The Best Moments From KCON LA 2026

Of all the songs HYBE Latin America’s first global group could have brought out in their KCON LA debut, they picked one of their most vocally challenging — and nailed it.

“FE” closes out DUAL, their debut EP released in March, and it’s a slow-burning, Spanish-language ballad with a vocal performance that grows more ambitious with each chorus. Drew, Alejandro, Gabi, Kauê and Kenneth nailed it at their mid-afternoon Artist Stage set, with Kauê and Kenneth delivering impassioned harmonies that set the standard for the weekend.

The independent artist directed and cast the music video for his latest single, “BIG BOY” (below), himself, telling Forbes he set out to fill it with “different body types, different genders, different skin tones.” At his M Countdown pre-show set, he proved he refused to limit that vision to a single visual.

from20 opened his performance by giving a peck to YouTuber Loey Lane, his same curvy co-star from the video, before bringing out a larger Black dancer mid-song, and closing the song surrounded by a spectrum of different people — a goth, a prep girl, and faces Black, brown, white and every shade between. Unfortunately, it’s still the type of diversity K-pop audiences simply do not usually see represented on these kinds of stages, but from20’s final pose with his cast of diverse collaborators was a powerful statement to bring to one of K-pop’s biggest stages.

World-champion beatboxer WING made his first appearance at KCON, closing out his set in a collaboration with the Korean American Youth Performing Artists (KAYPA), who joined him in traditional Korean dress with instruments in hand. Like the concept behind BTS’ ARIRANG album, a collision of historic Korean sounds mixed with modern percussion and beats made entirely from one man’s mouth delivered something all the more strange and fascinating.

In a festival built around the idea that Korean culture is traveling globally, there’s also a clear argument that the travel goes back in time as well.

KO1KEYZ, a 12-member act formed during the live finale of the boy-band competition series Produce 101 Japan Shinsekai in June, doesn’t officially debut until October, when their self-titled single arrives simultaneously in Japan and Korea. But you would not have guessed it. Their performance of the Produce program’s theme song “SHINSEKAI” was super polished with the boys’ clear giddiness at being on stage and already meeting overseas fans clear from their earnest stage banter.

“For a long time, watching other sunbaenims, we trained to be an idol and now we achieved the dream,” member Towa said, getting a bit choked up while speaking but smiling through the emotions, eliciting an audible “aww” from the crowd. “Now, we’re standing on the KCON LA [stage] and it feels unreal.”

The guys also delivered the first-ever live performance of their forthcoming single, the Korean version of “KO1KEYZ,” setting international expectations high months before debut.

The rookie hip-hop group took on the 2013 K-pop classic “Very Good” by Block B and gave it their own makeover. Consisting of seven members formed on Mnet’s Unpretty Rapstar: HIP POP Princess competition series, H//PE Princess operates in partnership with Korea’s CJ ENM, Japan’s Hakuhodo, as well as Amoeba Culture, the hip-hop label built by Korean rap legends Dynamicduo, with this cover introducing KCON fans to the kind of artists the septet aims to emulate.

While &TEAM had just slayed a performance of “Deer Hunter” days earlier in a room a tiny fraction of the Crypto.com Arena at the GRAMMY Museum, the global boy band clearly wanted to up the hype for the full festival experience. A turning point came when K flung off the glasses he’d been wearing and led the group into a run of choreography so tight it read as if they were moving as one single stage beast.

With clean, precise and tight choreography the cornerstone of most K-pop performances, TREASURE delivered a three-song run of “IF I,” “ZOOM ZOOM” and “RUN” that resembled something closer to a rock show with the arena immediately reacting with resounding enthusiasm. During “RUN,” several members left the stage entirely for the audience floor, with Hyunsuk and Haruto delivering their verses alongside fans in the audience while taking selfies, giving high-fives, offering handshakes and more for the loosest and friendliest set of the night.

Billing the performance as “two worlds connected by K-Soul,” Santos Bravos returned to the KCON stage a second time to perform BTS’ “Hooligan” with &TEAM following them to cover “2.0” — both off BTS’ three-week Billboard 200 No. 1 album ARIRANG — before all 14 converged for a joint take on “Permission to Dance.”

Two acts under HYBE’s larger “multi-home, multi-genre” umbrella, Santos Bravos (coming out of Mexico City–based HYBE Latin America) and &TEAM *under Japan’s YX Labels) came together to perform cuts from the Korean group whose success made building either of them possible in front of an American crowd. Centered around “K-Soul,” the collaboration speaks not only to how HYBE operates as a modern-day entertainment company, but also to what KCON represents for the K-pop industry today.

Almost a decade after making their KCON LA debut, Wanna One returned as nine of its 11 member members (Kang Daniel is serving his mandatory South Korean military service, and Lai Kuanlin has shifted careers and is focused on activities abroad) with a performance of debut single “Energetic,” which was Billboard‘s pick for the best K-pop song of 2017.

With the guys still hitting every move and filling in gaps when needed (rapper Park Woojin even seemed to be recreating Kang Daniel’s tone on his parts), the reunion delivered the wave of feeling a reunion is engineered to produce. But the high-soaring, genuinely moving vocal performance for their closing song “Spring Breeze, Again,” the newly released single that reworks a 2018 farewell song built on a promise to meet again, reminded the audience that raw talent shown on television and on stage was a key factor in what made Wanna One such a sensation a decade prior.

KCON’s headliners offered hour-long sets for the first time this year, with the trial beginning on night one with NCT 127, who made sure to pack their time to the limit.

Highlights like fan-favorite B-sides, including 2021’s “Lemonade” and “Summer 127” released in 2017, likely would never have made it to the set if they’d been given the usual 20 minutes. Meanwhile, KCON’s signature Dream Stage, where fans audition and learn the choreography at the fest to perform it with the artist later, saw the guys team with dozens of local dancers to perform “Kick It.” Plus, the guys delivered their first-ever live performance of “Pinata,” a new track off their upcoming album BLINGY, out later this month.

But the hour also allowed for each member to ensure he got to step into his own spotlight: Taeyong’s solo dance section during “Kick It” reminded us why he’s the group’s center, Johnny was the group’s hype man and led everyone to throw hands in the air, Yuta had multiple moments performing straight to the camera with his intensity spotlighted on the jumbotron, Jaehyun offered some of the best hip thrusts of his career, and Haechan ensured his power vocals did not go unnoticed with impressive control belting into his headset mic.

KCON’s closing ritual to bring the full lineup back out to wave goodbye at the end of the concert is a formality but fun highlight, and day one’s closing seemingly ran long because nobody wanted to leave the stage.

KO1KEYZ watched Wanna One in open awe, delivering 90-degree bows to a group that debuted when several of them were children. ZEROBASEONE’s Sung Hanbin, the night’s main MC, worked the stage with his friends in KickFlip, while Santos Bravos and H//PE Princess appeared to be competing alongside one another over who could hype the room harder.

The final artist to leave the stage on opening night was &TEAM’s K, still adorably waving and finding individual faces, as staff physically directed and moved him and the artists toward the wings.

Despite the somewhat perplexing name, the “K-Food Messenger Talk Show” was surprisingly tender.

Netflix Culinary Class Wars competitor and James Beard Award–winning chef Edward Lee spoke openly about the pull between his American and Korean heritage cultures, which was a point of connection with his co-panelist, ZEROBASEONE’s Seok Matthew, himself a Korean-Canadian. Seok recalled singing Zion.T’s R&B hit “Yanghwa BRDG” (which reached the Top 20 of Billboard‘s World Digital Song Sales chart in 2014) for an online audition at his mother’s suggestion. Written about a taxi-driver father who spent his nights crossing South Korea’s Yanghwa Bridge and the son who grows up to take over as provider, it speaks to a plea for family to be happy and healthy. Matthew sang it a cappella, and those in the audience could hear his vulnerable nerves audibly settle as he sang through the track.

Matthew also delivered an exciting announcement: confirming ZEROBASEONE will mount a world tour some time in 2027, saying, “I have no clue when it is, but guys, it will for sure be next year.” Edward Lee added in his best news-anchor voice, “Breaking news, you heard it here first!”

Covers are becoming this standout rookie group’s calling card. While KEYVITUP gained attention at May’s KCON Japan for their take on BTS’ “I Need U” (below), the quintet went after ATEEZ’s “Adrenaline” at the Toyota Music Den Stage by matching the muscle needed for the intense single but keeping their unique voices intact. Another win for a group that debuted only four months ago.

MODYSSEY might be a new name to most K-pop fans, but the four-month-old global boy band had everyone in the arena singing along to their cover of One Direction’s “What Makes You Beautiful” at day two’s M Countdown concert. With an adorable array of poses, as well as a moment for voguing on one of the verses, the seven members put their own memorable spin on the British boy band’s bubblegum-pop classic.

Before ILLIT actually began their performance on the Crypto.com Arena stage, the audience got to see the girl group through a different lens with a surprise reveal of a clip from the upcoming HYBE America/Paramount film K-Pop: The Debut. The quintet is seen rehearsing in the studio when a loud and cheery label executive (played by Eric Nam, who has performed at several KCON festivals himself) brings a group of K-pop hopefuls into the room to introduce ILLIT, to which the young contestants flatly tell him, “We know.” Duh.

Nam, along with his K-Pop: The Debut co-star Ji-Young Yoo, then took the Crypto.com stage to further hype the flick’s February 2027 release and properly introduce their co-stars, ILLIT, to the crowd.

The rising girl group had already made their case earlier in the M Countdown concert with a fierce take on “Metronome,” their house-driven single from June’s SET THE TEMPO. But this cover is what showed their real range.

Covering BLACKPINK’s “DDU-DU DDU-DU” — the 2018 smash single that debuted at No. 55 on the Billboard Hot 100, the highest a K-pop girl group had ever charted at the time — requires snapping into the swagger of Jennie and Lisa’s raps before easing into the aching delivery Jisoo and Rosé bring to the chorus.

There’s also a nice bit of lineage here: Teddy Park wrote and produced “DDU-DU DDU-DU,” and he’s the same producer shaping izna’s sound at THEBLACKLABEL.

With Jongseob and Theo sitting on the stage stairs, Keeho and Intak singing their way down the arena aisles, and Soul and Jiung working the pit before all six converged on stage, P1Harmony offered a real staging flex at the top of their set for a song that wasn’t even a single.

“ICE (VVS)” is the closing track on UNIQUE, P1Harmony’s ninth mini album that debuted at No. 4 on the Billboard 200 in March for the group’s first Top 5 entry. The B-side went viral in its own way, racking up more than 10.7 million streams on Spotify and enough demand that the group put out a visualizer for the song three weeks after release. The crowd’s hyped-up response to the cut further showed why it was a smart move and a standout in P1H’s discography so far.

As KCON LA’s day-two headliners, ZEROBASEONE used their full hour to show what they could do together and apart — and to make a major case for checking them out on their future tour.

ZB1 opened with “TOP 5,” the lead single from May’s Ascend- EP and their first release as a five-member group, channeling loads of Michael Jackson into their expressive choreography as well as their black-jacket-white-shirt combos. The early-2000s dance-pop sound of “TOP 5” made an easy transition for members Sung Hanbin, Seok Matthew and Park Gunwook’s unexpectedly smooth cover of Justin Timberlake’s “SexyBack” (see below).

Later in the set, Kim Jiwoong gave the first broadcast performance of “CLOSER,” his solo single released in July. Kim Taerae took on IU’s 2024 ballad “Love Wins All” and asked the arena to raise their phone flashlights, with more than enough KCONers participating to make the Crypto.com Arena look bathed in candlelight.

One last minor detail: Throughout the set, the members kept popping out their in-ear monitors — one of the oldest tells in live music to show that the mics are, in fact, on.

While the NCT leader rocked KCON with his bandmates during NCT 127’s headlining performance at the Day 1 concert, Taeyong shared multiple sides of his personality in his first U.S. solo performance since being discharged from mandatory military service in December.

Before hitting the stage himself, Taeyong showcased his sweet side when he spoke to the crowd during an MC segment to introduce fellow soloist Yeonjun of TOMORROW X TOGETHER. Speaking in English while looking directly at the camera instead of his cue cards — far more than most other MCs did during KCON’s hosted segments — Taeyong reminded fans of the genuine hard worker who always strives for perfection in what he does.

Yet when it came time for his stage, Taeyong brought out his wild — or, should we say WYLD — side with his singles “SHALALA” and “WYLD.” Decked in a leather vest he kept buttoned up for most of the songs, he let loose for WYLD B-side “Skiii,” throwing off his top and running into the pit shirtless in a total rock-star move.

Day two’s closing goodbyes had less cross-group mingling than Friday’s, which made P1Harmony leader Keeho’s beeline to ZEROBASEONE’s Seok Matthew for a big hug all the more remarkable. The two spent the rest of the segment circling the stage together to greet fans — at one point stopping to pose for pictures together, creating hand hearts and with Keeho playfully grabbing Matthew’s face, marking a rare chance for two idols who don’t share a label to end up in the same frame for fan photos.

So!YoON! has a voice that small stages can’t quite hold with the SE SO NEON frontwoman giving the live premiere of a delightful new song, “Go Easy,” on the Toyota Music Den Stage on Day 3. Still, it was “Smoke Sprite” at the Day 2 M Countdown pre-show in the arena that showed what her vocals can really do.

The 2023 single that she wrote and composed with RM of BTS was one of the year’s best songs from Korea with the two musicians presenting a genuine artistic collaboration rather than an artist-plus-feature track. On stage at the Crypto.com Arena, So!YoON! used RM’s recorded verse as a partner, harmonizing against the BTS leader’s voice and adding a layer of feeling the studio version doesn’t have on record.

The Artist Stage got a world premiere from JO1 as the Japanese boy band gave the first live performance of “ANIMAL,” the title track of their upcoming English EP of the same name out Oct. 2. The track opens with 808-heavy hip-hop production before mixing in a Brazilian funk beat as the guys growl ferocious lyrics like: “Go so wild, back to the jungle we go/ Go so wild, I’m an animal.”

As many artists realized this weekend, KCON acted as the perfect stage to preview the forthcoming project (produced by Grammy-winning producer Dem Jointz, whose credits run from Janet Jackson and Rihanna to NCT and aespa) as well as the Japanese act’s upcoming ANIMAL North American Tour (which kicks off in Toronto the same day ANIMAL is released on Oct. 2).

The Day 3 M Countdown concert opened with a multi-surprise performance including a full-scale choreography stage led by Bailey of ALLDAY PROJECT alongside her dancer friends Kida the Great and RIEHATA — Bailey and Kida competed as the duo Bailey & Kida on Season 4 of NBC’s World of Dance in 2020, reaching the junior semi-finals.

Also making the moment more special is that LA is Bailey’s home turf: raised in Orange County, she was teaching and choreographing professionally by 14 and, at 15, choreographed Red Velvet’s “Psycho” as her entry into K-pop, before going on to work with Janet Jackson, BIGBANG’s Taeyang, Jason Derulo, BLACKPINK’s LISA, Meghan Trainor, aespa and more. Watching her open an arena in her home state just a year after debuting as an idol was its own kind of full circle, one that her ALLDAY PROJECT members hyped her up over during their set later, which had Bailey looking thoroughly pleased, cheesing on stage about the experience.

The first artist set of KCON’s Day 3 M Countdown concert lineup arrived with another major premiere. JYP Entertainment’s Korean-Japanese act NEXZ gave the first-ever performance of “SAUCIN’,” the new title track of their fourth Korean mini album, which doesn’t drop for another week on Aug. 24.

The septet embraced the track’s turbo-techno dance beat (which you can hear in the official music video teaser below) with hard, fast, fun, and incredibly clean choreography that would pique anyone’s interest, even on a first listen. The group was equally charming while speaking to the crowd in English, all the more reason to add NEXZ to the list of global groups to watch.

After a fierce intro where MEOVV mimicked punching the camera, MEOVV rolled straight into “Hit ‘Em” and its demanding choreography that is seriously brutal with loads of athletic cardio, long-held stretching and extensions, and vocals that rise above it all.

Luckily, MEOVV landed it all, with the peak coming via a dance break in which the members dropped into candlesticks — the gymnastics and yoga pose lying flat on one’s back, legs driven straight up and held there on core strength alone. That image looked enormous and impressive from any seat in the arena. After following up with a performance of their latest single “DDI RO RI,” the quintet came back for a cover of BLACKPINK’s “JUMP,” marking the second time the K-pop icons were honored on the Crypto.com Arena stage during KCON LA 2026.

The best story in the Korean music industry this year belongs to a song from 2024. “Love Attack,” the single from RESCENE’s first EP SCENEDROME, made little noise locally when it first dropped, but has since made a reverse run, hitting No. 1 on Korea’s charts this summer and even entering the Billboard Global Excl. US chart earlier this year. (We must brag to say Billboard did name SCENEDROME one of the best K-pop albums of that year — we always saw the vision)

The group’s breakout success came from a mix of nonstop work, member Woni’s meme-ready YouTube channel, and a genuinely refreshing K-pop sound that let new fans dive into a world of content around the girl group. KCON captured what came before the No. 1s with a montage opening their stage, tracing the group from its March 2024 debut through every small event and opportunity they said yes to on the way to the top.

That work ethic hasn’t budged either: the quintet played two Toyota Music Den showcases and a session at the Dance Stage by Sanrio across the weekend, on top of the M Countdown main stage on Day 3, with a group of fans dubbed the “TEAM RESCENE” standing at the barrier watching with pride.

For his first solo U.S. arena performance under the name EVAN, the former ENHYPEN member had a choice in how to reintroduce himself — and he picked the more challenging, and ultimately more rewarding, option.

Rather than opening with his energetic alt-rock single “RIDE OR DIE,” he led with its B-side, “Overflow,” a lighter, dreamier guitar-pop song he wrote during a period he’s described as emotionally exhausting, centered around a hook about holding onto hope.

The restraint seems to be the whole point. While he played KCON LA in 2022 and 2024, as well as KCON Japan in 2023, with his former group, this quiet song clearly displayed how much has changed since his March exit and proved his point far more effectively than a loud, flashy performance would have for this crucial point in his career.

By the time ALPHA DRIVE ONE covered “Fake Love,” the KCON LA 2026 weekend had established a pattern: Santos Bravos and &TEAM had already dipped into the BTS catalog on Day 1 with two ARIRANG tracks and one 2021 single, but ALD1’s version was arguably the most technically faithful. The rookie group nailed it throughout the entire performance — with member Xinlong even recreating Jung Kook’s famous ab reveal on the final pre-chorus (with the arena reacting exactly how you’d expect).

Formed on Mnet’s Boys II Planet, ALPHA DRIVE ONE only officially debuted earlier this year on Jan. 12, already showing a clear dedication to respecting and honoring their seniors and creating a frenzy all their own.

TOMORROW X TOGETHER have toured the U.S. every year since 2022 and fans wouldn’t have held it against them if they skipped KCON LA. Instead, they took the Day 3 headlining slot and closed the festival with a set built from the some of the strongest songs of their famously super-strong catalog: “0X1=LOVESONG (I Know I Love You)” — Billboard‘s pick for No. 1 K-pop song of 2021 — “Deja Vu,” “Good Boy Gone Bad” and “LO$ER=LOVER,” the TXT version of their Anitta collaboration “Back for More,” alongside fan-favorite b-sides like “Danger,” “Anti-Romantic” and “So What.” The guys never skimped on the details either, with Taehyun and Huening Kai ensuring their raspy, punk-pop delivery of “0X1=LOVESONG” came through loud and clear.

While Yeonjun delivered pure rock-star appeal during his solo slot on Day 2 amid a massive U.S. promo run, the five of them delivered a magic that is hard to replicate, with the guys looking particularly radiant in their sky-blue denim jackets and jeans. That radiance remained even as the members were still visibly catching their breath between songs and, at times, unable to get a sentence out when speaking to the crowd — tangible evidence of the effort that went into their headlining set and what an hour on the KCON stage looks like.