Does keshi have what it takes to make it mainstream?
The singer-songwriter is back after a two year hiatus
As someone who started listening to keshi three years ago, I’ve often been impressed and fascinated by his popularity.
When I saw him play a show at Toronto’s Danforth Music Hall in 2022, tickets for his show sold out rapidly, with resale going upwards to $300 a ticket. The following year, he increased the size of his audience at Coca Cola Coliseum five times, selling out the hockey arena with 7,500 seats. Over those two years, he toured his debut album GABRIEL (released in 2022) twice. Setlists remained largely the same, although he brought a bigger band and more production elements in the latter tour.
The rapid rise of keshi made it seem that he was on the cusp of hitting the mainstream. But while most artists would keep that momentum going with even more festival appearances and a new single to keep fans satiated, keshi instead kept a low profile for the rest of 2023. On social media, he posted infrequently. And when he did, he would share mysterious hints of what he was working on behind-the-scenes.
Needless to say, the beginning of keshi’s latest comeback has been rocky.
After months of silence, it took until June of this year for keshi to make a real update of the upcoming release of his single “Say” in mid-July. Soon after, his second album Requiem was announced for a September release. Then BAM! keshi also announced an arena tour that included stops at Madison Square Garden in New York, Kia Forum in LA and Scotiabank Arena in Toronto.
I was excited to see such an ambitious rollout, but I was also curious as to whether keshi’s efforts were overestimating how far he could actually go.
The moment tickets for keshi’s tour went out, sales moved extremely slowly. And for a while, the only taste of his new album was his first single “Say”, an upbeat pop track reminiscent to The Weeknd’s newer songs. Straying away from his previous moodier r&b songs, “Say” is also the most mainstream keshi has ever sounded. Though reaction amongst his OG fans have been mixed. And in the following weeks, keshi released two more singles: “Dream” and “Soft Spot.” From my perspective, it’s always a risk to sell tickets before a new album is even released given that fans haven’t had a real listen of the new songs yet.
Interestingly, “Soft Spot” was co-written by Julia Michaels —who also helped pen five songs off Sabrina Carpenter’s latest album Short ‘n’ Sweet. To me, “Soft Spot” is undoubtedly one of keshi’s best songs off of Requiem. It’s also beginning to make the rounds on TikTok. One wonders why it wasn’t released earlier in the first place.
Despite initial hesitation and reservations from fans, reaction to keshi’s Requiem has been received positively. However, it has not been enough to move ticket sales for his upcoming tour set for early October. Days after the album’s release, keshi posted a statement on social media announcing that the tour is being rescheduled as the team needs “some more time to prep the production.” He soon followed that news with the release of the b-side “KISS ME RIGHT”, a highly anticipated banger he played during his tour last year (likely to keep the fans’ spirits high).
It has been surprising to me how keshi has seemingly decided to go from 0 to 100 in such a short time to promote his second studio album. We’ve seen what has happened for artists like Jennifer Lopez and the Black Keys when they announce arena tours. Why not take a more careful approach to test the waters?
In the album trailer for Requiem, a man (likely keshi’s fiance Mai’s dad) is heard speaking in Japanese. In it, he says, “If you feel you did all you could then that’s enough. Don’t concern yourself with what others say- because isn’t that fine?”
It’s true that Requiem is a gorgeous body of work that highlights what people love keshi’s music for. But when there isn’t enough being done to promote and push it, has it really reached its full potential?
Earlier this year, I spoke to my friend Michael from Bias Wrecker about keshi’s influence on other Asian American artists. In the piece, Michael writes that when someone like keshi succeeds, it opens the door for other Asian artists in the west too.
To me, keshi has always represented a different kind of Asian male role model. He’s attractive, sings well, writes from his heart and sings about universal feelings. Media has historically portrayed Asian men as nerds, sidekicks, villains and punchlines, but keshi’s rebellious vibe has always been refreshing.
Of course, I know how unfair it is to put a pedestal on someone like keshi to go all the way. But I haven’t yet seen a male Asian American artist get that close to breaking out.
In recent years, other Asian artists like Joji, NIKI and beabadoobee have garnered solid fan bases for their music. Though despite garnering millions of streams and sold out shows, these artists still have yet to achieve the kind of mainstream success that pushes pop culture forward. Where is their Brat summer? Or viral lyrics like “that that me espresso?” Sure, some might scoff and call them TikTok trends. But the truth is, going viral and being active on social media is a reality many artists need in their tool box for commercial success.
I also can’t help but wonder whether K-pop’s success has overshadowed the work of Asian artists outside of the genre, making it much harder to find major breakout success without being lumped into a single group.
At the end of the day, I think there’s still hope for keshi’s upcoming tour and album to work, but more needs to be done. He needs to be more active online and interact with fans. And if I may go as far as to say this, I also think keshi needs to do more interviews with Asian-run publications and journalists to cater to his fans. What’s more, I would love to see him playing at major festivals like Coachella and Lollapalooza to appeal to a larger audience.
As someone who grew up seeing few Asian faces on magazines, TV screens and music, I am rooting for keshi to succeed and I strongly believe he has what it takes to go far. I just hope the next few months allows him to take some lessons into consideration.
HYBE decides not to reinstate Min Hee Jin as ADOR CEO, despite NewJeans ultimatum
The saga between HYBE and ADOR’s former CEO Min Hee-jin continues.
Earlier this month, the members of NewJeans made a surprise livestream, expressing their concerns and frustration with the events happening between their company ADOR and its larger label HYBE. In the video, which has since been deleted, NewJeans protested a leak which resulted in their medical records being posted to the internet. In addition, member Hanni alleged that the manager of another girl group at HYBE had instructed its members to “ignore her” when they crossed paths at the company's headquarters. At the end of the livestream, Minji also gave a deadline to HYBE: reinstate Min as ADOR CEO by September 25, following a decision made in late August to replace her.
The ultimatum to reinstate Min was not met this week. Instead, HYBE said it has “decided to convene a shareholder meeting to vote for Min Hee-jin to stay on the board”.
That did has not sat well with Min. In a statement issued soon after, Min said she does not want HYBE's proposal to be on the board, and is expressing her intention to return as CEO.
"Authority as CEO is a necessary demand in order to have the right to defend against various irrational actions by HYBE including what was disclosed today and given that there is no reason for her removal as CEO."
aespa announces Toronto tour stop
K-pop girl group aespa is hitting the road, with a Toronto stop on February 13.
Tickets for the U.S. and Canadian dates will be available first through a Weverse presale, followed by a general onsale beginning on Oct. 4 at 3 p.m. local time, with ticket information available here.
Chinese American singer sunkis has been having quite a year, from making viral TikTok hits, opening for BM of KARD to playing at this year's MetaMoon Festival with Eric Nam and Henry Lau. I chatted with sunkis recently
Read my interview with sunkis here
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I hope keshi is able to keep all his tour stops for his postponed upcoming tour. This past week, I saw on socials that Niki had to cancel a few of her tour dates due to lack of sales (and not being able to find a smaller venue that worked with her tour schedule). I just know that must be so hard on the artist and their team. I feel like keshi would be better off picking venues that he knows he can sell out. While that is upsetting for the potential fans who may miss out on tickets, it'll be less stress as he is still growing.