Safi – The 2026 K-Pop World Festival, organized by the Embassy of the Republic of Korea in Morocco in partnership with National Higher Institute of Music and Choreographic Arts (INSMAC), will bring its Moroccan final to Rabat, with a dozen local performers competing for a place on the world stage.The finalists were chosen from an earlier round of auditions, six acts in dance and six in voice. Each will perform a K-pop number for a panel of judges.

The doors will open at 5 p.m. for an hour of Korean culture ahead of the show. Guests can try on the hanbok, Korea’s traditional dress, and play traditional Korean games. The performances will begin at 7 p.m.

The dance lineup features Khloud Lebbar, Betty, Tsuki, and Pretty Poison, along with two duos: Saad Eddine Zgarna, known as Jimoon, with Hajar Madfri, and Rita Bennis with Malak El Mazouni.

The vocal lineup brings together Ikram El Yazami, Jihane ElGhazaouni, Aura&Ashe, Salma Salamani, Nissrine Ait Ouhattach, and Marwa Enaouaoui.

Part of a global contest

The Moroccan final is one leg of a worldwide competition. Korea’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the broadcaster KBS launched it in 2011.

From 16 countries in its first year, it grew to more than 70 by 2014. Vocal and dance have been its two tracks from the start.

Korean embassies and cultural centers abroad run each country’s qualifying round. In 2013 alone, those rounds drew more than 60,000 applicants.

The contest is part of the Korean Wave, the global spread of Korean music and film that has built devoted fan communities far beyond Asia.

Winners in Rabat will earn Morocco’s place at the global final in Changwon, South Korea, held each autumn. There, national champions compete before audiences that have topped 25,000.

For the Moroccan winners, it means a trip to South Korea and a place among the world’s most dedicated young performers.

In Morocco, the contest has become a summer fixture. Last year’s edition drew fans to the Mohammed V National Theatre in Rabat in September.

It now sits as a regular event on the embassy’s cultural calendar, growing alongside a widening K-pop following across the country. That audience skews young, many of them fans who found Korean music and dramas online.