On April 27th, B.A.P started their Live On Earth Europe Attack for a total of three concerts (in London, Paris and Dusseldorf). KAvenyou attended their show and could witness their incredible popularity among European K-Pop fans.
B.A.P debuted in January 2012 with Warrior. Back then, the competition they had to face as rookies was pretty strong. The same year, other groups like BTOB, EXO, VIXX, Tasty and many more also debuted.
However, only two years later, B.A.P are now proving that they didn’t need to fear the competition. The sole fact that they are already having a solo World Tour is pretty impressive.
With songs like One Shot, Power, Badman, No Mercy, Hurricane and more, they already have enough successful songs for a concert that lasts two hours and that keeps fans singing and jumping along. Not only that, but their popularity worldwide is exploding, especially in Europe, as shown through these three concerts.
In Germany, B.A.P have been dominating the K-Pop charts. When their song “One Shot” got released in March 2013, it ranked first for four months in a row, and remained in the “top 3” for a year. As for “1004 (Angel)”, released recently, it also ranked first in March. The April 2014 charts featured both songs, with “1004” being first and “One Shot” being tenth.
Such results are not only seen in Germany, as B.A.P also won a total of five awards at the “European So-Loved Awards” and 6 awards at the “Remarkable Awards”. They also won 2 awards at the “Soompi France Awards”, and got nominated once for the “MTV Europe Music Awards”.
Hence, when B.A.P announced that they would “attack” Europe, we already were expecting to see a lot of excited BABYz. This is how in Paris (France), B.A.P ended up holding their concert at Le Zénith, a major french venue where about 7000 people can fit.
And sure enough, in front of the venue, B.A.P’s fans started lining in front of the doors the evening before the concert, not hesitating to spend the night there to ensure a good spot.
Besides the regular K-Pop fans, one couldn’t help but notice how many fanboys and elder men where here. The versatility of B.A.P (understand here their ability to sing many different syles of music while keeping a strong hip-hop touch in all of their songs) appeals to a wide number of fans.
During the concert, this huge popularity turned the venue into a club. In Paris, “Hurricane” can definitely be considered as one of the biggest highlights of the evening. While B.A.P looked like they were having the time of their lives on stage, the fans were screaming the fanchants at the top of their lungs while jumping around and waving a green sea of matoki lightsticks to the beat.
Besides, B.A.P and their french fans also shared cute moments over a “Coffee Shop” skit, and emotional ones when french fans raised their “Once a BABY, Forever a BABY” banners.
Probably as a way to thank their fans, B.A.P have done a lot of efforts to learn french words and sentences. They also didn’t forget to sing a few lines of the famous “Champs Elysées” song, but the members were happy to have fans backing them up for the more difficult sentences of the chorus. Once B.A.P left the stage, it was with the promise of coming back. We bet that when they do, BABYz will be waiting for them in even greater numbers.
We would like to thank BASE and Twisted Talent for inviting us to the Paris stop of B.A.P’s Live on Earth tour.
Pictures: Angel James de Ocampo
Article and credits: Celine and Salima Z.
