Written by Anne-Elise Tidwell
Stray Kids Everywhere All Around The World. Literally
While a packed ATAC bus lurched through the cobbled streets of Rome toward the final stop of Stray Kids’ Dominate World Tour, a swarm of excited fans shoved their way to the front of the next bus while excited cheers and good vibes seemed to give life to the eternal city.
Amidst the rising chaos, another overcrowded bus moseyed by with a stubborn Dwaekki––a small representative character of main rapper Seo Changbin––wedged in between its closed doors.
A swarm of fans waiting at the bus stop for Dominate Rome on July 30, 2025.
The last time I saw Stray Kids was early 2020 in Dallas, just days before international borders shut due to Covid-19. So when I saw that the European leg of the Dominate tour overlapped with my study abroad program perfectly, I knew what I had to do.
A lot has changed for Stray Kids in those 5 years. While I navigated college for the first time, the group made their global mark with their career-defining hit, ‘God’s Menu’, commanded the stage on Kingdom––a high-stakes K-pop survival show–– and even featured Deadpool stars Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman in their music video, ‘Chk Chk Boom.’.
Perhaps most impressively, they made Billboard history after seven consecutive No. 1 albums on the Hot 200 Chart with their latest release, Karma.
Now, Stray Kids have cemented themselves as one of the most influential K-pop acts––and overall musical artists––in the industry.
The group was built from-the-ground-up in Seoul, and have gathered a legion of dedicated fans along the way. 3RACHA––Stray Kids’ composing sub-unit––and now the rest of the band as they continue to tap into their individual artistry, often explore themes of alienation and loneliness in their discography, which are especially prevalent in their first few albums.
Songs like 3rd Eye, Hellevator and Voices embody their earlier, angsty sound.
Over the last 8 years, Stray Kids have carved a space for like-minded people to find solace in their words all around the world. Their slogan:
Stray Kids everywhere, all around the world.
You make Stray Kids stay
appears at the end of each music video and echoes in many fan-inspired songs like, You Can STAY and Haven’ It has developed into a shared mantra for both the band and fans.
Pre-show view of the stage after wandering up and down the bleacher-styled seats for 30 minutes as I tried to find my section.
Watching them achieve their goals in my Arkansas bedroom in real-time to seeing them perform a sold-out stadium show in Rome was surreal. It really put their success into perspective for me.
Bang Chan, the eldest, was 22 the last time I saw Stray Kids. While I sat at the deadcenter of Stadico Olympico, now twenty-two-years-old myself, it was bittersweet listening to them sing about sacrificing their youth to follow their dreams. Before I even knew it, I was in tears.
The show made me reflect on the past 5 years in the span of about 2 hours.
I thought about what has changed since I discovered them at 17, about how we’ve grown and how proud I was of them.
The tour was also a beautiful intercultural experience. It didn’t matter that I couldn’t understand the Korean-to-Italian translator, I could feel the essence of what they were saying, and that was enough.
Through a fan-made video project organized by StayItalia,––a Stray Kids Italian fanbase network–– a live performance of SKZ’s most vulnerable lyrics, as well as mutual shed tears, the Dominate Tour really encapsulated that “no matter space and time, Stray Kids and Stay’s bond is as eternal as Rome.”
Fan-made slogan the stadium held up toward the end of the concert. SKZOO dressed in ancient Roman costumes. (Left-Right: BokkAri, HAN QUOKKA, Jiniret, Wolf Chan, Leebit, PuppyM, FoxI.Ny, DWAEKKI). Art by SKZ Italia