The things you need to know about Kall Lifelover —— Regarding Kim Carlsson’s sexual harassment of teenage fans during Lifelover tour in China
Trigger warning: the article contains the following topics: sexual harassment, sexual crime against minorities, and virtual violence.
On the second day of the Kall plays Lifelover China tour, March 14th, the lead singer of Kall Lifelover, Kim Carlsson, sexually harassed two of his fans. I am a friend of one of the victims and witnessed the entire incident. The two victims themselves were not involved in the writing of the article. I chose to tell this story merely out of my own will.
March 14th, after the show, I stayed with my friends outside the venue until midnight just to have a few more chats. Everything seemed to be fine until Kim came to one of my friends and kissed her with his tongue. He fiercely hugged her, pressing his entire body against hers, all done without her consent. Shocked by the scene, I had no idea what had happened just then. At that time, I didn't realize that something was seriously wrong, but my body had already responded: I was constantly shaking uncontrollably and couldn't stop it. Then, we left the building and walked onto the street. It was a freezing night in Beijing at 2 a.m, not to mention that my friend put on a lot of effort to dress up for the occasion, which was still a little bit thin for the weather. Within a few moments, the members of Kall Lifelover also came out of the building. It was then that Kim kissed my friend again. Also, this happened under a situation without any permission. “He was totally drunk,” as my friend recalled a few days later, that she could “taste the alcohol in his mouth," and kept brushing her teeth until her mouth was filled with blood, but still couldn't get rid of it.
And then everything went wrong. The situation deteriorated as Kim hugged another girl and kissed her, even touched her vagina. He kissed her neck and held so tight that she could taste the bloodstains on his suit jacket. The belt around her waist was torn by Kim. I couldn't believe what I saw. I was totally terrified. The only thing I did that time was run away from the scene and go home as soon as possible.
It took me a long time after this incident to regain my composure. After experiencing several days of insomnia, panic attacks, and flashbacks of traumatic memories, I decided to write down this story. It's not out of moral criticism, nor for some grand narrative. It's for my friends and me. I just hope that I can eventually get over this situation and be able to heal from all those nightmares and fears. A few days later, at another show part of the tour, when Kim Carlsson was questioned by his fans about his misconduct in Beijing, he explained it was due to cultural differences. However, I believe that obtaining the consent of another person before engaging in intimate interactions and sexual contact is a consensus that shall be universally agreed upon worldwide. Cultural differences are not an excuse. This is a sexual harasser justifying his shameless behavior. He took advantage of his fans' trust and admiration for him in order to satisfy his own selfish desires. The power imbalance between them was manipulated by Kim to bring extreme trauma to his victims.
This is not the first time Kim has done something like this. He picks his targets, often targeting young (even minor) females and queers. After this incident was spread on the Chinese Internet, many people who had been harassed by him also stood up and shared their own experiences. These include:
- One of them was harassed by Kim as early as last September. After a performance in London, he asked her to touch the scars on his stomach during the signing session.
- Another person complained that when she was taking photos with him, he had hugged her so tightly that she couldn't break free from him, and Kim even pressed his genitals against her body.
- I am queer, and it's pretty clear that I'm a teenager, both in how I look and factually. Kim also hugged me, but I noticed that he only seems to engage in close contact with young-looking women and queers, because he's rarely done such things with male fans, at least not as openly enthusiastic as he does with us.
Apart from the sexual harassment, the other things he did made it hard to believe that he is sincere about art. This is a quote from a text from the Nattdal Official page, posted March 23rd, 2015: "Jonas did talk about what would happen to Lifelover if he ever passed on, and since he felt like he had done this all by himself, he did not want Lifelover to continue, as he felt some members of the band were already using him." The author also wrote that the Kall members never contacted his family and other members of the original Lifelover HATED this behaviour. And during the China tour, the band made countless mistakes in the performance. I can't see any respect for B and his music in Kall; they simply come to China, a land with fans that can bring them huge profits, to make money. But they don't even respect the Chinese audience. The bassist liked and responded to a comment on Instagram that contained racial discrimination against Chinese people. After the performance in Xi'an, the bassist also sexually harassed a female audience member. He said, "I wanna make love to you" to her.
Unfortunately, although this incident has gained some attention on the Chinese Internet, there are still many people who don't know the truth of the matter and thus attack the victims, even spreading rumors. So, I decided to post this article on international social media. I hope this matter can receive proper attention, and I don't want to see any more people getting hurt by them. Please spread this message as much as possible.
*I am not the author of this article, but I have obtained permission to repost it.
p1 post from the tribute page of B
p2 Kall‘s bass player used "Kinaman" to refer to Lifelover fans in China