Puerto-Rican Rapper iann dior Joins K-Pop Group TXT at Lollapalooza

From July 28 to 31, Lollapalooza took over Chicago’s Grant Park, filled with a dynamic, star-studded lineup covering all genres. Among the spectacular lineup and highly-anticipated performances for day three was K-pop it boys TOMORROW X TOGETHER (TXT). During their 45-minute set, the spunky quintet was joined by Puerto-Rican-born rapper iann dior for a performance of their recent collaboration, “Valley of Lies.” 

Composed of members Yeonjun, Soobin, Beomgyu, Taehyun, and HueningKai, TXT was quite the hot topic on social media over the weekend. Just recently, TXT wrapped up the U.S. leg of their tour Act: Lovesick, closing out their two-night sold-out shows in Los Angeles just a week before their Lollapalooza set. 

Being the first K-pop male outfit to play the iconic festival, TXT put on an amazing show filled with performances of their hits, having a live band accompany them, and invited a surprise guest — iann dior. Even though the single had its debut performance on July 24 in TXT’s Los Angeles show, it was quite the momentous occasion as another Latine-K-pop artist collaboration in the books.

With more of an indie and pop-rap proper sound backed by soft guitar strums, the tune describes a melancholic sentiment from enduring a lover’s overwhelming lies. The collaboration track was released over 10 days ago, with many in the crowd ecstatic about its live performance. 

In a recent interview with SiriusXM, both artists revealed that dior wrote the song over a year ago before it was sent to TXT and later created this once-in-a-lifetime collaboration. It’s clear that their collaboration together held meaning to both TXT and iann dior as shown in their bubbly Lollapalooza performance with big smiles on their faces. 

Displaying their sweet on-stage chemistry, the boys performed the hit side-by-side and even performed a bit of the song’s TikTok dance challenge. 

Born in Arecibo, Puerto Rico, and later raised in Corpus Christi, Texas, the emo and pop rapper found success as a rising artist thanks to his feature in 24kGoldn’s 2020 hit “Mood.” In a past interview with NME in 2020, dior has considered dropping music in Spanish. “Being Puerto Rican, I’ve actually thought about making reggaeton. I always thought that was my secret weapon. I have songs in Spanish, but I never knew when the right time to drop it was. I think very soon is definitely the time to do that now that the fan base is growing.” 

Adding another significant artist collaboration between Latine and Korean artists to the shortlist, let’s hope more will come into fruition soon. Until then, we’ll be waiting for artists like iann dior to surprise us with tricks up their sleeves.