K-Pop group D-Crunch did not perform as planned in Kuwait on October 27 and apologised to fans on stage at the venue.
The band had performed in Abu Dhabi on October 24 as part of Korea Festival 2019. However, a more recent performance scheduled at the 40th Anniversary Concert of Korea-Kuwait Diplomatic Relations was stopped from taking place at the last minute.
The group’s nine members took the stage and apologised for being unable to perform.
“Sorry everyone for not showing you our performances,” a member of the band told the crowd, who could be heard cheering. “We will come back soon, we will see you soon again. Thank you so much everyone.”
In a statement after the event, Hong Youngki, Ambassador of the Republic of Korea to Kuwait, expressed: “I’m very much grateful for Kuwaiti audience tonight. The cultural event is successful because friends in Kuwait have welcomed the Korean performance with great enthusiasm. Cultural events can bring people closer. With the good help of the Kuwaiti government, the Korean embassy will continue its best efforts to make our relations stronger and closer.” The statement was dictated to Gulf News tabloid! over the phone by a member of staff at the Embassy of the Republic of Korea in Kuwait; according to him, no specific mention of D-Crunch was made.
AUDIENCE MEMBER RECOUNTS EVENT
Sports medicine specialist and Good Morning Kuwait TV personality Yousef Al Saleh, 31, was in the crowd and was surprised by the cancellation.
“It was a free event and we were celebrating the relations between Korea and Kuwait. It was advertised that there’s going to be modern music, traditional Korean music with Korean traditional dances, and D-Crunch,” said Al Saleh.
“Upon arrival, everything was organised perfectly. They give us an agenda and it said that D-crunch is going to perform at this specific time, after everything else has been done — after the national anthems, after the the traditional dances, after the symphonies,” he added.
The event began at 7.30pm and D-Crunch was set to take the stage at approximately 9pm.
“You can tell the Kuwaiti crowd were there for the K-Pop. It was an age range between 14 years old to 50s or 60s. It was a huge demographic. And people were there for D-Crunch — you can tell, some girls had posters, they wore the t-shirts. There was no sign that it was going to be cancelled. The [rest of the] concert goes on without a hitch. It was excellent.”
But when it came time for D-Crunch, a Korean represantative came on stage to deliver an announcement.
“He said the Kuwaiti crowd has been amazing. You guys are one of the best audiences we’ve ever had. Unfortunately, we had to cut the show short. And this is just something that is out of our hands,” recalled Al Saleh.
Then, the band came on stage to apologise. To Al Saleh, they seemed to be out of sorts.
“You can tell that D-crunch, physically, they were upset. They were really devastated,” he said.
After the band delivered a short speech, the lights went on and the event was abruptly over, according Al Saleh.
“I was 100 percent surprised. We were all dumbstruck, because when we were there, it was like, ‘OK, open the lights and leave.’ Why? Just give me an explanation. The band was there,” he said.
“I’m an avid K-Pop lover. I listen to everything, but there’s just something about K-Pop that honestly I love. K-Pop is not controversial, it’s all clean choreography, because Korea has a standard and K-Pop has a standard, too,” he added.
Other audience members seemed confused, as they could be heard asking, “They’re not performing?” and “They’re not going to sing?”
“I’m not 100 per cent upset, just because the concert was free,” explained Al Saleh. “But if I paid money and it got cancelled, it doesn’t make sense.”
NO OFFICIAL STATEMENT
Fans took to Twitter to express their dismay over the cancelled performance as well, under the hashtag #dcrunchinkuwait.
“Please send D-Crunch positive and encouraging messages, don’t ask them why they didn’t perform. I’m sure they are as upset as we are,” one user wrote.
No official statement or reasoning for the cancellation has been released at time of writing.
The online Kuwaiti publication Al Majlliss published a video of the group reportedly heading to the airport at dawn on Twitter. The publication wrote: “A number of sources suggest that the ban took place after several of the band members appeared in circumstances against public morals of Al Kuwait during their previous performances and songs.”
However, these claims could not be independently verified by tabloid!.
D-Crunch, short for Diamond Crunch, formed in 2018. The band consists of rappers O.V, Hyunho, Minhyuk, Chanyoung, Jungseung, and Dylan, as well as vocalists Hyunwook, Hyunoh, and Hyunwoo.
