GFRIEND Announced To Perform At KCON 2017 NY, Joining Already Announced K-Pop Acts CNBLUE And TWICE

Right now, KCON.TV is busy setting up and building hype for their upcoming U.S. venue, KCON 2017 NY. Though it is labeled as New York, the venue is technically located in the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey, which is right on the New Jersey and New York border, or at least close enough to it. The upcoming Korean culture event and festival already has two K-pop acts scheduled that fans are looking forward to, CNBlue and Twice.

Now we know of a third K-pop act who will be joining CNBlue and Twice on the performance roster. GFriend is officially the third K-pop act to perform at KCON 2017 NY.

The announcement of GFriend performing at KCON 2017 NY was officially made today, April 13, on KCON’s official website. As mentioned above, they will be joining the previously announced K-pop acts CNBlue and Twice. It should also be noted this will be the second time in a row that GFriend performs at the New York/New Jersey leg of the KCON USA tour. Last year, they performed at KCON 2016 NY after releasing their first full-length studio album, LOL, featuring the hit song “Navillera.”

Now they will perform at KCON 2017 NY right after releasing their fourth EP, or mini-album, The Awakening, featuring “Fingertip.” It will be a unique experience for North American K-pop fans as “Fingertip” signaled a change for Friend after they went in a more mature direction.

Speaking of The Awakening and its featured song “Fingertip,” it has proven to be a critical success for GFriend. Starting with chart peak positions, it topped at number 18 on the Oricon chart for Japanese albums, number two on the Taiwanese albums for Five Music, and obviously at number one for the Korean Gaon chart. The big surprise is it debuting and topping at number five on the Billboard U.S. World Albums chart. This is the first time GFriend has debuted within the top five of that chart, though the pattern showed they would eventually be there. Their past albums have climbed up the Billboard U.S. World Albums chart after each release.

Of course, topping the charts also equates to album sales. In South Korea alone, The Awakening sold over 64,000 copies. That means it is just a mere 5,000 copies under topping their first full-length studio album, LOL, which sits at just over 69,000 copies sold. As for digital downloads, they are technically not as high as their past songs given the fact it released just last month. Still, over 313,000 digital downloads within a month is an accomplishment worth noting.

For K-pop fans, especially those who are Buddies (official fan club of GFriend), it is good that GFriend will be performing at KCON 2017 NY. However, it is still a month away until it happens. KCON has yet to truly organize the event. We don’t even have all the musical acts who will perform listed. However, it is safe to say GFriend will only perform their featured songs “Glass Bead,” “Me Gustas Tu,” “Rough,” “Navillera,” and “Fingertip” to accommodate the other K-pop acts who will perform. Expect them to only perform their featured hit songs too.

KCON 2017 NY will take place on June 23 and 24. As mentioned earlier, the venue will be the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey. As for the Los Angeles leg of KCON USA, KCON 2017 LA will take place on August 18 to 20 and will return to the Los Angeles Convention Center. We do know K-pop will be performed all three days this time around. Previously, only the last two days of the event had K-pop performances.

[Featured Image by Source Music/GFriend’s Official Daum Cafe]