B.I 1st Fanmeeting [B.I OFFLINE] in Singapore
Sands Theatre at Marina Bay Sands
7 August 2022
SINGAPORE – “I need some time to warm up”, B.I confessed in Korean. “It’s been a while so please give me some time to get used to the crowd,” he appealed, asking for fans’ understanding.
It’s not everyday that we get to see this raw and unfiltered side of him as he has been publicly portrayed as a dependable leader and a formidable artist.
But fans empathised with his jitters anyways, and a burst of encouraging cheers followed. After all, this Singapore fan meet, held at the Marina Bay Sands’ Sands Theatre, marks his first overseas show as a neophyte soloist.
At the next instant, B.I, real name Kim Han-bin, treated the crowd to his charisma, performing earworms like illa illa (2021) and Waterfall (2021).
Much has changed after he re-established himself as a renewed soloist. He does not enjoy an extended stage in domes and arenas, along with elaborately designed sets peppered with pyrotechnics.
But some things obstinately remain the same, like his love for music and his flair for showmanship.
Throughout the approximately two-hour fanmeet, B.I took extra care to “ensure that the fan meet was not boring”.
The 25 year-old rapper was game to display aegyo, a Korean term for cute display of affection, when he failed to guess the mystery object in the game segment What’s In The Box.
On the musical front, he went through three sleepless nights to produce Endless Summer (an unreleased track at the time of writing). It is coming “very soon”, he teased.
Pulling all-nighters was not the most arduous experience for him. In fact, the most challenging track to produce, according to B.I himself, was crowd-favourite BTBT (2022). “It took me more than 300 onomatopeias,” he revealed.
While he’s content with whatever he has now, B.I still has a lofty goal — to win the Grammys eventually.
In the short term however, the little wins is what matters for him. “I just want to be a singer who makes memories and spends time with my fans,” he added.
Above all, he vowed to be a “good person”.
So far, the whole night was electrifying and no short of deafening cheers. At this moment in time, an uneasy silence filled the theatre.
B.I is now unafraid and adequately brave to address his 2019 drug scandal, despite doing so in a subtle manner. The scandal he was embroiled in ultimately led to his departure from K-pop group iKON, before starting from scratch again.
Fortunately, it seems like the worst is over and things are looking up for him.
He will release a global extended play (EP) by the end of the year and is currently in the midst of practising a new choreography. “Please look forward to it,” he humbly added.
