8,000 fans flock to Mall of America to see global K-pop-style girl group KATSEYE
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As KATSEYE sings it, “Love me once, I know you'll love me twice,” and fans at the Huntington Bank Rotunda at Mall of America on Saturday agreed.
According to mall officials, almost 8,000 people came to watch the global K-pop inspired girl group, crowding the stage area and four floors trying to catch a glimpse.
The six-member group, managed by K-pop music giant HYBE and American music label Geffen, consists of members from the United States, Philippines, Switzerland and South Korea.
They debuted in June with their single “Debut” but quickly rose to fame with fans all over the world when their Netflix documentary and survival show “Pop Star Academy” aired in August showing their journey to becoming a group.
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Marcus Schweisthal, 22, from St. Michael said the documentary is what brought him out Saturday.
“I had heard of mall performances before, but I would have never guessed that they would come to the Mall of America,” he said. “So it's pretty fun to see it actually happening.”
Their debut album “SIS (Soft is Strong),” which includes their hit singles “Touch” and “Debut,” broke into the U.S. Billboard 200 charts within weeks of its release.
Tickets sold out in minutes on Monday, a Mall of America spokesperson said. Many fans showed up hours before the performance just to get a spot.
K-pop fan Shana Wanjohi, 22, from Eagan said she got to the mall at 10 and while she was in awe of the amount of people, she wasn’t surprised.
“They tend to underestimate the power of K-pop fans and how much they'll come together in order to support a group,” Wanjohi said. “So I'm not, I'm a little bit surprised of how big it is, but I'm also, like, not surprised.”
This is KATSEYE’s first time in Minnesota and their first mall performance in the United States. HYBE and Geffen Records partnered to manage formation and extensive training of the group. HYBE is responsible for some of the biggest names in K-pop now including BTS, NewJeans and Le Sserafim.
Before their stop at Mall of America, the group was seen on social media visiting Minneapolis landmarks like Spoonbridge and Cherry and Prince’s star at First Avenue. After their performance, the group expressed awe at the amount of people in the audience and promised to come back.
“Going into the show, we were a little bit nervous, but so, so excited to finally perform here in Minnesota, and seeing like, all the faces, 8,000 people, it's just surreal, and it felt like a dream,” said KATSEYE member Daniela Avanzini.
Group members said they loved the energy of the fans at Mall of America but also the “vibes” of Minnesota.
“I'm gonna move here,” said KATSEYE member Manon Bannerman. “I've been daydreaming about living a slow life out here in my 40s.”
Fans of the survival show “The Debut: Dream Academy,” which aired in real-time on Youtube and Weverse, voted for the final six of KATSEYE in November 2023.
The group’s members – Megan Skiendiel, Sophia Laforteza, Lara Rajagopalan, Yoonchae Jeong, Daniela Avanzini and Manon Bannerman – represent diverse cultural backgrounds spanning Indian American, Filipino, Korean, Ghanaian-Swiss-Italian, Cuban-Venezuelan-American and Chinese-Singaporean-American roots.
For many fans, like Ashanti Gemeda, 22, from Blaine, the group's diversity and K-pop training made their debut especially exciting.
“I recently became a big fan of KATSEYE,” Gemeda said. “I've been really into K-pop, but it's really cool to see a group with more diversity, especially as a Black person, seeing Black people in this way. And I love girl groups. I love music. It's great.”
Nicole Ki contributed to this reporting.
