On September 22 and 23, “INKIGAYO LIVE in TOKYO 2026” was held at Belluna Dome in Saitama Prefecture. This special edition of the Korean music show was seen as an event that bridged KPop and JPop by having acts from both countries perform on the same stage. But a certain act showed the divide between the music and concert cultures of the two countries: Ado.
When Ado performed on the second night, many KPop fans were caught off guard in several different ways. First, filming and use of binoculars was banned during Ado’s performance, which goes against the general KPop concert culture of filming performances. The filming of performances is one way that KPop has been able to spread globally to become the pop culture behemoth it is today. Some KPop fans saw Ado as a guest at a Korean television production, and thought it was rude of her to impose such rules. These rules were imposed however to keep Ado’s anonymity intact, seeing as how nobody has seen her face since her debut.
Secondly, Ado’s performance was an issue. Many complained that her singing style, which consists mainly of screaming, was jarring stylistically for fans coming to see KPop performances, having many wonder why she was even there, given the large gap between her music and the taste of the audience. Ado also performs in a special cage to protect her identity, as previously mentioned. This cage, and the general need to keep Ado’s identity a secret, created headaches on stage and backstage, with additional time being needed to set up the cage on stage, and certain areas being inaccessible backstage to maintain Ado’s anonymity. Many attendees found this situation to be inconsiderate not only to them, but also to the other performers and show staff, especially since, once again, Ado is a guest at a KPop event. Fans felt as if she was not doing enough to compromise to be a gracious guest.
The final straw came at the end of the show when the usual ending was canceled. Normally at KPop events such as this one, all the performers come on stage and interact, to the delight of the audience who get great joy from seeing these interactions. This was especially meaningful at this event since there was such as large number of KPop acts performing at once in Japan, meaning that the fans didn’t have to go to Korea to see such a thing. Instead the event closed with Ado covering B.B.Queens‘ 1990 hit “Odoru Pompokorin.” The audience was not happy about this, seeing as the ending they expected to see was replaced with an act they didn’t come to see performing her take on a children’s song. This resulted in the audience booing Ado.
After word of the debacle spread online, many Japanese people questioned whether Ado is good representation of Japanese music internationally, given that her music and performance style exists so far outside of the norms of Japan.
Ado’s management then took to social media, releasing a form asking people to report online abuse directed towards Ado in light of the event. This ignited even more backlash. Many were upset that her management’s message did not in any way apologize for Ado essentially disturbing the atmosphere at “INKIGAYO LIVE in TOKYO 2026.” Many also saw it as away for her management to mobilize her fanbase to attack others, especially KPop fans, in an already intense environment.
