PSY booed by football fans at the derby Roma-Lazio

PSY performed on May 26th at the Stadio Olimpico in Rome for the Final Italian Cup.

The intention was to give the football fans an enjoyable moment before the beginning of the match, hoping it would calm down the two opposing groups of supporters.

It was his first time in Italy and he was really happy, so much so that he posted two photos of him on twitter, one when he had arrived in the city and the other before the performance.

Instead of cheers, PSY received boos from both Lazio and Roma fans, some of them also blew up a firecracker. For this reason, after the songs ended he said a “Grazie” (Thank you in Italian) and left the stage visibly embarassed.

As many of you may not know, Italian football fanatics cause everytime many accidents, before, during even after the matches. Boos, insults, racist chants, firecracker, violence, throwing of rocks or eggs, unfortunately the list can be longer, but there is not yet a resolution to it.

The reaction of Italian K-Pop fans as they received the news of PSY coming to Italy for the derby was of concern. Many of them had left comments saying “I’m happy PSY comes here, but I’m worried for the atmosphere that is going to welcome him” , “Surely football supporters are going to boo at him. This is not the occasion for a performance of PSY. Why did the organizers invite him?”, “I hope everything will go well, he’s a great artist”. Their reaction is caused by the fact that they already knew the behavior of people during footbal matches. In fact, after his performance, many of them posted status of anger,deep embarassment and excuses, even if they weren’t at the stadium and they were supporting him. Moreover they kept on trending “#psyneedsrespect” in order to show their support.

Football fans at the match were not K-Pop fans, interested only in the match. Of course this is not an excuse for their disrespectful behaviour. PSY was not the only artist booed at a football match and probably he won’t be the last.