K-pop cover crew first from S’pore in finals of global dance competition

The six-member Deez’GRID has achieved something no other local K-pop dance cover crew has done to date – make the finals of the Changwon K-pop World Festival’s K-pop Cover Competition, which fans consider one of the biggest of its kind in the world.

What’s more, it also performed alongside K-pop boy band EVNNE at the event, held in Changwon, South Korea, in October 2024.

“When we got the news that we were going to South Korea to represent Singapore, I cried a few times because it felt like our hard work had actually paid off,” said one of its members, Mr Amin Osman, 26, a part-time student at the Singapore Institute of Management.

Deez’GRID was among eight finalists from around the world, including the US, UK, Sweden, Spain, Kazakhstan and Myanmar.

Solo dancer Levy from Germany was the eventual winner with her dance cover of Seventeen’s Maestro. Only the top-placed performer, who receives a trophy, is announced.

Another Deez’GRID member, Mr Ebenezer Yong, 24, said: “We did not think about just winning the competition... we just wanted to put on our best performance.”

Making it to the finals of the competition was already a great feat.

Deez’GRID co-leader Chan Jing Jie, 24, said the chance to stand on stage and represent Singapore at a global competition was one of the biggest highlights of his life.

K-pop dance cover crews who perform and film the dance routines of famous South Korean groups are a popular trend in Singapore. Many film themselves outside Marina Bay Sands’ mall.

One of the more popular crews is Z-Axis, which has won the local preliminary round in previous years, but did not make it to the finals.

Winners of the preliminary round from more than 60 countries across the world have to submit a video to a committee, which will select the top eight teams to take part in the finals.

Deez’GRID, whose members are aged between 21 and 26, was formed in April 2024. It is a collaboration between two local K-pop dance cover crews – Deez’strict and GRID.

The leaders of the two crews, Mr Chan, and Mr George Lim Zheng Hao, 25, are close friends. They felt that the combination of both groups’ strengths would do well in the Changwon K-pop World Festival.

Just two months after coming together, Deez’GRID won the local preliminary round of the festival’s K-pop Cover Competition in June 2024.

And before the group members knew it, they were on an all-expenses-paid trip to the heart of K-pop.

The members were in Changwon for just under a week, rehearsing every day with an assigned dance trainer

for their final performance to boy band NCT 127’s Fact Check.

Mr Amin said: “We learnt a lot of things which we used to overlook, like ways to gauge the spacing for our formations, and also how to properly perform in terms of expressions and gestures.”

They practised for 11 hours every day, from nine in the morning to 10 at night, taking hour-long breaks for lunch and dinner.

The two-day Changwon K-pop World Festival is organised by South Korea’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs to bring K-pop fans from all over the world to the country.

The day after the competition, Deez’GRID shared the stage with K-pop boy band EVNNE

for a special performance of Trouble

– much to the surprise of the dance crew members.

Mr Akid Danish, a 26-year-old IT deskside engineer, said: “We didn’t expect to have such an opportunity and we were very grateful and excited to be on stage with (EVNNE)!”

National serviceman Muhammad Haiqal Daniel Abdullah, 21, added: “It was surreal to feel the presence of an idol when dancing side by side with them.”

While Deez’strict and GRID still exist as separate groups, Mr Chan has ambitions for the collaboration’s future.

“Our next possible global competition will be the K-pop Cover Dance Festival in 2025. Hopefully, we will be able to once again represent Singapore in a different competition over in South Korea again,” he said.