Para Becomes First K-Afrobeats Artist to Headline in Nigeria

Korean singer-songwriter Para has become the first Korean K-Afrobeats artist to headline a solo concert in Nigeria, the home of the genre. At the show, local fans sang along to lyrics he had written in Korean.

Para sat down with KPOPIT on the 12th of last month at the offices of his label, RTST, in Seongsu, Seoul, to talk about the trip.

He had just returned from about a month of activities in Nigeria and was still adjusting to the time difference. "I recently signed with my agency and hired a local manager for the first time, so the work itself was really comfortable," Para said. "I got to appear on radio and TV shows and meet a lot of local celebrities. I spent the month making music with local artists and networking."

One highlight of the trip was a partnership with LG Nigeria. A representative said the company worked with Para, "a Korean artist loved across the African continent," to help cement LG's image as a Korean brand in the region.

"LG Nigeria first reached out long before I signed with my current label," Para said. "At the time, I didn't have an agency and was just making music with my team, so a trip to Nigeria was too expensive and the project didn't happen. After I signed with the company and headed to Nigeria, we finally got to work together."

He added, "It was really nice to meet Koreans that far from home. They helped me a lot. They provided drinks for my solo concert and even set up a photo booth with a display."

Para built a following on social media as "a Korean doing Afrobeats" before signing with a label. Afrobeats is still an unfamiliar genre in Korea's mainstream music scene, and Para explained how he got into it.

"I started out dancing, and then I began writing songs at 21," he said. "I tried hip-hop, R&B, and rock, but I was getting tired of all of them. Then I heard an Afrobeats song by a singer named Rema. The melody was so instinctive and easy that I thought, 'Wait, you can do it like this?' Every frame I had about music broke."

He continued, "I didn't want to just imitate Afrobeats without any real understanding. So I thought I had to go there myself. I wanted to be recognized in the local scene, too. Last year I just packed up and went, with help from a mentor I look up to."

On that first trip, one early lesson came from meeting the people who run things on the ground. "Filming anywhere wasn't easy," Para said. "There are local figures in charge of different areas, and you have to pay them to get permission to shoot. A big part of the budget went to securing locations. But they helped me a lot too. Some of them even appeared in my music videos, and a lot of the scenes ended up being shot on the spot."

The boundaries of K-pop have been debated inside the industry lately, and Para has a clear position. "I think what I do is K-pop too," he said. "Not just idol music. If idol music is the shiny surface of the K-pop industry, the musical possibilities underneath it are endless."

He writes most of his lyrics in Korean, even though the songs are Afrobeats. "I really love Hangul," he said. "How many languages have their creator recorded in the history books? It's incredible. I wanted to make the most of a language that is both scientific and beautiful, so I write to the rhyme in Korean."

At his Nigerian show, that choice paid off in a way he didn't expect. "Fans sang along to the Korean lyrics at the concert," Para said. "It was amazing."

He's aware of the criticism that can come with crossing genres. "A very small number of locals don't see what I do in a good light. They say I'm stealing Nigerian culture," he said. "But I think that's shortsighted. Most people see it as Afrobeats going global. Say a foreigner loves kimchi and comes to Korea to taste the real thing, then goes home and starts spreading kimchi. What Korean would criticize that?"

Para returned to Korea on the 1st and has been preparing for a summer of activity at home. His new EP "Balladang" was released on the 29th of last month at noon across major streaming platforms.

His goals in Korea are tied to the scene itself. "I'd love to see Afrobeats culture spread in Korea," he said. "I want to contribute to growing the scene. Hip-hop used to be small here, and now it's huge, with shows like Mnet's 'Show Me the Money.' I hope the Afrobeats scene grows like that too, with more events."

Asked who he'd like to collaborate with, Para named singer Song So-hee, who works in Korean traditional music. "She recently released a track built around a South African sound," he said. "I personally think Afrobeats has a lot in common, melodically, with Korean trot and gugak. I think mixing gugak and Afrobeats would create something fun and new, and I'd love to try it."