The Best Moments From KCON LA 2026 (So Far)

Of all the songs HYBE Latin America’s first global group could have brought out in their KCON LA debut, they picked one of their most vocally challenging — and nailed it.

“FE” closes out DUAL, their debut EP released in March, and it’s a slow-burning, Spanish-language ballad with a vocal performance that grows more ambitious with each chorus. Drew, Alejandro, Gabi, Kauê and Kenneth nailed it at their mid-afternoon Artist Stage set, with Kauê and Kenneth delivering impassioned harmonies that set the standard for the weekend.

The independent artist directed and cast the music video for his latest single, “BIG BOY” (below), himself, telling Forbes he set out to fill it with “different body types, different genders, different skin tones.” At his M Countdown pre-show set, he proved he refused to limit that vision to a single visual.

from20 opened his performance by giving a peck to YouTuber Loey Lane, his same curvy co-star from the video, before bringing out a larger Black dancer mid-song, and closing the song surrounded by a spectrum of different people — a goth, a prep girl, and faces Black, brown, white and every shade between. Unfortunately, it’s still the type of diversity K-pop audiences simply do not usually see represented on these kinds of stages, but from20’s final pose with his cast of diverse collaborators was a powerful statement to bring to one of K-pop’s biggest stages.

World-champion beatboxer WING made his first appearance at KCON, closing out his set in a collaboration with the Korean American Youth Performing Artists (KAYPA), who joined him in traditional Korean dress with instruments in hand. Like the concept behind BTS’ ARIRANG album, a collision of historic Korean sounds mixed with modern percussion and beats made entirely from one man’s mouth delivered something all the more strange and fascinating.

In a festival built around the idea that Korean culture is traveling globally, there’s also a clear argument that the travel goes back in time as well.

KO1KEYZ, a 12-member act formed during the live finale of the boy-band competition series Produce 101 Japan Shinsekai in June, doesn’t officially debut until October, when their self-titled single arrives simultaneously in Japan and Korea. But you would not have guessed it. Their performance of the Produce program’s theme song “SHINSEKAI” was super polished with the boys’ clear giddiness at being on stage and already meeting overseas fans clear from their earnest stage banter.

“For a long time, watching other sunbaenims, we trained to be an idol and now we achieved the dream,” member Towa said, getting a bit choked up while speaking but smiling through the emotions, eliciting an audible “aww” from the crowd. “Now, we’re standing on the KCON LA [stage] and it feels unreal.”

The guys also delivered the first-ever live performance of their forthcoming single, the Korean version of “KO1KEYZ,” setting international expectations high months before debut.

The rookie hip-hop group took on the 2013 K-pop classic “Very Good” by Block B and gave it their own makeover. Consisting of seven members formed on Mnet’s Unpretty Rapstar: HIP POP Princess competition series, H//PE Princess operates in partnership with Korea’s CJ ENM, Japan’s Hakuhodo, as well as Amoeba Culture, the hip-hop label built by Korean rap legends Dynamicduo, with this cover introducing KCON fans to the kind of artists the septet aims to emulate.

While &TEAM had just slayed a performance of “Deer Hunter” days earlier in a room a tiny fraction of the Crypto.com Arena at the GRAMMY Museum, the global boy band clearly wanted to up the hype for the full festival experience. A turning point came when K flung off the glasses he’d been wearing and led the group into a run of choreography so tight it read as if they were moving as one single stage beast.

With clean, precise and tight choreography the cornerstone of most K-pop performances, TREASURE delivered a three-song run of “IF I,” “ZOOM ZOOM” and “RUN” that resembled something closer to a rock show with the arena immediately reacting with resounding enthusiasm. During “RUN,” several members left the stage entirely for the audience floor, with Hyunsuk and Haruto delivering their verses alongside fans in the audience while taking selfies, giving high-fives, offering handshakes and more for the loosest and friendliest set of the night.

Billing the performance as “two worlds connected by K-Soul,” Santos Bravos returned to the KCON stage a second time to perform BTS’ “Hooligan” with &TEAM following them to cover “2.0” — both off BTS’ three-week Billboard 200 No. 1 album ARIRANG — before all 14 converged for a joint take on “Permission to Dance.”

Two acts under HYBE’s larger “multi-home, multi-genre” umbrella, Santos Bravos (coming out of Mexico City–based HYBE Latin America) and &TEAM *under Japan’s YX Labels) came together to perform cuts from the Korean group whose success made building either of them possible in front of an American crowd. Centered around “K-Soul,” the collaboration speaks not only to how HYBE operates as a modern-day entertainment company, but also to what KCON represents for the K-pop industry today.

Almost a decade after making their KCON LA debut, Wanna One returned as nine of its 11 member members (Kang Daniel is serving his mandatory South Korean military service, and Lai Kuanlin has shifted careers and is focused on activities abroad) with a performance of debut single “Energetic,” which was Billboard‘s pick for the best K-pop song of 2017.

With the guys still hitting every move and filling in gaps when needed (rapper Park Woojin even seemed to be recreating Kang Daniel’s tone on his parts), the reunion delivered the wave of feeling a reunion is engineered to produce. But the high-soaring, genuinely moving vocal performance for their closing song “Spring Breeze, Again,” the newly released single that reworks a 2018 farewell song built on a promise to meet again, reminded the audience that raw talent shown on television and on stage was a key factor in what made Wanna One such a sensation a decade prior.

KCON’s headliners offered hour-long sets for the first time this year, with the trial beginning on night one with NCT 127, who made sure to pack their time to the limit.

Highlights like fan-favorite B-sides, including 2021’s “Lemonade” and “Summer 127” released in 2017, likely would never have made it to the set if they’d been given the usual 20 minutes. Meanwhile, KCON’s signature Dream Stage, where fans audition and learn the choreography at the fest to perform it with the artist later, saw the guys team with dozens of local dancers to perform “Kick It.” Plus, the guys delivered their first-ever live performance of “Pinata,” a new track off their upcoming album BLINGY, out later this month.

But the hour also allowed for each member to ensure he got to step into his own spotlight: Taeyong’s solo dance section during “Kick It” reminded us why he’s the group’s center, Johnny was the group’s hype man and led everyone to throw hands in the air, Yuta had multiple moments performing straight to the camera with his intensity spotlighted on the jumbotron, Jaehyun offered some of the best hip thrusts of his career, and Haechan ensured his power vocals did not go unnoticed with impressive control belting into his headset mic.

KCON’s closing ritual to bring the full lineup back out to wave goodbye at the end of the concert is a formality but fun highlight, and day one’s closing seemingly ran long because nobody wanted to leave the stage.

KO1KEYZ watched Wanna One in open awe, delivering 90-degree bows to a group that debuted when several of them were children. ZEROBASEONE’s Sung Hanbin, the night’s main MC, worked the stage with his friends in KickFlip, while Santos Bravos and H//PE Princess appeared to be competing alongside one another over who could hype the room harder.

The final artist to leave the stage on opening night was &TEAM’s K, still adorably waving and finding individual faces, as staff physically directed and moved him and the artists toward the wings.