Written by: Elaine Uen Ling Lai 1/5/2025
Korean culture shops emerging in Copenhagen foster a community where Danish K-pop enthusiasts can gather and connect.
Melina, Philuca, and Cecilie are Danish K-pop fans who travel to Copenhagen for a day just to buy K-pop albums.
Philuca(left), Cecilie(middle) and Melina(right) have bought 28 albums in total. | Photo: Elaine Uen Ling Lai
Melina has been a K-pop fan for three years. She became a fan of the idol group Stray Kids after watching random videos about them on TikTok.
“They are just human and they don’t act like they are richer than anybody else. They just act like normal people,” she said.
Melina bought 15 albums at once and could not wait to reveal the photo cards.
“I feel like it’s different from the other pop albums because you get stuff like photo cards, posters and stickers. You can sell it and then you can sell it for a higher price because they are more popular,” she said.
Every kpop album is not just a CD, but also contains a random photocard of a member, which are usually their selfies. | Photo: Elaine Uen Ling Lai
Cassandra Nedergezrd, the owner of Copenhagen K-pop, said most customers are from Denmark, but also get many tourists.
“I think because when people visit Copenhagen, they search for the K-pop store in Copenhagen, then they visit us,” she added.
Cassandra Nedergezrd, has had an interest in K-pop for many years and started the shop four years ago. | Photo: Elaine Uen Ling Lai
Nedergezrd observed other music stores place less emphasis on community as she has with other K-pop fans.
“I think K-pop fans like finding each other. So it’s not just a shop, it’s also like a community space where we hold events and people meet each other and they bond over liking K-pop,” she said.
Given the cultural influence brought by K-dramas, such as Squid Game, Nedergezrd believes the Danish fanbase will keep growing.
“When we started four years ago, people were quite shy about liking K-pop, but now they stand by it,” she explained.
This story is for an international audience who want to know the current trend in Denmark and could be published on CNN.