KPop Demon Hunters<\/a> had the highest number of views for an English-language movie on Netflix in the first 91 days of its release, with 325,100,000 views \u2013 beating second-place film Red Notice by almost 100,000,000. <\/p>\nIt won the 2025 Oscar for best animated feature and best original song for its hit track Golden.<\/p>\n
The hybrid show will feature tracks from the movie with songs by K-pop bands Blackpink, Rose, BTS, K\/DA, Katseye, Saja Boys and Huntr\/x.<\/p>\n
The music is sung by avatar characters Luna, Mia, Xander, Jade and Gray, who form the K-Pop Icons band.<\/p>\n
Each character had a personality inspired by real people the creators knew, Anikeyeva said.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur Icons, the avatar characters, bridge the fantasy and reality worlds together. Everyone has had some connection during their childhood to a fictional character. There\u2019s something about a character and a made-up world that feels magical,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Live back-up dancers, the Dream Team, support the virtual band onstage.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe wanted to create something children would lean into and connect with that felt exciting at the same time.\u201d<\/p>\n
The audience will vote for their favourite Icon character live during the show, with the winner announced at the end.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe believe the hybrid model of this K-pop experience is one of a kind. We have a show that leans into the virtual world whilst still bringing that real energy and connection.\u201d<\/p>\n
Whanganui District Council venues and events manager Erin Banks said the family-friendly show had \u201csomething for everyone, whether you\u2019re already a fan or simply curious\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s exciting to have a world tour stop in Whanganui, giving local audiences access to unique entertainment without needing to travel to a larger city.\u201d<\/p>\n
Anikeyeva said the show was excited to bring its \u201chigh-quality\u201d live entertainment to Whanganui and the surrounding region.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Royal Whanganui Opera House is a stunning venue and exactly the kind of theatre we love performing in.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tickets range from $39 to $90 and are available on the K-Pop Icons World Tour or Whanganui Venues and Events websites.<\/p>\n
More information about the show and each Icon\u2019s character description is available on the tour\u2019s website.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe cannot wait for the Icons and Dream Team to meet the families of New Zealand,\u201d Anikeyeva said.<\/p>\n
Erin Smith is a multimedia journalist based in Whanganui.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The genre has exploded in global popularity in recent years. The 2025 Netflix film KPop Demon Hunters had…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":47300,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[5661,27721,18889,3046,2672,27716,27722,6065,27720,25323,27725,195,1143,27719,27726,27717,27724,27715,27723,494,7442,27718,11623,207],"class_list":["post-47299","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-korea","tag-concert","tag-craze","tag-everyone","tag-for","tag-global","tag-heads","tag-hits","tag-holidays","tag-house","tag-hybrid","tag-icons","tag-k-pop","tag-kpop","tag-opera","tag-performs","tag-royal","tag-school","tag-something","tag-these","tag-to","tag-tour","tag-whanganui","tag-winter","tag-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47299","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47299"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47299\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/47300"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47299"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47299"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47299"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}