NishaKoreamania gripped audiences at the Singapore Indoor Stadium as 9 Korean artistes stormed the stage with a medley of saucy and cutesy performances during the Korean Pop Night concert.
For hundreds of K-Pop fanatics, it was the night that paid off the long wait to watch their idol debut live in Singapore.
They got what they expected – a decent enough performance without technical hiccups – by Jun Jin (from Shinhwa), Chae Yeon, Jewelry, Kim Jong Wook, V.O.S, 2PM, U-Kiss, Andy (from Shinhwa) and Wonder Girls.
Andy also hosted the show with DJ Tan Li Yi from Y.E.S. 93.3 and Park Jung Ah from the girl group Jewelry. The trio presented the show mostly in the Korean language, disappointing a large group of local audience.
Evelyn Yang, 23, questioned the presence of DJ Li Yi as an English-speaking emcee, because any non-Korean speaking concertgoer would expect her to be the translator between the Korean celebrities and the audience instead of firing off in Korean.
The extravaganza is the highlight of the ongoing Korean Festival 2008, organised in an effort to strengthen and commemorate ties between Korea and Singapore. Other programmes include the Korean Film Festival.
Being the inaugural large-scale K-Pop concert in Singapore, organiser Korea Culture & Content Agency pulled off a respectable show for the K-Pop thirsty locals.
Fanatic Nur Amirah, 19, said, “The concert was awesome! But, it’s not enough for me. The two-hours long concert is just too short.”
Each artiste was given time limitation to belt out a maximum of two songs. As such, some stars did not dazzle the audience sufficiently with their stage presence.
Jewelry got the party started
Though the night’s performance officially kicked off with Jun Jin, the crowd’s energy level rose only after Jewelry made their sizzling appearance with One More Time and Superstar.
The girl band displayed the correct formula of an entertaining performance – high-paced sultry dance moves and cheery smiles – which the previous staging by Jun Jin and Chae Yeon lacked.
While naturally sexy Chae Yeon found it difficult to make contact with the mass, Jun Jin’s performance was not as dynamic as expected of the track Wa. However, UrbanWire gives one cookie point to Jun Jin for taking off his jacket in an attempt to make the fan-girls go wild, which they did.
Shyness and cuteness are still in style
Kim Jong Wook proved to be the epitome of coyness as he crooned the ballad Only You and constantly gazed his attention to the stage floor instead of the audience. Whatever it is, this scored some points amongst the K-Pop fanatics as they enthusiastically cheered him on.
Taking on the girly cute approach was the newcomer boy-band U-Kiss. The 6-member band packaged their vocals with impressive dance moves and delightful animated actions like the gesture of rubbing tearing eyes. They belted out their two singles, Not Young and You & I, gaining an exceptional amount of screams from hormonal teenage girls.
V.O.S and 2PM ruled it all
It was clearly a battle between two performances that received the same soaring level of the night’s loudest round of applause and whistles: Beautiful Life by V.O.S and Only You by 2PM.
V.O.S messed up their first performance, Honey, with terrible vocal pitching problems. But they regained their composure and made it up in Beautiful Life by having great stage presence and usage of fireworks to go with the song’s jovial theme. Even the two back-up dancers were all smiles and looked like they were at the top of the world.
The boy band 2PM won over the audience by their smooth and cheeky dance moves.
Ending it all with a bang: Wonder Girls
Wonder Girls effortlessly rocked the stage as they sang to their addictive numbers Nobody and Tell Me.
Having had arrived here in the afternoon of the concert day, they all wore a tired look on stage. However, their similar sparkly green retro-styled dresses and their ever-familiar dance moves ripped off from their music videos saw some in the crowd dancing along with them.
A male member of the audience exclaimed after the adorable girl group ended their performance, “This is how it should be!”
Sharing the same sentiments with many other like-minded fans, Nurul Fatin, 16, said at the end of the concert, “I hope this becomes a yearly affair.”