Last month, thirty years of K-pop history were celebrated at Los Angeles’ Dignity Health Sports Park when 68 artists representing 13 different groups from Korea’s SM Entertainment came together for the 2025 SMTOWN Live Concert. Amid performances from chart-toppers like NCT 127 and aespa, KAI of EXO offered a teaser that made waves: “Before [EXO] come back, you might be able to see me this summer. We’ll see what happens.”
Now, the “what happens” is clear: KAI will embark on his first solo U.S. tour, Variety can exclusively announce.
Following its May 17 kickoff in Seoul and a dozen dates across Asia, the 2025 tour will head to the States in late August. Presented by AEG Presents in partnership with SM Entertainment, the U.S. leg begins at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles and will travel across five cities, concluding at The Theater at MSG in New York in early September.
“This year’s been filled with new opportunities and I’m so excited for this U.S. tour,” KAI tells Variety. “Thank you for waiting all this time and I promise you the show is going to be amazing. I’ll see you soon.”
The trek comes just months after KAI dropped his fourth solo record, “Wait on Me,” which included the Afrobeat-inspired title track as well as songwriting and production from the likes of MAX, Duckwrth, Afro B, Warren “Oak” Felder and more.
KAI was first introduced to K-pop fans in 2011 as a member of the boy band EXO, but the tour marks his first performances in the U.S. since kicking off his solo career with his self-titled debut EP KAI in Nov. 2020. That record included the single “Mmmh,” which has earned more than 200 million streams on Spotify, with its accompanying music video boasting 155 million views. He later followed with the 2023 single “Rover,” which became a viral signature hit for KAI, earning 180 million Spotify streams and nearly 95 million YouTube views.
While EXO last visited America to perform in arenas like Newark’s Prudential Center and Los Angeles’ Forum in 2017, KAI also hit multiple arenas for a 2019 tour with SuperM, the seven-member K-pop supergroup that landed a No. 1 album on the Billboard 200 after blending KAI alongside fellow SM Entertainment superstars from boy bands like SHINee, NCT and WayV.
Along with KAI’s distinctive, sleek and smooth stage presence, fans can likely also look forward to impressive fashion displays with the 31-year-old named a Gucci ambassador in 2020 and a muse to brands like Yves Saint Laurent Beauty and Bobbi Brown.
Ticket information will be made available on kaiontour.com soon. Check out the full run of U.S. dates below.
2025 Tour in the U.S. Dates:
Aug 28 — Los Angeles, CA — Shrine Auditorium
Aug 31 — Grand Prairie, TX — Texas Trust CU Theatre
Sept 2 — Atlanta, GA — Fox Theatre
Sept 4 — Rosemont, IL — Rosemont Theatre
Sept 6 — New York, NY — The Theater at MSG
