GSoul Delivers a Soulful Evening to Chicago Soulmates
Photo Cr: Kenna Miller
While currently in the throes of his Pretty Lil Thang tour, Kim Jihyun, known more commonly by his stage name GSoul, set foot in Chicago to deliver a sincere and heartfelt performance. The 35-year-old South Korean singer-songwriter held an intimate show for his fans, or ‘soulmates.’
Photo Cr: Kenna Miller
GSoul cooly strolled out onto the stage, beginning with some of his most popular hits — “bad habit,” “Selfish,” and “Tequila” — along with his most recent single “Window Pane (Pretty Lil Thing).” Even though the song had only dropped a week prior, the crowd was already excitedly shouting out the title when asked if they knew of the song.
Photo Cr: Kenna Miller
Before jumping into one of his collaborative tracks, “Better” with fellow artist Woogie, in GSoul’s words, “The next song is about mistreatment. If you’ve been in a relationship and felt mistreated or,’ he smiled teasingly, ‘felt like you’ve mistreated someone.”
After an overwhelmingly requested performance of “Excuses” off his first EP Coming Home, GSoul noticed a fan’s birthday sign. He took time to serenade them with his soulful rendition of “Happy Birthday” stating, “this is from me to you,” and replacing the section where one’s name would be sung with ‘my love’ to the delight of the crowd.
Photo Cr: Kenna Miller
During the next portion of the show, GSoul wanted to take a moment to thank God, remarking, “Today’s Sunday, right? God is good, God is great. Whoever you pray to, I just want to take a moment, it’s been a journey to get on this stage.” He began an acapella version of Marvin Sapp’s top streamed song “Never Would Have Made It,” and then smoothly transitioned into his own number, “Get Up.” After singing his popular emotional ballad “Hate Everything,” he mentioned that he hopes to perform less sad songs in the future and more songs that you can dance to like his next song “Broken Record.” The crowd eagerly complied with his request to dance along, going as far as moving farther from the stage to find open space so they could move freely.
Photo Cr: Kenna Miller
GSoul left the stage only to return quickly after loud calls from the audience for an encore. He sat down on the edge of the stage in the middle of the crowd to belt his outro “Need You,” showing off a seemingly endless amount of vocal runs and leaving the crowd yelling, “One more! No! Three more!” His DJ jumped in to request his favorite song “Best Part” by H.E.R. and Daniel Caesar. GSoul readily agreed, effortlessly jumping octaves to duet with the crowd, and even handing the mic to an audience member to sing along. The fans were still unable to let him leave, resulting in two more performances of “Can’t” and “Found You.” GSoul sincerely and repeatedly thanked the fans before ultimately ending with a group picture.