BIGBANG Becomes the First K-pop Act to Headline Sydney's Accor Stadium on Its 20th-Anniversary Tour

Featured photo: BIGBANG at the 2016 “MADE” press conference. Photo: KBS VIEW, via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 3.0.

On the night of October 31, the group that played the first-ever K-pop headline show at Sydney’s Accor Stadium in Australia was BIGBANG, in its 20th year. The “K-pop first” at the stadium Taylor Swift and Coldplay have played didn’t go to a younger group. It went to G-Dragon, Taeyang and Daesung, who debuted in 2006 (Yonhap, November 2). The name writing K-pop’s new records this year is a name that’s 20 years old.

Honestly, as a fan, I was overwhelmed for a long time after reading that the three of them told the crowd, “BIGBANG is finally back. The 20th anniversary was possible thanks to V.I.P” (Yonhap, November 2). V.I.P is the name of BIGBANG’s fandom. Back in Sydney after 11 years, the first thing they chose to say was “we’re back.”

The name “BIGBANG” back on the marquee after nine years

BIGBANG debuted under YG Entertainment in 2006 and is a defining group of K-pop’s second generation, the wave of the mid-to-late 2000s that followed first-generation groups like H.O.T. and S.E.S. in the late 1990s. “Lies” swept Korea in 2007, and “Haru Haru” from 2008, 18 years later, saw its Melon streams jump 298 percent over the July average after the group’s Goyang concerts this August (Melon data, Sports Donga, September 1). A world tour under the name BIGBANG is the first in about nine years, since 2017 (Sports Kyunghyang, June 23).

After the long wait, the comeback came in big steps. On April 12 they played about an hour on the Outdoor Theatre stage at Coachella in the U.S., and G-Dragon greeted the crowd: “Hello Coachella. We’re back” (Sidae Ilbo, April 14). On August 19 they released “BiiiG,” their first new song in four years and four months since 2022’s “Still Life,” and it hit No. 1 on Melon’s TOP100 within an hour (Newsis, TenAsia, August 19–20). Only two songs this year reached No. 1 on Melon within an hour of release: BTS’s “SWIM” and “BiiiG” (The Fact). Two days later the tour opened at Goyang Stadium, and the first three shows drew 108,000 people (Maeil Business, August 24). Two and a half months on, “BiiiG” was still at No. 30 on Melon’s TOP100 early on November 3 (Melon, checked directly).

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From the Stade de France to Accor Stadium

The 20th-anniversary tour “XX : COSMOS” now stands at 39 shows in 19 cities (Yonhap, November 2). It was announced at 31 shows in 18 cities, so it has grown along the way (Sports Kyunghyang, June 23). Just listing the venues shows the size of this tour.

Two sold-out shows in Oakland, then MetLife Stadium in New Jersey (iMBC, Singlelist).
September 19, the Stade de France, France’s largest stadium, with more than 80,000 seats and BIGBANG’s first show in France. French K-pop outlet K World titled its report “A miracle 20 years later” (Star News, September 28).
September 26, Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London (Star News, September 28).
October 9–11, three sold-out shows at the Taipei Dome, about 100,000 people (Sports Donga, October 12).
October 24–25, My Dinh National Stadium in Hanoi. Eighty thousand seats over two nights sold out 10 minutes after tickets opened. When the crowd kept singing “Haru Haru” and wouldn’t leave after the show, the three came back out and answered with “Red Sunset” (Financial News, October 26). It was BIGBANG’s first official concert in Vietnam (Inside Vina).
October 31, Accor Stadium in Sydney. The first headline show there by a K-pop act (Yonhap, November 2).

“Don’t look back, just go” — from “Haru Haru” (2008, lyrics by G-DRAGON and others). More than 40,000 people in Hanoi sang this song, which pushes a lover out the door, in Korean, with no subtitles (Financial News).

Why the BBC called them the “Kings of K-pop”

Foreign media aren’t treating BIGBANG as a nostalgia act. Right after the London show, the BBC ran a long feature headlined, in essence, “Before BTS and BLACKPINK, there was BIGBANG. Now the kings of K-pop are back” (BBC, as quoted by Star News, September 28). It pointed to their records. At the 2011 MTV Europe Music Awards, BIGBANG became the first K-pop group to win a trophy at a major Western awards show. Their first 2012 show at London’s Wembley Arena sold out in two hours, so another date was added, and in 2016 they became the first K-pop act on Forbes’ “Celebrity 100” (same article). Hyunjoon Um, a senior lecturer in music at the University of Liverpool, said that just as Michael Jackson is the “King of Pop,” he would call them the “Kings of K-pop.”

Their firsts aren’t only on paper. The BBC pointed to the “Bangbong,” a yellow crown-shaped light stick created at G-Dragon’s suggestion, as the original of K-pop’s light stick culture (same article). Today every K-pop group has its own official light stick design, and fans wave them in unison at concerts. If the BBC is right, the first light in every sea of light at a K-pop show today was that yellow crown. The 40,000-plus fans at My Dinh Stadium in Hanoi were waving Bangbongs too (Financial News).

The audience isn’t stuck in one generation either. Among the London fans the BBC met was a fan who came from Edinburgh in a handmade jacket matching her daughter’s, and a fan from Singapore called BIGBANG “the originals” (BBC, as quoted by Star News). At Coachella in April, U.S. outlet SFGATE reported fans in their 20s singing along to BIGBANG’s old hits (eToday).

Next up: Bangkok, and Dooly

The tour doesn’t stop. November 7–8 brings Rajamangala National Stadium in Bangkok, Thailand (Singlelist, November 2), followed by Kai Tak Stadium in Hong Kong and dome shows including the Tokyo Dome and Kyocera Dome Osaka, running into February 2027 (Top Star News, Joongang Economy News). In between, at the 2026 MAMA AWARDS at Kyocera Dome Osaka on November 20–21, they’ll share a stage with “Dooly the Little Dinosaur,” a comic and cartoon character who first appeared in 1983 and whom Koreans of every generation know (TenAsia, October 29).

A 20-year-old group shares a stage with a 43-year-old baby dinosaur. Like that mother and daughter from Edinburgh, the people who sang along to “Lies” 20 years ago are now raising the yellow crown with the next generation. I’m adding one more light to that sea in my heart, counting down to the Bangkok nights.

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