The Difficulties of Promoting K-Pop in the West: A Discussion with Laury Verdoux

Looking for the latest scoop on K-Pop? Look no further than CCTV: The Nonstop Pop Show! In a recent episode, hosts Chris and Chantel Nicole sat down (on Zoom!) with music publicist Laury Verdoux to discuss her experience in the K-Pop industry and her work with TRENDZ.

Laury Verdoux is a French music publicist who has worked extensively in the K-Pop industry. She shared her insights on the challenges and rewards of working with Korean artists, and how she navigates the cultural differences between France and Korea.

One of the main topics of discussion was the group TRENDZ, which Laury has worked closely with. The group has been making waves in the K-Pop scene with their unique blend of pop, R&B, and hip-hop. Laury discussed the strategies she used to help promote the group and the challenges of breaking into the competitive K-Pop market.

Overall, the interview was a fascinating look into the world of K-Pop and the work of a music publicist. If you're a fan of K-Pop or just curious about the industry, be sure to check out CCTV: The Nonstop Pop Show and tune in for more exciting interviews and insights!

Transcript (from YouTube):

I went on set with a K-pop band it has been really hard to get placement for Kpop artists in mainstream Publications and radios it made me like really really uncomfortable your discretion is advice your fave will be criticized that's good that's Chris CCTV the non-stop pop show and today we are speaking to Lori Verdoux a music publicist for Kpop, indie and other Global music artists [Music]

looking for an awesome Global pop music podcast Chris and I have the inside scoop with extend of experience performing on stage and working at record labels we review and deep dive into your favorite artists songs and careers and also interview music industry professionals including artists producers choreographers and everything in between join us on patreon at patreon.com CCTV pops and become a part of our amazing crew including Lisette Lily Emily Kevin and Juliet and subscribe now and let's explore the world of pop music together yes and today we are joined by music publicist Lori verdew welcome Laurie thank you so much for joining us today hey thank you so much for having me it's a pleasure to be here yes would you like to give a quick intro to our audience yes so my name is Lauria said I'm from France and I'm currently working as a music publisher awesome and for those that don't know what does a music publicist do what did the day in your life look like so I'm a music publicist but you can be a pattern assist in different builds but for me it means that I'm being artists with everything related to promoting music from getting articles interviews to radio AirPlay or playlist placement I also get to work with some venues and festivals if they have a concert that they want to promote and bring more people uh a day in my life well it's definitely a lot of emails sent every day uh if I'm starting a new campaign I have to write a press release for that uh depending on the artist if they are new or already established I may have to write a biography for them uh then I have always have to Source New Media you know Germany's radio stations and playlists and find the journalist and radio contact nice so how did you get started in publicity in the music industry uh okay so it wasn't a smooth start for me at all I always wanted to work in the music industry so I got a Bachelor's degree and a master's degree accordingly uh it was related to booking because I always loved going to concerts so I wanted to do that at first but I knew no one in the industry in in my country in France so I was only offered you know unpaid internships or some sort of training which is okay for a few months but not for years when you have to pay your bill so I had a lot of unstable positions for some time and surprisingly for me things took a turn when I went to Korea so before going to Korea I was doing a booking and after going to Korea I can explain you a bit more about that later on but um I went to study music production there and I ended up doing pure well that's when everything actually started for me with a PR there awesome that's really cool so you wanted to get into music production are you still pursuing that potentially or are you kind of just like no like publicity is where I want to be well since high school I I have been interested in so many different fields of the music industry like I wanted to be a journalist at first and then I was interested in booking and I did some marketing for a label and PR I like music production but that's more of a hobby for me uh even if I went to Korea to study music production I just I felt like it was the right timing for me to do that but I never intended to really work in production and I love PR so for now I want to keep doing that oh that's so awesome wow I love PR that's a great sentence you know a lot of music industry people feel like oh do I love my job but it's good that you that you still care about it because after a while when you work in it you start to think is this something that I still want to do so yeah Chris Chris doesn't work out a huge label here in the US and I worked for a Korean label at the publishing assistant um and also the same label that he worked for but I'm a recording artist I was like oh my heart wasn't in it but your heart is obviously in it and since you are a fan of music and you mentioned Korea are you a K-pop fan and if so how long have you been a K-pop fan and how did you start working with Korean artists so actually I'm not really a K-pop fan like I know some groups and I I like what they do but I don't call myself a fan everything came naturally um so I as I said I wanted to do this music production course I wanted to learn more about war music software in particular it's uh Pro Tools so it's used in the studio so I looked into my options and of course I could do that in France but the way they're doing that training in France is like intensive for two days like you just study and then at the end of the two days you take the exam and I knew that I would probably fail because I need time to study and practically right so um and I wasn't I didn't have a full-time job at the time so I thought that's the right timing for me to to do that and I looked at different schools and I contacted a bunch of different schools worthwhile and in the end it was between Korea and the USA but I went to Korea a few years before that so I said okay that's something I know and for a few months that are gonna be okay and so I did and my course wasn't full time and I don't like you know not doing anything I need to be busy all the time so I thought okay I'm gonna find an internship and I sent like hundreds of emails I'm not kidding and one label answered thank you so I I did an internship with them for three months and you know when you you are in a workplace then you meet other people and that's how everything started for me to work with more Korean artists oh how awesome wow that's a big that's a big Journey for sure um so that's interesting so what music did you grow up listening to what are some of your favorite genres and artists uh electronic music yeah unfortunately at the moment I'm not really working with electronic music artists or producers like that so hopefully in the future yes let's manifest for sure yeah I absolutely love uh you know in France we have so many uh DJ and producers and like I I love my demon I don't know him probably you don't know maybe the pronunciation okay cool yeah yeah I would absolutely love to work with him or Daft Punk but they just made it so that was a sad time for me um speaking of Western or navy Western artists versus Korean artists how has your experience been working with Korean artists as a non-korean person uh so I'm just gonna speak about my experience which is pretty personal and it's probably not the same for everyone um I was really lucky because I worked with really friendly and understanding people so uh my Korean wasn't and is not perfect but anyway we we managed and um so I was hired to promote artists outside of Korea so of course I needed to communicate with the Korean team but I was mostly in touch with people outside of Korea so that wasn't an issue um but it was really interesting there because um even if it's Korea depending on the music genre things are done differently I worked with a Korean percussion band a pop rock band some K-pop artists or in the artists and so like I can see how they do things differently and uh so that was actually really surprising because I had no idea and I could really see the difference when I attended some music video shooting I went on set with a K-pop band uh I'm not gonna say the name because of what I'm gonna say after just in case I wanna be in trouble but they don't exist anymore so yeah wow um but so I went on set and I felt that other people were judging me like you're giving me weird looks I was the only freighter so okay that can be a reason um but it made me like really really uncomfortable and during lunch break things went worse it's like everyone got their plate and then everyone was on their respective corner and but you know even with the the Korean stuff they weren't really talking to each other so the mood was like super weird and I didn't really like that and um because K-pop artists uh care a lot about their image it takes two for long to film a music video because you need to stop every 30 seconds because you know they cannot have any sweat you need to adjust their makeup and their hairstyle that was really really long but on the opposite I had the best experience ever with uh hypo entertainment so that's the company I did internship with uh they had this new artist called sashiran but she changed her name now to bini if you want to check her she's really cool um so she was filming the video for her debuted song and so that was the first time I was going on set with a Korean company the whole staff there was amazing they did their best to speak with me and get to know me and so it wasn't K-pop she's more uh doing in me and RnB music so uh and the label wasn't that much into like the image and everything being perfect it was more chill so it's really enjoyable and uh yes I just I just loved it with them yeah that's interesting do you see that as kind of more of the difference then between the genres more so than just the cultural difference then I think so from what I felt yes so you have worked with artists from many different countries so I guess more kind of just big picture what are some of the differences you've known working with western music industry artists then there are many things to say but uh there's one main thing from my experience and it's actually making my work way further with Korean artists and label because they are really afraid about a song or information being leaked before the actual release yeah so they usually don't want publish this to reach out to journalists before the release date and it has been a measure for me because I got a lot of journalists telling me hey I need the song at least one week before the release so no we're not gonna collaborate together so uh that that's a bit frustrating because you missed some cool opportunities um but that's how they want to do so I'm just following what they want to do wow uh but so I worked with uh big companies like Warner Music or Sony in Korea and in Europe and you know it's the same company but they deal with that differently so yeah you know Koreans they're really strict about like they will always tell me okay we're sending you the picture or we're sending you the song but please make sure you keep it confidential before the release and but in Europe like they don't care because they know that we need to contact journalists like usually two weeks before the release date yes I definitely ran into this too at the label we we tried to find Opportunities and no one would send us anything or even tell us about the song it was really really difficult and yeah it ended up just being a really hard communication because the Korean labels weren't happy with the opportunities that we were finding for them but then we couldn't find them anything because they weren't following kind of the things that we needed so yeah totally understand that for sure my daily life um so getting a little bit more specific now can you tell us the process of promoting a K-Pop group or an artist and what goes into creating that successful strategy that perfect strategy um I always adapt myself to the artist and labels needs because I can offer worldwide campaigns in press radio and playlist but um you know sometimes they just want to focus on a few countries or they just want some threats ahead of a tour or just airplane or more streams so I would do playlisting in that case um actually lately I felt that Korean artists and labels realized that the SPs like Spotify or apple or widely used outside of Korea because you know in Korea they have their own dsps that we cannot use outside of Korea and so they are trying to increase their reach there um in Spotify is pretty new in Korea and I'm getting more and more requests from labels to work on that but I would say that overall I Define the strategy with them and every campaign is different because everyone wants different things um so it's all depending on their their goals um but to create a successful campaign um there are some things that you need one thing that Koreans know but that's not the case for in Western artists is that you need to have good looking promotional images

um that's fine with Koreans because they care a lot about their image but are had so many questions already sending me selfies yeah and telling me use that the promotion and then they're like oh why didn't I make it in like Wonderland or notion yeah because they don't want selfies you know so yeah you need to have proper promotional materials and that may be silly to say but you need to have uh good songs with a proper quality and uh good mixing and mastering which again is natural when you're working with realities but it is not with Western artists yeah I work for a I work for a another music show and we get submissions from other artists and sometimes the artists really do just send in like photos and the top of their heads are cut off or like their hand is cut off and I think to myself like why but there really isn't any kind of like artist development on an indie level really uh like in K-pop is definitely a lot different but like on an indie level it's tough to do artist development for sure for sure I mean to me that just makes sense that you need to have a good pictures if they are going to be on the internet you want to look good you know yeah totally that goes to say that goes to kind of like show about what's going on with the West like here in the west we like that whole like they came from their mother's house making music in their bedroom and they're very organic as opposed to like the polished uh image from like maybe like the 90s or like early 2000s where we had all these acts being like absolutely gorgeous magazine ready poster ready now it's more about oh my gosh like how relatable can this person be like on Tick Tock and um on Instagram and such so with that strategy strategy that you just mentioned how do you balance traditional media like magazines and New Age media like influencing with Tick Tock and all the other uh SNS sites um that's a tricky one because it's uh based on what the artists and companies uh want and are willing to do uh with new age media there are so many opportunities uh New Opportunities and I filled with Korean companies from my experience at least the people I'm working with they are not necessarily um willing to work on that or maybe they are afraid or they thought that they don't need that um like just an example there are a lot of YouTube influencers and there's potential to do uh videos with them but it can be interviews or concept videos um I didn't one in the past I was working with um Chile music Korea with their band called April 2nd and so we did a cool video with this Brazilian publication it was April 2nd reacts to Brazilian pipe rock bands it was it was really nice because it helped them it really helped them to get more funds in Brazil that the video got like over I think it was 80 000 views and they weren't even getting that on their music videos so it was huge wow but

I mean it was an indie label and they knew that they had to open themselves to New Markets because Korea wasn't enough for them but a lot of labels don't want to do that um so for for some artists and labels they just want people to write articles about them or play their songs and that's it um I'm getting a lot of interview requests all the time and they just turn that down a lot um so that's still in the work interesting do you think that's also a schedule thing as well like we always hear about especially in Korea like those artists are always training or they're recording a song that comes out in three years they're filming a music video for like three songs like they're just their schedule is so packed and planned out for years um so is that an aspect as well how has it been kind of dealing with that uh for the companies and big artists that I can be but for the artists I'm working with um that are a bit smaller that is not the reason um I had a K-pop band refusing a lot of interviewers video interviewers because um they didn't have that many promotion going on in Korea so they weren't going through music shows like that so it would cost them money to pay for stylists and makeup artists and hairdressers and they weren't I was about to say weren't willing but I think maybe they just couldn't afford to do that just for uh videos yeah so that definitely to take into account uh I I had recently I worked with one uh small writing uh R B artist Korean and yeah she didn't have the budget at all for that he didn't want to I got some people asking me to to see if he could record some videos for them and it's not that she didn't want to but he wanted them to be perfect and she just couldn't afford it my heart goes out like no seriously as an indie artist western or otherwise it is difficult to to make music it costs so much money yeah especially for that high quality that everyone's looking for so I'm sorry to him and everyone else I feel everyone's pain yeah that's really really tough um and especially with music in general being such a saturated market now as well and I think PR in general it's kind of hard to have quantitative measurements of how successful a campaign is so how do you measure the success of your campaigns that you work on I would say with how many placements they can get that counts but also we can see uh after a campaign how many uh streams a song Get or if there's a music video How many uh views there are by the end of the campaign um recently one thing that I've noticed is if the artist is a bit uh bigger and more popular I will have more interview requests so I thought that the more interview requests I get and the more successful the campaign is um because if if they don't really like the music or the artist is too small then not really gonna bother uh asking for an interview so yeah I would say that but it's it's hard I don't have any definite answer we have a lot of questions from a couple of our crew members and they were wondering about your job and curious how things work for you so we have questions submitted by DJ Peter Lowe from The Amazing K-pop cast as well so thank you Peter for some of these questions um and he says it is often said that a lot of K-pop journalism is access journalism with the coverage often being very positive and biased what are your thoughts on this and how does it affect the smaller labels and artists that you work with if you think about it in general even outside of K-pop if a journalist doesn't like a song they won't really bother covering the Renaissance of course there are some exceptions with big Publications where they also have to talk about a song or an album if they didn't like it and give their honest opinion but K-pop or not because yeah I'm working with other Western artists um if people don't like it they're just not gonna cover the song so I I saw that actually it's helping me that uh Kpop journalists or also Kpop fans yeah and with K-pop fans especially I mean I think it is the case worldwide with social media and everything fans are a lot more vocal now than they could have been 10 20 years ago but K-pop fans especially can be quite demanding um so how do you balance the needs of the K-Pop group and artists and what you feel is right for them with the demands of the fans and their expectations well the fans of our in the K-pop industry they are really needy they want to see their artists um so that's why they are requesting a lot of our you know video interviews and this kind of things and um Korean companies and artists have a hard time to understand that um at least outside of uh Korea so um I I realized that it can be um frustrating for for them when artists don't really meet their demands um but I mean I don't know about that question I just don't feel concerned that much about it

because honestly yeah because honestly some people feel like they're being like you know if I don't please the fans then but at the end of the day like you know K-pop is a business we have to figure out what works for the budget we have to figure out which way for the artists especially if you're working with smaller artists we can't sit there and just do like you said all these interviews if they can't afford the makeup artist in the time that it takes to rent the studio to there's a lot of things that go into play that I don't think a lot of Kpop fans or even just regular fans in general take into consideration especially with companies we have a certain budget and there's like 5 000 members in the group or like even just three it costs money to style three people to make up hair you know so and on top of that priorities what are our priorities what our goals we're trying to hit so that makes a lot of sense and good for you for not working yeah yeah because I have a lot of more I'm friends with a lot of paypop journalists and if they you know if fans don't like one word that they used or if they're unhappy about a tiny thing they they get a lot of of hate across the socials so that's really good that that you're not too affected by that for sure not at all I guess it's because I'm working with Mueller and in the artist because you know what that's good nice little training ground yes so I'm glad you're not taking in any of that negativity from fans that could come at times um but yeah so what are some of your favorite stories from your work so far you've shared some like little anecdotes here and there but are there any positive negative stories that you want to share or any horror stories that you're willing to let us know about um I had to find me I mean that was funny for me and not ready for the artist uh story to share so again that's with April 2nd so they were rereading to uh to do video interviews uh and uh so I got in touch with tool Brazilian influencers they were living in in Seoul or they are still living it's all at the time I have no idea um uh but yeah we we did an in-person interview we rented a nice studio in Seoul and uh so I got to attend the recording so that was uh really nice um but keep in mind it was maybe 9 or 10 P.M um it was late um the guys did the interview it went well was probably 30 minutes uh their their answers were really uh funny um because they didn't get the questions beforehand so everything was really natural and when it was done the two girls realized that the camera wasn't filming they had to do it all over again oh no oh no well hopefully the ending video still turned out well yeah I guess it wasn't as spontaneous as the first time but it still ended up nicely and but you know the the two girls that were feeling like really really bad but fortunately it was with April 2nd and they all they were really kind of really understanding maybe if it was without a Kpop company they could have been upset but that wasn't the case oh that's good okay and uh sorry story and that's a horror story for Me Maybe not uh for Europe but I I've been doing some freelance for a British PR Company music pure company um and we had those uh people who had to get in touch with artists and get them to sign contracts and then they would introduce me to the artist and I would be the one in charge of running the campaign and I had um so I got one email one day like oh you're gonna work with the artist and I got like all the information when the campaign is starting and the the song some information about the song and about the release date it said that the song was already out okay that's a bit weird usually we don't really want to do that but so I clicked on the link and because it happened this year so 2023. the song was released in January 2020. so that was what over three years are you kidding me uh because for some journalists even three months it's too old to promote a song yeah oh I talked to the the head of the company and I told her what is going on here and she was like oh yeah I'm so sorry I cannot believe that uh but anyway we told the artist so you're doing it really okay no okay I'm doing it oh no that's terrible what so you just like made a whole pitch to all these journalists and like Hey listen the song is from three years ago but like how do you how do you work around that oh my God honestly I I didn't send it to journalist I don't know I just got in touch with a few journalist friends and I just can we do something can you help me I will help you in the future just let's stop each other here good for you because I mean if I if I contact during this and I I send them a song that was released three years ago it's also my my image and my reputation that that's not serious at all so I know I couldn't do that wow good for you I mean not good for you but like good for you for figuring it out oh my God they could have at least given you a new remix or something something like a remaster like I don't know oh my God it's like oh I really did that song three years ago it didn't really work so I'm gonna try again now if no one really knew about it just pull it off and put it back on yeah

oh my God exactly wow okay well it gets kind of related but not really but there's always scandals when it comes to artists um and especially in K-pop as well so what is your strategy when handling these types of crises and Scandals so fortunately and so far I've never had to deal with that so I cannot really answer that one but I think that's a good thing for me but this is true hypothetically though how would one get in front of that how would you spin it or what kind of techniques would you use to kind of I guess you know crisis manage if the situation were to arise um I guess it depends uh about the Scandal and what's the issue um with Kpop we have a lot of bullying issues you know in high school like that I'm saying that a lot uh I mean that that's really hard to recover from that I guess uh maybe uh trying to to do an exclusive interview with a journalist so that the artist could um explain their side of the story um but again it really depends on the Scandal and even if that's one of my clients if the person did something really wrong I I may not be able to save the person and I might not want to wow good for you well thank you for that because I think a lot of people don't know like all you have to do is just fix it they need a PR team they do have a PR team so and so is just that deep deep in the dirt right now I can't get them speak into that uh you know you do have to talk to different Publications right so outside of scandals uh what are some barriers you face when you're trying to find coverage opportunities for Korean artists are there competition with other publicists and how do you make your pitches stand out for your artists I don't know why and I think it's coming from the image we have of uh Kpop fans but in Europe K-pop has quite a negative image so it has been really hard to get placement for Kpop artists in mainstream Publications and radios that are not you know just dedicated to Kpop but covering music in general because um in Europe just like in the US we have Rolling Stone MTV these types of media but it's really hard to get them to cover um K-pop uh last year I was invited um as a guest speaker at a conference talking about Kpop and marketing and that was in France and there was another guy with his organizing K-pop tours and friends and um she was also talking about how K-pop is seen really negatively in in Europe because if you talk about K-pop like I if I talk about K-pop with my friends who don't listen to Kpop or my family they're just gonna have the image of crazy fans that you know you see on the news when something crazy happens or like oh you know like a really extreme and crazy fans so mainstream Publications don't really want to get involved with that okay I was going to ask you what that was about because I have a wow I mean it makes sense it makes sense but that's not great yeah I think globally K-pop is still very Niche I think if you're not in it it's actually still very hard to get people to even give it a chance and even sometimes if they hear a song and you're like oh that's K-pop it's seen it like really like it's all it's such a surprise that it's actually pretty good um yeah what are some ways that you've had to navigate that then fortunately for me there are a lot of [Music] um Publications and radio stations or you know uh media covering uh Asian artists in general so uh that helps and I found that journalists in the US are a bit more open to talking about K-pop uh and even the big ones like you know billboard or enemy um recently we did something with um Fox 13 or consequence of sound and um for for any artist that's really hard to get placement there so even more for a Korean artists so it was a really cool achievement I was actually proud of myself uh but for some reason for Mal that's not something I achieved to do in in Europe or in France or like in the UK um getting placement on more General Publications or radio stations hmm how do you make your pitches stand out then like what what helps you break through all that all the K-pop influx of like oh listen to my artists listen to my artists listen to my artists how do you make your artist stand out for now like Publications They Don't Really receive a lot of K-pop pitches so um that that helps uh because um for my experience again and with the people I'm working with at the moment um there are slowly opening themselves to the Western World um and they so far you know they did already bother contacting journalists or radio outside of Korea so uh I got I usually get great responses even if I'm reaching out for journalists or a radio host for the first time um again not on big ones but or unless that's um a journalist you know like everyone I already mentioned the enemy or billboard you know all those Publications they had one or a few uh journalists dedicated to covering Asian artists so they are usually really open to receive hip-hop pictures yeah we we are not a lot in the pure sin um so I guess that that helps um because so far it was mostly you know labels if they wanted to try something outside of Korea they would have someone in-house contacting the journeys and the radio or playlist Traders uh but they didn't really do that much it's slowly changing and I guess they they slowly realize that it's actually um important to get some popularity outside of Korea because the Korean market is not enough to provide because as you said before Kpop industry is really saturated what are some trends that you're seeing in ways that artists are being promoted what are some new things that you've had to do to kind of give them as many opportunities as possible so it's not really a trend but talking from the Korean point of view when they work with me for them to have the feeling that the campaign was successful uh they like to have placement a lot of placements in the U.S so if possible big Publications or you know some TV shows

so it's it's a lot about the USA um like recently I worked with water music Korea um and they asked me to contact some Publications like I don't know why they really wanted to get in at Pitchfork so they're already trying to get themselves known in those types of Publications okay um yeah but if I think about it from my French and European point of view um for European artists as well to say that you made it you need to make it in the U.S and be famous in the US right right that's the usual kind of thing I remember in Korea there was a show or at least they tried to pitch the show called Kill Bill uh and it was like about making like a competition between a certain kind of artists I forget but their whole goal was to all challenge each other and whoever had the top song would get like pitched into billboard and the whole sense was like to kill billboard to be the top Billboard artist so yeah I think that whole idea of like making it out in the US is like what oh you did it um so it is it is tough for sure um and sometimes when you're a newer artist like your artist that you work with now trendsy it's difficult right to break them in because no one knows who they are and you're kind of just going off the fact that they're Korean pop boys you know so congratulations on the new release blue set chapter with trendsy and their album new days

waiting for new days [Music] so let's talk about your work with them so far what is your strategy for them both domestically and internationally so they already had some popularity in South America because they collaborated with one uh publication I think from Brazil so the strategy with global age their company was that they decided to hire me because uh they knew what I've been working with different that people worthwhile and they wanted me to Target new countries that they couldn't do on their own because they didn't have the contacts there so with them we are focusing on press and radio AirPlay in Europe North America and Southeast Asia because that's that's what they wanted again I adapted myself based on their needs it's uh also the first time that the company reaches out to me first and I don't have to compact them they they found me through my work so yes that's really exciting yes good for you that's when you know you're moving up as well that's awesome yeah totally that's exciting oh my goodness I've been noticing like looking at their social media like they do the usual cell codes and they're The Tick Tock videos and stuff like that do you help out with the new media in terms of like social media sites or do you only focus on Publications so with them I only focus on publication but um that's something I do um with other artists and labels uh when I'm doing that with Korean artists it's mainly because they might wanna have some posts in in English or they're looking for some ideas uh like with some artists we did some um dance contests um those kind of things it's it's when they are really trying to Target people outside of Korea and they might not have someone on the team that speaks proper English or who knows what's working outside of Korea all right well thank you so much Lori for hanging out with us today um is there anything else you'd like to plug I know you're working with a couple of artists um you can plug them or you can plug yourself as well well not not really just uh listen to frenzy uh there are the the Korean artists I'm working with um at the moment I'm also working with some French artists but it might be too hard to find their names so that's completely fine I've had a lot of people recently uh Contracting me on on my socials or on LinkedIn because they had some questions about my background so I'm happy to answer any questions they may have so I'm gonna give you all my links and maybe you can add them in the description so totally don't be perfect and does anyone feel free to reach out to me and uh also if you're looking for a publicist just reach out to me it's LR music but music in the the French spelling oh so m-u-s-i-q-u-e yes awesome thank you so much thank you to everyone for listening everyone go check out transy's new single new days and the album Blue set chapter new days and let us know what other aspects of the music industry you'd like to hear about you can hang out with us and the crew on patreon and you can comment below or message us at CCTV pops on social media don't forget to like subscribe and turn on notifications for our YouTube channel and if you're enjoying the show on a podcast platform please give us a follow rating and review until next time that's Jan best goes and that's Lori and we are CCTV it's a Non-Stop pop show [Music] foreign

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On April 19th, Webster Hall was filled with “FLO Lifers” eagerly awaiting the UK girl group FLO who are currently embarking on their “FLO Live” tour. Formed 2019, FLO consists of Jorja Douglas, Renee Downer, & Stella Quaresma. The group’s style distinctly derives from R&B and Hip-Hop from the 1990’s and early 2000s. For a more in-depth analysis FLO’s sound and trajectory watch here (https://youtu.be/i18hpBoW4EU)/ <iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/i18hpBoW4EU" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Before FLO took the stage, Samaria, an Oakland R&B singer, opened the show. Samaria started with a simple backdrop featuring her name, keys, and drums. The audience seemed familiar with her music and if they were not, they were supportive and living in the moment. Samaria interacted with the audience well and related to them on the basis of terrible ex's and a journey through a toxic relationship. Samaria’s songs had interesting cadences, but what was  missing for us was backing vocals on the track to delineate verses from choruses. After doing some research we found that the “Out of the Way” singer has a sound also inspired by 00s R&B, with a some tracks tracks full of fun guitar licks and drum patterns reminiscent of Timbaland, but none of those instruments were present in her performance. Her backline consisted of a keyboardist and a drummer. Although Samaria sounded good, at times the keyboard’s volume was overpowering.  She worked the stage, nonetheless and  good job. 7.5 out of 10 ! ()SCORE

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/CVI-FMictlA" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen></iframe>

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Okland R&B Singer, Samaria as the opening act for FLO's tour "FLO Live." Samaria on stage singing with her band.Oakland R&B singer, Samaria performing on stage at Webster Hall as the opening act for FLO (Jorja, Renee and Stella) for their sold out "FLO Live" tour.

Next up was the much-anticipated FLO, and the girls opened with "Not My Job." They were all dressed in black with cute cutouts, and their outfits were shimmery (I love sparkle!) which was a welcome change from their wardrobe at the MOBO awards. Their faces were beat (we love a “natural glam”),

their vocals were tight, and their choreography was utilized well to highlight grooves. The chemistry between the girls was undeniable, and their vocal blend was seamless— absolutely chill-inducing. Jorja's thick vocal tone took the songs to a soulful place, and Stella's airy delivery allowed her to float at the top of the group's harmonies. Renee's smooth, warm alto voice added a coolness to their sound and gained a lot more stability in live singing. I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention FLO’s band! The band consisted of some past schoolmates, which added another layer of charm to the whole set!

The absolute highlight of the show was "Losing You” In this live arrangement, the girls emoted and connected with the audience on a deeper level. Chris loved harmonized adlibs, brand new bridge and extra outdo including a guitar solo.  As a special treat, FLO performed a cover of Jamelia's version of "Superstar" by Christine Militon.  Even though a majority of the NYC crowd had no clue who Jamelia was and didn't know the song, the girls did teach the chorus before singing the song, so some fans were able to follow along. Chris and I certainly knew the song and even received compliments on synchronized impromptu choreography.

Speaking of choreo…

The girls' choreography was something we were curious to see, and they did not disappoint. They danced well, and they were given grooves as opposed to sharp movements that really complemented each member's personal style. In terms of technique, they aren’t K-pop idols so we weren’t expecting crazy formations and “point dances,” but you can tell they put in the work to provide another layer of entrainment to the experience. There was even some chair-ography for their performance of "Change," a new track about a lover's inability to "do the work" necessary to improve the condition of the relationship.

The girls did perform their latest single, "Fly Girl" ft Missy Elliot, and although Missy Elliot was present in the audience, she did not join the performance.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">.<a href="https://twitter.com/flolikethis?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@flolikethis</a> big up to Flo out here in the states on the road working hard! Keep doing yall thizzzzle!!!🔥 <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Flygirl?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Flygirl</a>💇🏾‍♀️💃🏾💅🏾 <a href="https://t.co/Qtgr2f2KBl">pic.twitter.com/Qtgr2f2KBl</a></p>&mdash; Missy Elliott (@MissyElliott) <a href="https://twitter.com/MissyElliott/status/1649101483621728272?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 20, 2023</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Fans (the FLO Lifers) were absolutely living their best lives! They knew all the words to FLO’s songs—the BGV's and the ad-libs. It was a room full of genuine love and screams! FLO closed the night with their debut single, "Cardboard Box," and this performance featured a heavenly bridge section.

Overall, the show was good, and for this to be the group's first headlining tour, we were impressed with the girls’ improvement from performances like the MOBO Awards, where nerves played a noticeable factor. FLO is worth the hype for sure, and we cannot wait to see the new era of girl groups being led by FLO. For their NYC debut, we rate them a 9 out of 10! FLO Lifers left Webster Hall with unforgettable memories and high expectations for FLO's future performances.