Kang Daniel, currently on the Europe leg of his World Tour, performed in Paris on January, 28th.
Kang Daniel debuted in 2017 and quickly became Korea’s “Nation Heartthrob”, as well as a favorite artist of many K-Pop fans around the world. He convinced audiances worldwide with not only his talent, but also his kindness, his love for cats and his passion for gummy bears. He debuted as a solo artist in July 2019, just 6 months before COVID-19 put concerts and travels to a halt. As a result, he’s now having his first world tour and KAvenyou attended his concert in Paris.
January 28th, at 6am, fans were already lining up outside the venue despite the winter weather. Luckily, a fan-numbering system prevented them from spending a long day in the cold weather, so that everyone could show a high level of energy during the evening. So when Daniel sings the first words of “Who Are You”, the chears are loud. The rest of the setlist is unknown at that time. The artists changes it at each show. In a ment, he explains that he wants to make each concert different and unique, entertaining for not just the fans but himself too.
This idea, original for such a tour, makes things difficult for his fans abroad. In Paris, they had planned for a banner and wanted to hold it up during the song “Movie”. Precisely the song he didn’t perform on that day. Luckily though, they still manage to make the event successfull on the song “I hope”, which was chosen for the day’s Encore song. Daniel also makes sure to show different looks, with different outfits from a city to an other, making us wonder how many suitcases did he bring on this tour.
For every other ment, Daniel speaks in english. Surprizingly enough, throughout the concert, Daniel doesn’t speak a word in Korean. He uses english very fluently, mixed with a little bit of french. Communicating with fans seems to be one of Daniel’s main priorities. Every talking session is honnest, cute and free-spirited. Daniel expresses that one of the places he wanted to visit in Paris with “Montmartre” (which he pronounces almost perfectly). Coincidentally, the venue, called Elysée-Montmartre, is located right at the foot of the Mountain. The Eiffel-Tower is also on his must-see list.
Daniel’s childish side quickly comes out when he mentions the Disney movie “Ratatouille”. He gets excited, asks fans if they’ve ever been to “La tour d’argent”, the restaurant that inspired the movie. And he’s genuinely shocked to learn that they haven’t. He moves on to its OST and gets help from a fan to properly say “Le festin est sur mon chemin”. Regularly during his ments, a fan would just scream some compliment and get the artist laughing shyly.
This image of Daniel differs strikingly from some of his performances, such a Paranoia, Parade or Nirvana. Sometimes mysterious, sometimes mature, the performances also show the artist’s efforts in delivering the songs messages. With videos in the background and a team of dancers, the show looks grand like some big production. On brighter songs like Upside Down, Daniel smiles to fans, or playing with his dancers. To anyone who knows him well, they’ll tell you that’s just who he is : talkative and always happy to perform.
To outsiders, or at least people who knew him from afar, this attitude is nothing but a bottomless pit. It’s hard to not fall for someone who seems so friendly and easy-going. The superstar who debuted through a survival show is actually a charming and simple young man that wants nothing but to perform for his fans and share precious moments with them. It may explain the big diversity of people in the audiance – from whole families who came together to older fans, without forgetting a rather large number of fanboys. It was Kang Daniel’s “First Parade”, but fans are sure to eagerly wait for the next one.
We’d ike to thank Live Nation France and Konnect Entertainment for having us.
