TWICE Delivers Historic Lollapalooza Performance: 21 Songs, a Drone Finale, and a New Chapter for K-Pop

TWICE made history at Grant Park on Saturday night. The nine-member K-pop group delivered a thunderous 21-song set at Lollapalooza Chicago 2025, becoming the first all-female K-pop act to headline the festival in its 34-year history. From the opening notes of "The Feels" to a drone-lit finale above the Chicago skyline, the performance confirmed what fans have argued for a decade: TWICE belongs on the world's biggest stages.

The 90-minute set, running from 8:30 to 10:00 PM CT, drew one of the weekend's largest crowds to the main Bud Light Stage. Jihyo, Nayeon, Jeongyeon, Momo, Sana, Mina, Dahyun, Chaeyoung, and Tzuyu moved through their catalog with the precision of a group that has spent 10 years perfecting its live show — while simultaneously demonstrating the warmth and energy that distinguishes K-pop performance culture from Western pop conventions.

A Setlist Built for Converts and True Believers

The setlist was a masterclass in crowd management. TWICE opened with high-energy crowd pleasers — "The Feels," "More & More," "Touchdown," "Dance the Night Away," and "What Is Love?" — establishing the event's emotional tone before pivoting to deeper cuts that rewarded longtime fans. The sequencing created a natural arc: excitement to intimacy to catharsis to triumph.

The mid-set acoustic interlude on "Stuck in My Head," performed with a live band, was the performance's emotional pivot point. The arrangement stripped the song to its essence, allowing the members' vocal harmonies to fill the open-air venue without the scaffolding of production. It was the kind of moment that converts casual observers into dedicated listeners — proof that TWICE's appeal rests on genuine musicianship, not just spectacle.

The live debut of "Takedown," the trio track featuring Jeongyeon, Jihyo, and Chaeyoung from the Netflix film K-Pop Demon Hunters, generated an electric reaction from fans who had been anticipating it. The dark, urgent energy of the track landed differently in a live context — its intensity amplified by the Grant Park crowd's responsive energy. The strategic placement mid-set, rather than as a finale, signaled TWICE's confidence in their complete catalog rather than reliance on a single highlight moment.

Spectacle at Scale

The production values matched the historic occasion. A Netflix-sponsored drone show, synchronized to the set's finale, filled the Chicago sky with light formations spelling TWICE's logo before transitioning into symbols drawn from K-Pop Demon Hunters — a glowing "seal" above Grant Park that served as both artistic statement and multimedia brand moment. Firework flares punctuated the visual display, and a dozen additional dancers joined for the higher-production numbers.

Throughout the set, the members engaged the crowd in both Korean and English — a multilingual rapport that has become a signature of K-pop's approach to Western audiences. The code-switching never felt forced or strategic; it simply reflected who TWICE is as a group drawn from Korea, Japan, and Taiwan, performing for an audience representing dozens of nationalities.

Fan response in the pit and throughout the grounds was overwhelming. ONCEs — the group's fanbase — arrived in force, but the crowd extended well beyond the dedicated fan perimeter, with casual Lollapalooza attendees visibly engaged and responding to the performance's energy. The sight of tens of thousands of people singing the chorus of "Alcohol-Free" in unison — many of them first-time TWICE listeners — captured the precise moment that defines K-pop's Western breakthrough: the point where fandom reaches critical mass and becomes mainstream.

Historical Context and What It Means

Saturday's performance must be understood within K-pop's four-year Lollapalooza narrative. J-Hope proved a K-pop solo act could headline in 2022. Tomorrow X Together demonstrated boy group appeal in 2023. Stray Kids established K-pop groups as reliable draws in 2024. TWICE now completes the picture — showing that K-pop girl groups command the same cultural authority and commercial draw as their male counterparts.

The significance extends beyond gender representation. TWICE's Lollapalooza set happened on the same weekend that the festival's broader K-pop lineup included Xdinary Heroes, wave to earth, BOYNEXTDOOR, Katseye, and KickFlip — making 2025 the most K-pop-dense Lollapalooza in history. The genre is no longer guest-booked for novelty appeal. It has become structural to how Lollapalooza positions itself for a global, younger audience.

Reviews from major Western outlets were immediate and laudatory. The Chicago Sun-Times called the performance "groundbreaking," singling out the live debut of "Takedown" as the set's emotional peak. Rolling Stone's live review framed the night as "K-pop's most complete statement on an American festival stage." That framing — a complete statement, not a showcase — signals how critical perception has shifted: TWICE was not representing K-pop at Lollapalooza. They were headlining it on equal terms with any other act.

What Comes Next

TWICE leaves Chicago having completed a chapter of their career rather than simply adding a line to their biography. The Lollapalooza headline will anchor their legacy alongside their Billboard 200 milestones, sold-out arena runs, and a decade of chart achievements. For fans and industry observers alike, Saturday night confirmed that TWICE's 10th anniversary is not a moment of nostalgia — it is a victory lap on one of music's most competitive stages.

The fancam footage from Grant Park, already dominating social media in the hours since the performance ended, gives those who weren't in the crowd a window into what historic nights look like from the inside. What it shows is not a K-pop group crossing over to a Western audience — it shows a global group reminding the world where it has always stood.