For one night only, Singapore was ruled by a Gen Z – 21-year-old rapper Lee Young Ji, who performed at the Capitol Theatre on 20 October 2023.
Lee Young Ji is well-known for winning in life – from winning two rap competitions, High School Rapper Season 3 in 2019 (at only 17 years old!) and Show Me The Money Season 11 in 2022, to collaborating with her favourite artists like Jay Park and SEVENTEEN.
As such, Lee Young Ji is THE main character, and she definitely showcased that through her stage.
She started with Cypher and GO HIGH, her winning song from High School Rapper. She rapped fast bars about rising up from hardships, and shined on stage in cute, sparkly makeup and blue denim top and skorts.
Like what Lee Young Ji said, “If you don’t know this song, I am disappointed”.
After a burst of confetti, she got the crowd to chant her name as she performed to I Am Lee Young Ji next.
Being a seasoned competitor and performer, she knew how to interact with the audience.
She hyped the crowd throughout her two-hour show to put their hands up as they shouted “ah yeah” back at her. She even indulged the fans in a competition, as she pitted the cheers from the standing pen against the level 2 circle seats. She quipped, “Life is a competition, you know”.
Lee Young Ji also announced that selected songs from this setlist will graduate and will not be performed for future tours, before moving on to show off her speedy and rhythmic rap skills with Dark Room and That’s My Girl!!!.
She was surprised by the heated reception from the crowd even though it was her first time performing in Singapore and went down the barricade multiple times. We were also equally surprised by Lee Young Ji’s multiple costume changes!
In order to carry out her first quick change, she explained that she was unusually tired because her “intestine was empty” from not eating before the show. She then welcomed her dancers on stage to show their dance performance to Maty Noyes’s London and Eva Simon’s Guaya.
These dancers were not new to competitions too. They were the same dancers who performed with Young Ji for Show Me The Money and also competed in a dance survival show, Street Dance Girls Fighter.
Lee Young Ji’s second segment was all about being “into it”, as she channeled her emotions into songs that makes money. Aptly dressed in a black sequined dress and leather jacket, she sang to Freesia, which she described it as the “decline song”.
A Rilakkuma mascot with eyebrows and whiskers also made its appearance during Freesia, as a stand-in for the featuring rapper, Layone. Ironically, Lee Young Ji shared that she was rejected by Layone in real life in 2020, the one who collaborated on Freesia and Anemone with her.
But Lee Young Ji was grateful for this heartbreak – “Feelings are gone, love is gone, but song exists. So, money exists.”
She continued to sing more emotional songs like Day & Night and Anemone, even including a mic stand to belt it all out. Lee Young Ji did not miss out the paper ring fan project during Day & Night, as she energetically accepted the ring proposal.
Lee Young Ji continued her banter with fans and teased that her stage has been the quietest since the Singapore crowd overpowered her singing during the song.
The third segment was entirely focused on her Show Me The Money journey, complete with a long VCR of her interview on that show, and a parody on stage.
She performed her popular mission stages like BLUE CHECK Remix, WE, NOT SORRY, WITCH, and DEJAVU.
Her performances were infectious as she danced, had a live band, and fired those rap verses, decked out in a casual white top and jeans, proving her skills as a powerhouse performer.
While all these songs feature other artistes, she coolly rapped their verses like her own. Sometimes, she had help too. A lucky fan who won scissors paper stone amongst the fans became ‘pH-1’ and rapped his verse alongside Lee Young Ji!
Lee Young Ji was also lucky to enjoy the banner fan project during DEJAVU, and got the crowd to light up the theatre with their phone lights. The set aptly ended with a burst of confetti, as she exited the stage to prepare for the encore.
As she cued the fans when to shout for an encore, an encore stage was expected.
The hype only continued to soar, as Lee Young Ji came back on stage to sing to a medley of songs that she featured on. This included earworms like Is this bad b**** number? by Jeon So-yeon (complete with the hair flipping and twerking on stage!), Fighting by BSS, and DNA Remix.
Fun fact: The white custom microphone with her name that she used – was gifted by BSS themselves!
Not forgetting the trending hit, Smoke, she showed off her moves with the dance challenge along with her verse.
She also serenaded the crowd with a self-written English song titled Small Girl, a song which echoed her minor anxiety about dating with a body complex of not being petite.
Lee Young Ji chose to end the night with home-grown superstar JJ Lin’s Mandarin ballad, Twilight. She even expressed her love for Singapore by wearing an ‘I Heart SG’ shirt as the finale.
Kudos to her for practising and singing a song in Mandarin (although I really hope K-pop artistes are aware that Mandarin is not the only language spoken here in Singapore).
Overall, Lee Young Ji was unfiltered, authentic, and full of personality. She showed her wit through memes, teased the crowd with a snippet of the water challenge, shared comical stories when introducing her songs, and had lots of facial expressions.
We are always rooting for you, Lee Young Ji!
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