Imfact stir K-Pop mania in Dubai

K-Pop boy band Imfact gave their UAE fans a day to remember at their concert in Dubai on Saturday.

The ‘maknae’, or youngest member, Ungjae told Gulf News tabloid! in an interview days before their performance that they’re “much more energetic and powerful on the stage” and the band didn’t fail to deliver on this claim.

Imfact gave an impactful performance with in-synch dance moves, genre-hopping tunes and an audience that engulfed the auditorium of the American University in Dubai with non-stop cheers.

Just after instrumental Korean band Sopung ended their performance, ardent Imfact fans responded instantly to a brief clip on screen introducing members Lee Sang, Jian, Jeup, Ungjae and Taeho. But it wasn’t until the opening song ‘Nanana’ and the appearance of the quintet one by one in colour-coordinated black and white outfits that the young crowd got really hyped up.

Performing a repertoire of tunes such as ‘Only U’, ‘Lollipop’, as well as a cover of Mamamoo’s ‘Starry Night’, Imfact lit up the stage, and their fans, referred to as IFs, did the rest.

“We didn’t expect this kind of reaction from the fans before we came here,” Lee Sang said after their performance. “The reaction was really great and we had fun together with them while we were performing. We enjoyed the performance today [Saturday].”

When it comes to K-Pop fans, language is never an obstacle. The quintet took a little break between performances to introduce themselves in Arabic, an admirable effort that got the audience overjoyed.

The band’s main vocalist Jeup is known to be a fan of calligraphy. Asked if he ever took an interest in Arabic calligraphy he said: “I haven’t tried it myself or looked into it, but I’ve seen the English calligraphy in kind of Arabic style. My fans also gave Arabic calligraphy to me, so I only saw those.”

In attempt to get closer with fans, each member handpicked one of multiple colourful sticky notes filled with questions written by fans, and invited them individually on stage to personally present them with a gift.

The members revealed on stage that they are working on new music and hope to come back to the UAE. What’s left on their list is their official fandom colour, which IFs have been wondering about.

Ungjae said backstage that they really want to announce it and it might take a while, but “hopefully soon”.

To deafening cheers from admirers holding glowing light sticks and banners, the members returned to the stage for an encore performance. Some of the members even stepped off the stage to join IFs before bidding farewell.

Imfact can do little wrong by their fans right now and they are determined to make an impact locally and globally with their music.

The five-piece act is arguably a K-Pop band on the rise. They held a European tour and become the first K-Pop group to take the stage in Greece.

Having debuted in 2016, Jian, the leader of the group, shared that no particular member has changed since then but it’s been all about “growth”.

“We feel that we’ve become more enthusiastic and we’re putting more effort than we first started,” he said.

He added that although their European tour was only 10 days, even during that time they could see that they were growing and putting in more effort artistically.

Don’t miss it!

Imfact will perform again on April 29 at 4pm at HCT Dubai Women’s Campus. It’s a free event but pre-registration is required.