The Japanese singer surprised a crowd of 40,000 at XMF 2026 in Incheon on 3 October with two Korean songs. On 31 October she uploaded a studio cover of And July, sung in the original Korean, and it passed a million views within days.
Written by the Kverything editors from the sources below. Photograph by Yvette de Wit on Unsplash. Last checked November 3, 2026.
On 31 October Ado, a Japanese singer, posted a cover of And July on her YouTube channel. The song belongs to 헤이즈 (he·i·jeu), the Korean singer Heize, with DEAN and DJ Friz as featured artists. It came out in July 2016 as the title track of a mini album of the same name, and its music video sits on the STONE MUSIC channel. Ado sings it in the original Korean.
She wrote the description in Korean. Korean pronunciation is really hard but fun, she says, and this is a song she truly likes. She credits the illustrator John Kafka for the fan art in the video and vis for the mix. She also writes that she wants to go back to Korea, that she loves 닭한마리 (dak·han·ma·ri), and that she wants to eat 칼국수 (kal·guk·su). The video runs 3 minutes 50 seconds. By 3 November it had 1,394,866 views and 62,247 likes.
The studio version came four weeks after the live one. She had already sung the song in Korean at a festival in Incheon, and the description says so.
The live version came first. XMF 2026, short for Xnterstellar Music Festival, is a new festival for Korean and Japanese acts, set up so that artists, audiences and industry people from both countries keep meeting. Its first day ran on 3 October at Paradise City Culture Park in Incheon. Eleven acts played, among them 윤하, FTISLAND, LUCY, ONEWE, Nakashima Mika and coldrain, with Ado as headliner. OSEN, in a report carried by Chosun, put the crowd at 40,000 and said Ado surprised the room by singing LE SSERAFIM's Blue Flame and Heize's And July in Korean. 윤하 did something similar, singing the first verse of 혜성 in Korean and the second in Japanese.
Day two on 4 October had DAY6, ONE OK ROCK, UVERworld, Xdinary Heroes and YB. Mnet in Korea and TBS Channel 1 in Japan will broadcast the whole festival in December.
The YouTube upload gave the studio version to everyone who was not in Incheon. Ado writes in the description that the cover is the one she performed at the festival. Reaction videos, including one from a guitarist, followed within two days.
Search YouTube for Ado and And July. The official upload is on the channel named Ado and carries her name in Japanese brackets in the title, with the original artist named after it. Put it next to the 2016 music video on the STONE MUSIC channel, which Ado links from her description, and listen to the two side by side.
The festival itself is over. If you were not in Incheon, the December broadcast on Mnet and TBS Channel 1 is how you see the set. During the festival the organisers ran free shuttle buses between Incheon International Airport and the venue, along with an indoor lounge, food trucks, photo zones and signing events.
Ado's note about 닭한마리 and 칼국수 is the kind of thing that sends people looking for a restaurant. She names both dishes herself in the description. The recommendation is hers; we have not picked a restaurant for either.
XMF 2026 took place at 파라다이스시티 (Paradise City) Culture Park in Incheon on 3 and 4 October. The organisers ran free shuttle buses from Incheon International Airport. There is nothing to visit now. The December broadcast on Mnet and TBS Channel 1 is where the weekend lives.
Korean pronunciation is really hard, from Ado's own video description
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