September 11, 2026 will go down as the day Stray Kids made history as the first K-Pop act to ever headline Rock In Rio. Well, technically it was September 12 at exactly 00:05 when they arrived at Palco Mundo, the biggest stage of the festival. But regardless of the details, it was a historic night not only for Stray Kids themselves, but also for K-Pop in general, as they were the first Korean act to ever headline Rock In Rio. It’s also worth mentioning how NEXZ were the first K-Pop group to perform at the festival earlier that same day and Hwasa was the first K-Pop solo act to perform afterwards.
We could spend literal days talking about how insane that night was. Just the fact that these eight men performed for over 130,000 people in a single night and kept the energy up until 02:00am is an insane feat in itself. But beyond that, their performance showed the strength of K-Pop to a whole new crowd beyond the STAYs who were there. We keep seeing posts all over social media of people who never even heard of K-Pop complimenting their set, their vocals, their dancing and rapping skills and stage presence.
So many things happened during SKZ’s set and we’re here to talk about it all!
The Setlist
As we all know, Stray Kids always bring a killer set to their festival sets, and Rock In Rio was no different, starting it off with ‘Topline’ followed by ‘S-Class’ and ‘Bounce Back‘ was the perfect beginning for what we could tell immediately was going to be a legendary performance. ‘Social Path’ was also a highlight of the night (as usual,) with the crowd screaming the chorus so loud we barely heard the members. Songs like ‘Side Effects,’ ‘Run It,‘ and ‘God’s Menu’ were made to be played at Rock In Rio and the public’s reaction to seeing them live prove that in our opinion. People were headbanging to ‘Side Effects’ and we’re pretty sure Rio gave them the loudest ”ne sonim” ever during ‘God’s Menu.’
Another amazing moment was ‘After You,’ the song just came out, had no promo and the crowd was still singing every word. Not that that should come as a surprise because that’s just how dedicated Brazilian fans are, they know every lyric to every song and it’s always heart-warming to see artists’ reactions to that. And speaking of emotional moments, ‘Stray Kids‘ was another amazing surprise for the crowd and both the members and ourselves were very emotional during this song.
We also had the iconic moment where Bang Chan builds up the intro to ‘Chk Chk Boom’ live on stage for us, and you know we love to see producer CB97 in action. The last two songs before the boys fake-left being ‘RUN IT’ and ‘MIROH’ were a stellar choice, to be honest. ‘RUN IT’ had the crowd screaming from start to finish and it gives off the victory lap vibes a festival needs. Following that, we can confidently tell you all that the ground was shaking with the force of 130,000 people jumping during ‘MIROH’ and screaming “Stray Kids, hoo!“
Check out what the complete setlist:
‘Topline’
‘S-Class’
‘Bounce Back’
‘Maniac’
‘Domino’
‘Thunderous’
Band performance of ‘Backdoor’
‘DIVINE‘
‘Walkin’ On Water’
‘God’s Menu’
‘Chk Chk Boom’
‘Lalalala (Rock Ver.)’
‘Social Path’
‘This & That’
‘Side Effects’
‘Do It‘
‘Ceremony (Karma Ver.)’
‘Stray Kids’
‘After You’
‘RUN IT’
‘MIROH’
(After the boys faked ending their set)
‘This & That (Festival Ver.)‘
‘Chk Chk Boom (Festival Ver.)’
‘Hall Of Fame’ 💥
You know what? SKZ’s Rock In Rio setlist has us convinced someone has been spying on B-Stays via social media (probably Bang Chan, let’s be honest) because there is no other way for them to have created such a perfect selection of songs for the biggest concert of their career so far. Especially the ending with ‘Hall of Fame.’ We know for a fact how many B-Stays were begging for that song to be on their setlist and for a moment there we thought it wouldn’t be (which would be fair since it’s been a while since they’ve performed it live.)
However, imagine our surprise when not only did the boys come back onstage for three additional songs, the last song was none other than ‘Hall of Fame,’ and that was after Bang Chan and Felix asked the crowd what song we wanted to hear (and joked that if they listened to all the requests we’d be there all night) and actually sang what we were asking to hear live since before the dominATE tour last year. There was no better way to finish such a historic performance and we’re still processing the fact that we experienced it live.
Crowd Interaction
Stray Kids are always great at interacting with STAY be it at concerts, fanmeetings, fashion events, anything. But the boys (especially Bang Chan) learning a bit of Portuguese to talk to the crowd at Rock In Rio might just take the cake in that aspect. We could’ve sworn Chan grew up speaking the language with how naturally some of those phrases came out! Especially when he asked if we missed them using the word “saudade,” which has no direct translation to English and expresses so much more than just missing someone’s presence. And in case he didn’t hear us answer (impossible,) yes, we did!
We also had the comeback of Felix’s iconic “vocês estão prontos?” (“are you ready?”) being yelled into the mic as he was just as hyped up as the crowd in front of them. And of course he did the iconic Passinho do Jamal, as we were all expecting him to do, and he killed it. Festival Felix, you will always be famous! And, of course, Hyunjin‘s “tá bom” (“it’s okay”) and “te amo” (“I love you”) also went straight for our hearts every single time we heard it.
But if we had to choose a favorite moment from those ments, it would 100% be the moment we heard Bang Chan say “vocês são os melhores” (“you’re the best”) to all the B-STAYs present. Yes, we know Brazilian crowds are known for being great, but hearing that said by the wonderful leader of Stray Kids in Portuguese hits different. Still on the topic of Bang Chan, we can’t write this article and fail to mention another special treat for Brazilian fans: he once again sang a little bit of ‘Ai Se Eu Te Pego’ by Michel Teló, and he sounds even better than last year! Between that, Felix’s Passinho do Jamal, Seungmin making the crowd bark for him (and smiling so big we thought his face was going to split in two) and the multiple times we saw I.N tearing up, we think it’s safe to say these boys had the time of their lives in Rio, and so did we being there to support them.
To finish this off, we also think it’s worth mentioning how STAYs coming from everywhere for this wonderful night were a show all in itself. We saw amazing outfits, online friends meeting in person for the first time, the most creative freebies ever being given away all over the festival and people making new friends and enjoying every moment. Stray Kids created something truly special with this fandom and it was inspiring to see it with our own eyes. It’s also fun to watch people outside the K-Pop community figure out who they are and how much impact they have in real time, we will admit.
We honestly wish we could go back and relive it all over again. Seeing Stray Kids live is always an awesome experience, but seeing them conquer Palco Mundo, surrounded by STAY from so many different places just hits different. And based on their Bubble messages after the concert, we know they felt the same as well. To quote the ‘Maknae on Top‘ himself, he mentioned this was his dream stage and he almost cried while singing ‘Stray Kids.’ We cannot imagine what that must’ve felt like, but we were happy to be there to witness it.
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