Blackpink impressed Hyde Park
BST Hyde Park 2023 is a festival in the heart of London from 30th June to 9th July 2023 with a focus on the day’s headliner. Maxazine was there on Sunday 2 July with Blackpink as headliner. Music history was made with Blackpink on BST Hyde Park as it was the first ever time a Korean group had headlined the Hyde Park series.
Hyde Park is Blackpink’s third visit to London during the Born Pink Tour, the previous two times being at the Arena O2 in London in 2022. The question on everyone’s lips is: Is this Blackpink’s last tour? Will their contract be renewed which expires this year? There is no official answer to this question yet. Blackpink’s last concert on European territory will take place on July 15 in Paris at the gigantic Stade de France.
Mae Stephens
19 Years old only: You wake up one morning and you’re a pop star. This is what happened to Mae Stephens. One evening she posted a music video on TikTok of “If we ever broke up” and the next morning, when consulting the smartphone, it turned out to have gone viral. And that got her a first record deal with EMI. Funky electro-pop can describe her style with a clear voice. She stood confidently on stage and was the first dupport act to immediately bring atmosphere to the festival.
Caity Baiser
Britain’s Caity delivered a consistent performance, with a solid setlist that kept the crowd entertained. She started with the catchy energy of “Friendly Sex” and continued with songs like “Feel More Okay” and “That’s What Friends Are For.” The songs, such as “2020s” and “STD”, offered a mix of tantalizing themes. The audience showed appreciation for the performance and “Pretty Boys” provided a captivating conclusion. Overall, it was a concert that provided a solid musical experience.
The Rose
The Rose gave the Hyde Park Festival its first goosebumps moment. The performance started with a sensitive piano melody and the drummer who put soul in his drumming with which they immediately set the right atmosphere. They shared a funny anecdote about their first performance in front of just 20 people, which made the meadow burst into laughter. The Rose’s music works like medicine, which is exactly why they started making music. This was the first band to get the whole crowd cheering. But it was especially the impressive head voices of the two singers that touched the audience deeply. It was breathtaking.
The set list was filled with hits such as “Sorry”, “She’s in the Rain”, “RED”. The Rose’s performance was a musical journey full of emotion. They have proven themselves not only as fantastic performers, but also as musical talents with unparalleled voice control. After the concert they undoubtedly gained a lot of new fans.
Sabrina Carpenter
Sabrina Carpenter, a former model, and with an impressive 20 million monthly listeners on Spotify gave an atmospheric performance. She delivered a set of pop songs such as the disco infused “Read Your Mind”, the more funky “Feather” and “Already Over” with the addition of electronic sounds. She makes a difference from other artists with her lyrics. Often with sad words, but brought in a positive atmosphere. The highlight of the set was the performance of the Abba hit “Lay All Your Love On Me”. Sabrina’s voice is sweet and pleasant to listen to. The audience was present in large numbers and listened quietly to the set. We hereby know that this American beauty has two British Shorthair cats, Benny and Björn (wink to Abba).
Blackpink
The sunset set in and the 60,000 language audience prepared for the most anticipated performance of the day. It was very busy at the front and you had to be 1m85 to see anything of the stage. After the ‘Blaack piiink’ intro, Jennie joined in with “Kick in the door, waving the coco” and a shock wave went through the audience. “Pink Venom” was the opener for Blackpink’s tight set. Tighter and with more power than in the O2, at the end of last year, they blasted through the boxes. This is how “Pink Venom” should be sung! It was immediately clear that the singers have built up enormous self-confidence during this tour. The projection of a hypnotic ‘pink’ spider web in the background added to the enigmatic atmosphere and Blackpink lured the audience into their web. The well-known songs were drastically reworked with longer intros. And with that, Blackpink managed to surprise their fans once again. In the first part, the singers were dressed in white high fashion dresses, straight off the catwalk. Later we also saw them in black leather outfit, which made them even tougher, surrounded by a pink cloud of mysterious mist combined with fireworks.
In the second part there were the solo songs of the female singers. Adapted to Hyde Park’s shorter setlist. With another dance performance by Lisa. Both during their group performance and the solo numbers, the YG dancers took the performance to the next level.The audience was spoiled with reworked intros of “Typa Girl”, “Shut Down” and their big hits “Ddu-du Ddu-du”. With “Typa girl” there was another visual highlight in which the Pinks were put in the spotlight with white feather fans like in the Moulin Rouge. Blackpink also brings a very strong visual spectacle. No “Enchanted Garden”, no “Yeah, yeah, yeah” and “As if it’s your last”, The set was shorter than when Blackpink performed in the hall. “Forever Young” was the last song of the set and the audience was hypnotized again. With this dazzling set, Blackpink made an impression on the music industry that will continue to have an impact in the future.
