While in Latin America we see and experience the advance of urban music as a new musical manifestation that is investing both stadiums and digital platforms, things are also happening on the other side of the globe. And the Hong Kong native jackson wang it has a lot to do with it.
An entire youth cultural movement monopolizes the large Asian market and somehow spreads by leaps and bounds to the rest of the world. This is K Pop and its various intersecting sound variants, which includes Western influences, while not losing the essence of the ways and fashions of its region, mainly in South Korea, spreading to the rest of the East.
This Thursday, May 18, one of the major exponents of this artistic event set foot in Argentina for the first time. It happened in the Movistar Arena, with an imposing setting, a sophisticated and overwhelming show.
His handler was mega star Jackson Wang, considered the greatest representative of Asian musicwhich in turn is becoming a big word in the Western teen scene at this point.
The reason for his visit was in the context of his 2022-2023 Magic Man World Tour.
About eight thousand young people fervently made the audience tremble by jumping and dancing to the songs of their oriental idol.
The one who announced the party
In Humboldt street, from the very beginning, a few tents could be seen on the sidewalk. On the other hand, it was impressive to see so many Korean and Chinese kids from the local communities with their bar friends, speaking their language.
The crowd that entered the stadium shortly after dark was between 15 and 20 years old. Most were young women, although some men were among the groups present.
Shortly before the start of the concert, the videos that had Jackson Wang as the main protagonist followed one another incessantly, he generated a hellish scream among many girls eager to see their idol for the first time on stage here, in the south of the planet.
The looks of many of them had their own peculiarity, the buns on both sides of the head or two small tails of hair called attention. Exaggerated makeup, checkered or all black skirts, buccaneer stockings, dyed hair, dark fishnet shirts and headbands with little lights were also part of the visual throughout the court and audience.
Between the visual and the sound
It all took place in the two and a half hour duration of the recital, with some thirty songs for which the vocalist has leafed through almost all his album lists. magical man (2022), Breath of love: last piece (2020, within the youth group Got7), mirrors (2019) and the EP titled 7 by 7 (2017).
When the lights of the Movistar Arena went out, it was immediately the turn of the video clips, in which Wang was always in the foreground, starting a cascade of sophisticated and cinematic images, the idea of which was then transferred to the stage at every moment . .
Eight dancers and dancers have joined the musician for almost all of his show, as well as two electric guitars, a keyboard, a bass and a battery, whose roles have been fundamental in the sound proposal, carefully marking the different climateswandering from melodic, danceable pop and even going metal, gothic and industrial in different sections of the night.
The show clearly felt oiled to perfection, with a leading man highly trained and polished to know when to push the button and pocket his audience.
After an introduction, the singer entered through a well-lit “star” door and descended a few steps amid smoke and overwhelming female screams.
Wang wore dark pants and a jacket, gloves, and had half-black, half-blonde hair. In addition, not insignificant detail, his eyes painted black, scruffy with exaggeration (which is why you understand the trick of his fans).
With a tall figure, he generated complicity with his male and female dancers, completely devoted to precise steps, zigzags, pirouettes, slides along the tables: all choreographies that revolved around the street, gothic and casual, even when tables and chairs appeared on the stage, simulating a bar, and the singer standing on a table, arrogant.
The flamethrowers, the colored pieces of paper, the noises that threw the paper tapes on the audience, generated both a visual and emotional impact in the young audience, who continued to dance, to wave the lights of their mobile phones or to film almost all at the same time .
The epic also had an important place on some occasions when both the dancers and the singer dressed as monks or when the show faced images close to those we commonly see in zombie series filmed in Eastern countries.
communication in English
Wang interrupted his musical journey four times. Just as her repertoire is all in English, in the same language she addressed the local audience.
“Argentina, I want to thank you for the love,” he expressed in his first speech.
Then he referred to his time in television, both as a model and as an entertainer, dancer and singer.
Then he added the following: “This show is part of my story. Many times I feel alone, because I travel all the time.
In another interval, he pleasantly approached the audience and singled out a young woman to take the stage.
They both starred in a dramatization of a love song, a sort of live romance, in which the girl practically embraced her idol, both center stage until they moved up the white-lit central staircase and purple, while countless sheets of red paper fell, simulating flower petals.
Suddenly, a video exploded with images of him as a child and retracing much of his life story, in which he could be seen with his family, practicing fencing (he gave up the sport to pursue music), his with bands, their different looks, their friends and even part of their tours filmed behind the scenes or close to their fans.
The line he launched to conclude this self-referential mini-documentary was “Find your magic”, focusing on the big message of his latest album and his current tour.
Similarly, in one of his many positive speeches to his young audience, the Hong Kong-born singer twenty-nine years ago underlined one central thing: “The point is, you live all your days happily”, he enthusiastically expressed to his followers.
During the long recital, Wang changed her clothes at least four times. However, despite the red suits, a dark shiny sleeveless shirt, another very tight, long-sleeved, mesh-style shirt, in a certain section he reappeared on the scene with white contact lenses, getting even closer to the already mentioned zombie plot.
The sensuality, the autobiographical, his omnipresent figure through the four LEDs that were in the Movistar Arena, undoubtedly testified that it is a highly self-referential star and that whoever produces it has a very clear idea of the correct way to get their artist on the world podium apart from the consecration obtained by the other side of the globe.
As seen last night, the goal is already paying off here in the West. One detail says more than a thousand words: some 15-year-olds in the audience called a bottle that the musician gave to a thirsty young girl in front of the stage “holy water”. It happened just before blowthe most acclaimed song of the evening, for which he became famous in these lands so far from his.
Outside, around half past eleven in the evening, a multitude of parents awaited their children, the same ones who never stopped jumping, singing, dancing and cheering the great oriental revolution transformed into song.
Source: Clarin
