International News: Keith Urban’s Scholarship For Nashville-Bound Aussies, K-pop’s Chinese Future In Doubt Again & More

AUSTRALASIA

by Christie Eliezer

AUSTRALIA

Keith Urban Sets Up Scholarship For Nashville-Bound Aussies 

Midway through a 10-date arena run of his “High and Alive World Tour” Down Under, Australia’s biggest country music export announced the Keith Urban Rising Star Scholarship.

Each year an emerging country music performer will be flown to Nashville to perform, write, record, meet executives and enjoy two days of recording time at Urban’s studio The Sound.

“Sometimes all a musician needs is an opportunity to be heard or someone to help nurture their talent,” Urban said. “Having the opportunity to do that not only inspires me, I’m hoping that in some way this scholarship will serve to inspire others.”

The scholarship is in partnership with the Tamworth Country Music Festival, which runs 10 days in January and draws an aggregate of 300,000.

Each year hundreds of buskers perform on the Peel Street thoroughfare in the hope of getting noticed – the way Urban did as a 13-year old growing up on the Gold Coast and looking for his big break.

The latest tour, through TEG Live and which wound up Aug 28, was his first since 2022.

Showing off his dexterity as singer and guitarist, covering his back catalogue and with covers of Men At Work’s “Down Under,” Post Malone’s “I Had Some Help” and Chappell Roan’s “Pink Pony Club,” Urban promised the crowd, “None of you will think about your life outside this arena.”

Such were the tour’s reviews that he topped a poll asking which Queenslander should perform at the 2023 Brisbane Olympics and Paralympics – before Barry Gibb, Savage Garden, the Veronicas, Sheppard and Powderfinger.

Beyond The Valley Celebrates 10^th Year

Untitled Group celebrates the 10^th anniversary of flagship festival Beyond The Valley in two ways. 

The Dec. 28 to Jan. 1 event, which draws 35,000 to the Victorian countryside, is returning to its original site Barunah Plains.

A 640-acre working merino sheep farm with an amphitheater, it’s “one of the world’s largest festival sites,” said BTV Co-Founder and Untitled Group Co-Founder/Managing Partner Christian Serrao, which allows for more camping sites.

The bill too is momentous, with EDM phenomenon Dom Dolla presenting the new year countdown, US rapper Kid Cudi returning after a decade, and performances from the likes of TikTok star Addison Rae and Baltimore punk band Turnstile.

Paul Kelly Arena Bid A Success

Veteran singer-songwriter Paul Kelly’s bid to move up to Australian arenas for the first time in a 40-year career is a success. Most of the seven shows, running Aug. 26 to Sept. 7, sold out.

In his hometown of Melbourne, he’s set to play to 25,000 fans during two nights at the Rod Laver Arena Sept. 6-7.

Also on the bill are triple Grammy winner Lucinda Williams and Aussie songsmith Fanny Lumsden who just finalized a sell-out UK run.

An announcement from Frontier Touring includes a quote from Williams declaring, ““I first heard Paul Kelly several years ago doing his ‘spin the wheel of songs’ show in Los Angeles and I was blown away. Not long after that I was able to do some shows with him in Australia and that experience was something I always remember fondly. It is an understatement to say that I am thrilled to be doing these momentous shows with him again all these years later.”

NEW ZEALAND

FLUX Ends Five-Year Run

After five years of showcasing the Ōtautahi /Christchurch underground, the 300-capacity FLUX said farewell on Aug. 23 with a night called The Last Dance.

Many of the acts it championed including Alix Perez, Paige Julia, Space FM and Craigslist returned for the last hoorah.

DJ Beccie B who promoted many events at the space said of the closure: “(It) leaves a massive hole in the Ōtautahi underground. Over five years it has been the entry point for many young promoters, artists and DJs.”

ASIA

by Phil Brasor

CHINA

K-pop Thaw Refreezes?

The six-member K-pop girl group Kep1er was scheduled to hold a concert/fan meeting in Fuzhou, Fujian Province, China on Sept. 13, sparking hopes in Korea’s music industry that China is finally relaxing its longtime ban on Korean shows on the mainland. 

Kep1er is jointly managed by CJ ENM, one of Korea’s biggest entertainment companies, and Klep Entertainment. The concert in Fujian was planned to be a limited affair – the group would perform “around 15 songs,” according to the Korea Herald – at the Fujian Meeting Hall for an audience of about 1,000 people. 

The performance had been approved in July by Fujian authorities and the schedule for the show officially listed on the Ministry of Culture and Tourism’s website. A government notice was also issued stating “the event would draw large crowds and therefore require cooperation from public security authorities.” 

However, on Aug. 27 Chosun Biz reported that the group “has postponed the fan concert … due to unavoidable local circumstances.” A new date was not announced. 

The group debuted in early 2022 through a broadcast audition program called “Girls Planet 999,” and contains one Chinese member and one Japanese member. Kep1er has previously performed in Japan, Mexico, Macao and Taiwan.

The Herald had originally noted that the show was to take place two months before Chinese President Xi Jinping visits South Korea for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in October, which will mark Xi’s first visit to the peninsula in 11 years. Music industry experts looking for a sign that China will finally lift its K-pop performance ban after nine years saw the Kep1er fan concert as a positive indicator. The ban was unofficially put in place after the U.S. installed a defense missile system on South Korean soil. 

In addition, Blackpink embarked on a pop-up tour of China in early August where fans could meet the group at shopping malls. However, no concerts were permitted. 

The lifting of the ban has been touted twice before this year, once for a planned concert by the boy band EPEX in Fuzhou and another time for a show by the indie band Say Sue Me in Beijing, but both were cancelled. One insider told the Herald, “The Chinese market remains unpredictable. Even if doors open, political issues could cause them to close again at any time.”

INDONESIA

Festival Cancellations Raise Concerns

Asia News Network reports that a string of festival cancellations in Indonesia may point to sponsorship burnout. At least two large music festivals in the country have been called off this year due to what the news outlet terms “lack of appetite among concertgoers.” 

In April, We The Fest announced it would take a hiatus this year but will return in 2026. The festival started in 2014 and has been an annual event every year since with the exception of 2022 due to the pandemic. Ismaya Live, which promotes We The Fest, said the cancellation was made to “prepare a stronger foundation” for next year’s edition, with a new concept. The other cancellation was Joyland, which was scheduled to take place November 28-30. The promoter of that festival called it off in early August after already starting the ticket selling process. In the end, the promoter issued refunds “rather than risk delivering a scaled-down version of the festival’s promise to provide a quality experience,” according to a statement made by an insider to the Jakarta Post.

The insider added that while legacy festivals such as Fuji Rock in Japan and Clockenflap in Hong Kong have managed to draw strong numbers, many other festivals in Asia struggled with ticket sales last year. 

One music business expert told the Post that Indonesia’s festival scene is “undergoing market recalibration,” meaning it is readjusting following the post-pandemic spike in interest. As a result, corporate sponsors, in particular state-owned enterprises (SOE), have reallocated budgets to events “more closely tied to government priorities.” This trend, he believes, is the main cause of the cancellations since sponsorship makes up between 40 and 60 percent of a festivaly revenue structure. To compensate, promoters will increase ticket prices, which then may turn off some potential festival attendees. This revenue pressure comes on top of increased operating costs in the form of higher talent fees, logistics and permits, which in some cases have risen as much as 30 percent year-on-year. Presales are thus doubly important, and if they don’t materialize sufficiently, the show does not go on. 

Other experts have elaborated, saying that it is Indonesia’s middle class that exclusively props up the concert business, and that layer of society is being strained by “rising basic costs, education expenses and household debt.” Festivals, a discretionary outlay, have become more of a luxury. Some promoters have acknowledged this reality by boosting early-bird discounts and installment plans for ticket purchases, but they weren’t enough to save this year’s festivals. One artist told the Jakarta Post that too many festivals with similar domestic lineups have entered the fray, and cannot compete with the increase in international artist concerts that have flooded the scene. Those concerts are expensive by definition, so the festival situation is bound to suffer in a market with limited consumer spending. 

KOREA

Doja Cat Readies First Asia Tour

Doja Cat is set to tour Asia later this year. Her first-ever concert in South Korea will take place Dec. 13 at the Kintex Exhibition Center in Goyang. Tickets for members of Doja Cat’s Korean fan club went on sale August 28, with general sales starting the next day.

The concert will be restricted to ticket buyers who are at least 19 years old, and ticket purchases will require proof of age, both online and at the venue, according to the Korea JoongAng Daily. 

Doja Cat appeared on Blackpink member Lisa’s solo single “Born Again.”