KPOPPED (2025) [+]
Sep 17 2025
KPOPPED is an Apple TV+ song duel show hosted by Megan Thee Stallion, PSY (both I think pre-shot bits) and Soojeong Son (who is there with the live performers and audience). The premise is taking Western artists (as in artists from North America and Europe) and having their songs made into K-Pop versions which they then perform with a K-Pop group.
K-Pop groups are fairly big (the ones in this series are 4 to 9 or 11 members). The host K-pop group is split into two subunits and each takes one of the Western artists (though two episodes, with Spice Girls Mel B/Emma Bunton and with Boyz II Men, the Westerners perform both songs). They have 48 hours to learn and rehearse the song, though some of that is taken with the K-Pop group showing their artist around Seoul.
Let's take the first episode as an example. K-Pop band Billlie (with 3 Ls) splits into a group of 3 and a group of 4 and team up with Megan Thee Stallion and Patti LaBelle. We have a segment where group 1 shows Megan Thee Stallion something about Seoul. Then they show Megan the K-Popped version of "Savage" and then some rehearsing (all the previous with little interview asides of Megan commenting on the experience and complimenting her team, and the team commenting and complimenting Megan — there is a certain amount of everyone being way too nice and enthusiastic about each other which is wholesome for a family audience and a bit cringy for a cynical audience like me).
Finally in front of an audience they perform the song with backup dancers and light effects — all quite professional and hard to believe all these songs were done in one go. Then repeat for Patti LaBelle. PSY explains that the audience votes with their glow sticks set to Gold for song 1 or Purple for song 2. Two clips of fans talking about which song they liked and why. A bit of suspense and 3-2-1 countdown then the lights turn Gold or Purple and the winner is declared. Then Billlie performs one of their songs and the credits roll but you do get to see their whole performance.
The competition is mock and for fun and more of a framing format. The performances are really well done and entertaining and although I've listened to some K-Pop I don't know enough to feel that every song was suitably K-Popped. Everybody is really happy and enthusiastic (perhaps too much for my tastes). I like that sometimes the K-Pop members talk in Korean and there are no burned in subtitles — instead if you have subtitles on it'll be in your language (and I wonder if you don't have it enabled it would still show the translation in your language using the subtitling system since it's all Apple ecosystem).
I do like this show. I like being introduced to these groups since I didn't know any of them. It is incredibly well produced and edited and I'm thinking on other platforms it could easily look cheaper. Overall I enjoyed the eight half-hour episodes and hope there is a season 2.
K-Pop groups are fairly big (the ones in this series are 4 to 9 or 11 members). The host K-pop group is split into two subunits and each takes one of the Western artists (though two episodes, with Spice Girls Mel B/Emma Bunton and with Boyz II Men, the Westerners perform both songs). They have 48 hours to learn and rehearse the song, though some of that is taken with the K-Pop group showing their artist around Seoul.
Let's take the first episode as an example. K-Pop band Billlie (with 3 Ls) splits into a group of 3 and a group of 4 and team up with Megan Thee Stallion and Patti LaBelle. We have a segment where group 1 shows Megan Thee Stallion something about Seoul. Then they show Megan the K-Popped version of "Savage" and then some rehearsing (all the previous with little interview asides of Megan commenting on the experience and complimenting her team, and the team commenting and complimenting Megan — there is a certain amount of everyone being way too nice and enthusiastic about each other which is wholesome for a family audience and a bit cringy for a cynical audience like me).
Finally in front of an audience they perform the song with backup dancers and light effects — all quite professional and hard to believe all these songs were done in one go. Then repeat for Patti LaBelle. PSY explains that the audience votes with their glow sticks set to Gold for song 1 or Purple for song 2. Two clips of fans talking about which song they liked and why. A bit of suspense and 3-2-1 countdown then the lights turn Gold or Purple and the winner is declared. Then Billlie performs one of their songs and the credits roll but you do get to see their whole performance.
The competition is mock and for fun and more of a framing format. The performances are really well done and entertaining and although I've listened to some K-Pop I don't know enough to feel that every song was suitably K-Popped. Everybody is really happy and enthusiastic (perhaps too much for my tastes). I like that sometimes the K-Pop members talk in Korean and there are no burned in subtitles — instead if you have subtitles on it'll be in your language (and I wonder if you don't have it enabled it would still show the translation in your language using the subtitling system since it's all Apple ecosystem).
I do like this show. I like being introduced to these groups since I didn't know any of them. It is incredibly well produced and edited and I'm thinking on other platforms it could easily look cheaper. Overall I enjoyed the eight half-hour episodes and hope there is a season 2.