Revival

BLACKPINK came to Rogers Stadium for the first of two nights on the Toronto leg of their Deadline World Tour last night (July 22). As hard as it is to believe now that Toronto is one of North America's top concert markets, it was the superstar K-pop girl group's first time playing in the city. BLACKPINK has been in the area, playing in nearby Hamilton in 2019 and 2022, but they made sure to make this first proper Toronto date count.

Unlike Coldplay, who made headlines for their less-than-stellar comments about the new venue earlier this month, BLACKPINK mostly had good things to say. Though she did mention that the venue was hard to get to, BLACKPINK's Rosé called the stadium "beautiful" and said she was pleasantly surprised at the weather. She said the view from the stage was "like a painting," with the clear sky above and the vast 50,000-strong crowd lit up with their signature glowing pink light sticks. (Many fans shelled out $80 or more for them at the limited edition merch pop-up at Yorkdale mall or elsewhere.) The multigenerational audience was ear-piercingly loud, cheering, dancing and singing along — in English and Korean — for nearly the whole show.