A five-member boy band representing Brazil, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Peru and L.A. County made history on Aug. 14 when Santos Bravos took the stage at KCON LA, becoming the first Latin American act ever to perform at the annual Korean pop culture festival.

The group opened on the Artist Stage at the Los Angeles Convention Center on the festival's first night. KCON LA 2026 drew 142,000 attendees across three days at the Convention Center and Crypto.com Arena, according to Forbes, the largest single-edition turnout in the festival's history.

Santos Bravos operates under Hybe Latin America, a Mexico City-based division of the South Korean entertainment giant. They are Hybe's first group based outside the United States or Asia.

For Drew Venegas, 26, the L.A. County native formerly of West Covina, the KCON stage carried personal weight. A former backup dancer for BTS, Venegas told the Los Angeles Times on Aug. 16 at the Convention Center that fans of Mexican descent approached him after the show, emotional about seeing someone who shared their experience of not growing up speaking Spanish.

"One day of training was equivalent to one week of training," Venegas said of the group's K-pop-influenced regimen. "I think combining all of our cultures together, then keeping our Latin essence with the K-pop methodology, [brings] something very new and very fresh for the eye."

The lineup spans five countries: Kauê Penna, 19, from São João de Meriti, Brazil; Kenneth Lavíll, 16, from Veracruz, Mexico; Gabi Bermúdez, 21, from San Juan, Puerto Rico; Alejandro Aramburú, 22, from Lima, Peru; and Venegas. Aramburú is finishing his music degree at the University of Southern California while performing with the group. The members sing in Spanish, English and Portuguese.

Santos Bravos debuted in October 2025 after a competition reality show, "Santos Bravos — La Serie," selected them from 17 finalists before 10,000 fans at Mexico City's Auditorio Nacional. Their debut EP, "Dual," reached No. 17 on the Billboard Top Latin Pop Albums chart in June 2026, and that same month they won the fan-voted artist duo or group award at the 2026 Premios Tu Música Urbano Mix.

At KCON, the group performed tracks from "Dual," opening with "Velocidade" and closing with the Spanish-language ballad "FE." They later returned to the main M Countdown stage for a collaboration with Hybe's Japan-based group &TEAM, covering BTS songs "Hooligan" and "2.0" before a joint "Permission to Dance" finale with confetti, Billboard reported.

Juanse Arenas, president of Hybe Global Label Services, told the Times at the company's Santa Monica offices on Aug. 18 that the K-pop model can't simply be transplanted. He said the company must consider where members come from, what drives them and the audience they're speaking to, rather than applying the methodology blindly to new regions.

The group returned to Mexico City after KCON. No upcoming U.S. dates have been announced.