intelligent, skilled and progressive act in K-Pop was Newjeans, a group of five-members-Danielle girls, Haerin, Hanni, Hyein and Minji-Con a musical and aesthetic sophistication almost pretended. With a single elegantly rendered by one single after the other, the artists, who varied from 16 to 20 years old, seemed invincible.

This is the reason why the group’s announcement, last November, who wanted to stop the contract with its label and management agency, Ador-Uns sublabel of the K-Pop Hybe-Io conglomerate such a watershed moment. Newjeans said that his differences with the company were irreconcilable and that he would move separately.

Ador made an exception, bringing legal and back to Fusillades. (A cause on the validity of the contract will begin with an audition on April 3. Last month, the members of Newjeans announced that they were taking on a new name, NJZ, and that the group would perform for the first time under that moniker of Complexcon Hong Kong, which took place last weekend.

Two days before the performance, however, the central district court of Soul approved an injunction Requested by Ador who prevented Newjeans from participating or starting any new commercial activity as NJZ. A representative for the group said he would appeal.

M threateously, an Ador declaration said he has representatives to the Hong Kong show: “We will be fully present at Complexcon this weekend to ensure that the performance is presented with the name of Newjeans. We impatiently provide the meeting with the artists for a conversation heard at the first opportunity.”

This was an irritum context in which to offer a memorable performance. The second episode of Complexcon Hong Kong, a three-day streetwear and music festival, has aroused tens of thousands of young people from Ciotically at Asiaworld-Expo, a huge congress center from the airport. The performance would have the title of the final night concert.

The anticipation was high. From the moment when the doors opened on Sunday, the fans moved away in various micro-herself of the Newjeans goods-the collaboration of Takashi Murakami, the collaboration of Hiroshi Fujiwara-Aveva to train a line for the Njz Merchandise Both, where they chatted to buy T-shirts, photographic cardboard and attacks. Hundreds of admirers – “Bunnies” are the name of the Fandom – wrote support messages in the marker on the stand of the stand.

At 9:00 pm, over 10,000 educationally buzzing fans filled the Arena of the Congress Center, many of whom shake the signs of the Neon bunny with Njz in the middle. Shuzo, the Japanese DJ who was shortly before the group, had not even left the stage at the end of his listless set before the crowd began to sing “Njz! Njz!” Murakami and a handful of stars from the South Korean rap have ground in the VIP section. Here and there, the members of the public made their feelings known on Hybe, in an unsatisfied language.

Each member of Newjeans emerged to perform a cover, one after the next, as if they could not be seen together. First of all, Danielle arrived, with a lively and brazen performance of TLC “no scrubs”. He felt “nervous”, he said, and he said to the crowd that she and her bandmates would perseveured “it doesn’t matter what the name of our group is, regardless of the type of difficult time we spent”.

Then Minji arrived, with a testest vision of “Smile for the camera” of Upsahl, a pop-rock song full of rubbing to the authority. She unfortunate when she sang the indignant choir of the song: “You tell us that we are not good enough? / Well, you are really just out of the world / it could be young, we could be too much / but we will not be silent and smile for the camera”.

Then a pair of soul -filled curves came: Haerin performed a light touch version of “Doncha” from the internet, followed by Hyein, feeling with confidence in a stage in a fur jacket, singing “Use the heart” of SWV (recently championship in an prominent way on “Heart Pt. 6” by Kendrick Lamar).

The exulting conclusion to these a lotum was the lively version of Hanni on “My Boo”, the 1996 bass Atlanta anthem of Ghost Town Djs (although he suggested that the crowd was more likely to know him from the viral running man Challenge of 2016).

The performances were solid, perhaps a little temporary – the group had not been on stage for a few months, and this was a list chosen as if by a careful lawyer. There were no Newjeans songs: not the ecstatic “Super Shy”, the exciting thumper “Eta”, the “supernatural” casually seductive, the “biscuit” with ease. (The group debuted a new song together: “Pit Stop”, which pulsed of an intense bassing fervor and that its members accompanied with the easily precise type of choreography for which they became known.)

While on the surface the set was casual and annoyed, it was not difficult to perceive something turbulent and emotionally taxed just below – atypical for the deeply refined group. It was as if the artists communicate with their faithful in a sort of code.

After the solo curves, the five women turned into coordinated clothes, as if he had summarized their shared identity. Minji wore tights that read the Njz chapter. They spoke with a capture of the crowd, but they were clearly retaining. At one point they formed a semicircle, he tightened his hands and engaged in a little collective primordial scream therapy: “3, 2, 1, aaarrrrrrgergghhhh!”

Before leaving the stage, they got up together and read prepared statements, in English and Korean, for eight minutes. The members repeatedly insisted on the fact that they respected the decision of the Court and that they were actually going on pause until some of the open legal questions have been resolved. What was supposed to be the first performance of the NJz probably seemed also the last one, at least for now.

“It is too difficult to continue going to this rhythm, and however strong we are trying to stay, it is honestly taking a little mental and emotional toll on us,” said Danielle. “However, this does not mean that we will give up.” He added Hanni, “it is about protecting us in order to return even stronger”.

After each statement, the crowd applauded. More members pay tears. The words were a hug, but the tone was that of a farewell. It was an distressing moment as seen in any concert in recent memory.

Perhaps the shape of the anguish is different, but we have already seen pop stars dry in plain sight. Take the Britney Spears public alarm clock following years of aggression paparazzi, tabloid dissection and management disputes; or a discouraged Justin Bieber literally performs in a cageAs if his alienation was not obvious enough.

The invisible costs of the Pop Superstarma are often unfathomably high, and it was difficult not to think about caution such as those in front of a group of artists so clearly frayed under pressure.

This seems particularly aimed in the South Korean entertainment sector, where artists work under standards almost impossible of perfection with a expectation of emotional vacuum. The fact that Newjeans’ members spoke on their own is a rare act of audacity. The fact that they could cost them their ability to continue performing seems unfathomable and cruel.

About half an hour after the show, the vast congress room was practically empty and most of the vendors’ displays were dismantled. However, what Njz Mercch had sold was still intact.

Only a handful of people were around when Hanni, Minji, Hyein, Haerin and Danielle emerged from a side door surrounded by safety guards. They looked at the downcast, emptied. They approached examining their stands and see closely what their fans had left them. For about five minutes, they welcomed the messages, signed the wall in a couple of seats and then placed for the photos in which they collected some faces of long -burning measures.

Then they dropped their heads again and made the exit, not knowing what he waited on the other side.