by The appearance of the Korean idol group EXO, which was considered a signal to lift the Korean War, at the Tencent Music Awards (TMEA) in China, was ultimately canceled.
According to Weibo, on the 12th, TMEA previously released the event poster and announced through VCR on the 11th that EXO members Kai and Sehun would be on stage, but EXO did not appear at the actual event.
EXO’s appearance in TMEA is the first case since a K-pop star’s appearance on the Chinese stage was suspended due to a conflict with the high-altitude missile defense system (THAAD) in 2016.
However, on the 8th, three days before the concert, TMEA deleted the poster for EXO appearance from the official account and removed the name of EXO from the online performer list.
At that time, when the controversy over the cancellation of the appearance arose, an official from SM Entertainment, EXO’s agency, said, “From the beginning, I decided to appear at the event online, and nothing has changed so far.”
Until the day of the performance, there was controversy over EXO’s appearance, but in the end, we couldn’t see EXO on the TMEA stage.
When EXO’s appearance was canceled, Chinese netizens and EXO fans poured out complaints such as “Tencent made a false advertisement,” “I waited all evening and wasted time,” and “Han Han-ryung is still there.”
On the night of the 11th, the day of TMEA, on the Weibo hot issue list, hashtags related to EXO, such as ‘EXO not appearing in TMEA,’ surpassed 1 million views and took first place.
An official from the Chinese culture industry said, “I don’t know the details of the EXO appearance, but it seems that the Chinese fans are very disappointed.” said.
Tencent Music Entertainment Group is the largest music company in China, and TMEA boasts the most extensive music awards held at the end of the year.
