BABYMONSTER’s Choom Tour Is Off to a Blazing Start — But the Outfits Are Causing as Much Noise as the Music
Since we last covered BABYMONSTER’s dome-tour ambitions in our June 23rd piece, the group has moved from planning their biggest era yet to actually living it — and the last month has given MONSTIEZ (and the wider K-pop internet) plenty to talk about.
The Choom World Tour Is Officially Underway
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The tour that was still a bullet point on a roadmap a month ago is now real. BABYMONSTER kicked off the 춤 (Choom) World Tour with a three-night residency at Jamsil Indoor Stadium in Seoul on June 26, 27, and 28.
It marked the true start of their second global trek, following 2025’s Hello Monsters tour, and set the tone for a run that’s set to expand well beyond Asia.
According to the tour’s official routing, the Choom World Tour will span at least 27 shows across Asia, Oceania, North America, South America, and Europe through 2027.
After Seoul, the group headed to Japan, with stops in Kobe on July 8 and 9 kicking off the Japanese leg — which will eventually build toward the tour’s headline moment: a two-night residency at Kyocera Dome Osaka in September, marking BABYMONSTER’s first-ever solo dome concerts.
Beyond Japan, the tour is also set to bring the group to cities where they’ve never headlined before, including Manila, Macau, Auckland, Melbourne, and Sydney.
In other words: the “dome tour” storyline from our last article isn’t a future headline anymore. It’s happening, and it’s already underway.
“I LIKE IT” Drops — And Reviewers Are Calling It Their Best 2026 Single
On July 6, YG Entertainment released the music video for “I LIKE IT,” a side track from BABYMONSTER’s third mini album CHOOM.
The choreography actually debuted live during those Seoul concerts before the video dropped, giving fans an early preview of the song’s bright, upbeat energy.
The video itself leans hard into summer imagery — the group starts out on a yacht drifting across open water, then moves through a garden, a pool, and an ice cream shop, all shot on location to match the song’s “free-spirited and upbeat energy,” as YG put it in its announcement.
Musically, “I LIKE IT” trades the label’s usual hip-hop-inflected title-track formula for a country-guitar-driven pop sound, something more than one reviewer flagged as a refreshing change of pace.
The Bias List, a well-known K-pop review outlet, called it the group’s only real standout single of 2026 so far, praising the greater emphasis on vocals after feeling that June’s “SUGAR HONEY ICE TEA” leaned too heavily on rap-talk delivery over a club beat.
There’s also more coming. The music video ends with a teaser confirming a video for “MOON,” the opening track of CHOOM, following through on a promise YG chief producer Yang Hyun-suk made when the mini album first rolled out.
Fans expecting the promotional cycle to wind down after “I LIKE IT” should brace for another release.
CHOOM Just Picked Up Double Platinum Certification
The commercial numbers are backing up the tour momentum.
Circle Chart’s latest monthly certifications confirmed that the regular version of CHOOM has been certified double platinum for surpassing 500,000 copies sold, while the Nemo version received a platinum certification for crossing 250,000 copies.
It’s the group’s latest sales milestone in a string of them — BABYMONSTER’s back catalog, including BABYMONS7ER and Drip, has already cleared platinum-level certifications multiple times over, and Drip‘s Japanese streaming numbers recently crossed the RIAJ’s platinum threshold as well.
Combined with a strong touring schedule and a second music video still to come, CHOOM looks set to be one of the group’s most commercially durable releases yet.
The Outfits Controversy: Ahyeon and Chiquita Under Scrutiny
Not everything trending out of the Seoul shows has been positive. Fancams from the opening nights sparked a wave of criticism directed at YG Entertainment over the stage outfits worn by two of the group’s younger members, Ahyeon (19) and Chiquita (17).
Ahyeon performed in a black strapless mini dress that, according to widely shared clips, repeatedly slipped during high-intensity choreography.
Viewers noted she spent portions of the performance adjusting the dress and using her hair to cover herself while continuing the routine — footage that circulated widely with fans arguing the costume simply wasn’t secure enough for the choreography it was paired with.
Chiquita, meanwhile, drew attention for a solo stage built around a dramatic red backdrop and deliberately mature, sensual choreography for her performance of “Worth It.”
Given that she’s still a minor, that framing reignited a broader and familiar conversation in K-pop fan spaces: how mature idol companies should style teenage performers, and where the line sits between artistic maturity and premature sexualization.
The backlash wasn’t limited to the Seoul shows either — similar complaints resurfaced around Ahyeon’s styling during the group’s subsequent Tokyo stop, with fans again calling out YG’s styling team directly.
As of this writing, YG Entertainment has not issued a public response to the criticism, and it’s a storyline likely to keep resurfacing as the Choom World Tour continues rolling through new markets over the next several months.
What’s Next
With the Kobe shows behind them and Kyocera Dome Osaka looming in September, BABYMONSTER’s summer is only getting busier.
Add in the still-unreleased “MOON” music video, a fresh certification milestone, and an unresolved styling controversy that fans clearly aren’t ready to drop, and the group’s most ambitious era yet is proving to be as complicated as it is commercially successful.
We’ll keep tracking the tour, the promo cycle, and how — or whether — YG responds to the styling backlash as Choom continues its international rollout.