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Blackpink concert fan gripes
Blackpink in your area!
Everyone would have heard by now how the massively popular Kpop girl group was in town over the weekend for a two-day gig on May 13 and 14 at the National Stadium.
Jennie, Lisa, Jisoo and Rose played to sell-out crowds over the weekend as part of their Born Pink World Tour and Singaporeans were starstruck by the girls, judging by the number of clips on social media of fans excitedly queuing up for the concert – including one who brought her 60-year-old dad to the show!
Unfortunately, not all of the concert-goers left happy.
@joeychok WATCH MY BLACKPINK GUIDE VIDEO TO SAVE THOSE WHO ARE GOING FOR THE CONCERT TOMORROW!! JUST BUY THE SEATS TICKET NEXT TIME FOR REAL. BLACKPINK CONCERT TO SEE PHONES 🥹 #blackpinkconcert #blackpinkconcertsingapore #blackpinksingapore2023 #blackpinkofficial #singaporetiktok #nationalstadiumsingapore #singaporetiktok #tiktoksg🇸🇬 #sgtiktok #tiktok #singapore #blackpinkinyourarea ♬ Pink Venom – BLACKPINK
Recording significant events on our phone is a part of life now. We store everything on our phones and so it’s understandable to want to record part of it for the memories.
But to have your phones up for most of the performance? That’s starts to border on silliness. The quality of the video won’t be great anyway – it certainly can’t beat an official video on YouTube – so why not just take a short clip for social media swag and then go back to enjoying the concert as it’s meant to be experienced?
Worse, it’s (literally) an arms race, because if the people in front block your view with their phones, what would you do? Chances are, you’ll do the same as well, leading to a forest of phones popping up like mushrooms.
This didn’t go unnoticed by the performers themselves, even prompting Jennie to ask concert goers to “put down your phones” and “connect with us”.
@jnkclip the phones again😭 #jennie #jenniekim #blackpink #fy #foryou ♬ original sound – jennie
Even for those who sat further away had bad experiences too.
One fan who attended the concert with her sister and parents on the second day of the concert recounted about how her enthusiasm was dampened by the behaviour of other people in the audience.
Her 50-year-old dad is the biggest fan in the family, she told the Pride excitedly, and he got tickets for the entire family “in the nosebleed section”, she added merrily.
She had already seen all the horror stories on TikTok about the phones blocking the view, so she was quite happy to be further away even if watching the concert from that high up without a pair of binoculars felt like watching it “on CCTV”.
But there was something else she didn’t expect.
She explained: “Being in the cheaper seats meant that there’d be more casual fans… They weren’t as excited as my family was, which was understandable!”
However, that meant that her family was cheering while the others were quiet.
“It kind of killed the vibe because it felt like we weren’t allowed to cheer, but that didn’t stop us.”
But what did affect her was one couple who sat next to them who kept giving their family the side-eye.
“They spoke to each other, commenting about ‘how loud some people are’, covered their ears very elaborately and even tried to take a video of my sister while she was cheering.”
Although it upset her, she decided not to confront the couple because she didn’t want an argument but that meant that she and family had to put up with that behaviour for the whole concert.
Concert etiquette can sometimes be dicey because it is an unspoken agreement between audience members to behave in a manner that everyone can enjoy the experience.
Unfortunately, different people have different ways of experiencing a live concert and that can lead to misunderstandings and passive-aggressive behaviour.
Said the fan: “If the couple had approached us and asked us nicely to tone it down, we would have agreed to it, and it wouldn’t have been such a negative experience for all of us.”
Women leadership in Singapore
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From empowered K-pop stars to a different kind of women empowerment.
On May 5, the Singapore Council for Women’s Organisations held a forum and workshop to explore Singapore’s first-ever findings of gendered leadership within the Reykjavik Index for Leadership.
Launched in 2018 by international polling firm Kantar Public, the Reykjavik Index for Leadership measure how society views men and women in terms of their suitability for leadership. A score of 100 indicates complete agreement that men and women are equally suited for leadership, and any score of less than 100 is an indication of prejudice in society.
Singapore scored 66, lower than the average score of 72 among the G7 countries (Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the US). In the region, Singapore did better than Indonesia but worse than Thailand.
Only 30% of respondents in Singapore are “very comfortable” with a woman being a head of government, government minister or a CEO of a company. When broken down into different industry sectors, women were also perceived to lead better in childcare, fashion and beauty related companies but not in industries such as tech, gaming, engineering, defence, architecture, aerospace and government and politics.
But on a positive note, younger Singaporeans are getting more progressive with their thoughts on women leaders and gender equality, so the trend is heading in the right direction, said Koh Yan Ping, CEO of SCWO.
She said: “Nurturing diversity, equity, and inclusion is a whole-of-society effort… There is so much more we can do to support, protect, and uplift our women as a nation. It is crucial that we shift our mindsets to rebuild the flawed foundation of gendered expectations passed down from generations before us. Only with this first step of acknowledgement among both genders and the younger generation, can we then build a more progressive nation that truly celebrates gender diversity and inclusiveness.”
Free pet screenings at SPCA
On a less serious note, let’s talk about pets!
The Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) recently announced that it will launch free pet health screenings across Singapore to help low-income pet owners manage the rising costs of pet ownership and care through providing early detection and treatment of pet health issues.
This will help reduce the number of cases of pet abandonment, said SPCA executive director Aarthi Sankar.
10 health screenings are slated to take place islandwide at various locations, where eligible pet owners that meet certain criteria will be able to get a range of veterinary services free, ranging from physical examinations, monthly preventives, vaccinations and microchipping.
As these sessions are fully funded by SPCA, additional screenings will depend on sufficient funding and donations.
If you would like to donate to the SPCA, visit its website. You can also choose to specify which programme you would like to support in the remarks column.
Alternatively, check out SPCA’s Facebook page for regular adoption drives and other events that you can support and attend!
Kindness Day SG!
Finally, it’s Kindness Day SG this Saturday (May 20)!
Head down to PLQ Mall’s plaza area from 10am to 9pm for a fun-filled day as we amp up kindness in Singapore! Bring the kids to meet Singa and the Kindness Cubbies at 11.30am and 1pm or to join in storytelling sessions. If music is your groove, there will be performances by musicians Jack and Rai, as well as Aarika Lee and various other groups in the Singapore Kindness Movement!
For more information, check out SKM’s website here.
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