Korean Pop Night 2008 in Singapore

Well, I am not going to write like a fangirl but just a rough rundown of what happened if I remembered correctly. About 90% of the stadium was filled and every seat had Korean Air clap sticks for us to show our support. The stage was quite small with not much space to work with. It was a fun concert overall.

The stated time for the concert start was 7.30pm but of course they don’t. We get a friendly announcement a few minutes before 8 that it would start at 8pm officially. And so it did. Out came Andy, Tan Liyi (YES FM933 DJ who is fluent in Korean) and Park Jung Ah who were emcees for the night. Andy and Park Jung Ah spoke in Korean while Tan Liyi spoke in English to the crowd.

JunJin got the night going with his heart-thumping dance number Wa and it got the crowd rocking. After that, he went backstage for a while to recharge and then came out singing a ballad Those Words I Love You.

Chae Yeon was next to perform and she wore a glittery mini-skirt, singing Two Of Us which most were familiar with the NaNaNaNaNa lyrics. She then followed it up with the club song My Love with lightsticks in the dark.

Jewelry came out to a hot reception especially for Park Jung Ah and who else but Seo In Young. They performed One More Time which got a good reaction and Superstar which was a good song by the way and also good reaction.

Then the filler acts which I thought would and should be placed in the beginning appeared to lukewarm response and even some booing (which was uncalled for). But it was out of place frankly. Lee An and Carrie Yeo (Project Superstar contestant) both sang one song each and departed quickly.

Kim Jong Wook was next and he sang his famous Only You song from We Got Married which got him some fame. But strangely, he only performed that song and did not reappear to sing his second song Bad Guy as scheduled.

V.O.S. appeared singing Soulmate and then Beautiful Life where the latter got a better response from the crowd since it was more upbeat.

Then the idol groups came out in the form of 2PM and U-Kiss. They got the most cheers as expected from the horde of fangirls. 2PM performed lots of acrobatics with 10 Points out of 10 and their slow number Only You. They even included a small dance break at the end. U-Kiss received some loud cheers but got lesser reaction as they performed probably because they are new and not much promotion back in Korea as they performed I’m Not A Kid and U&I

Andy was the second-last act to perform as he sang Propose first and ending it with Love Song. Good performance and great to see him perform live. His ponytail hair today was way better than the hairstyle he had while promoting these songs. Don’t know if it’s just me, but images of Solbi keep floating around when he sang the songs and I also imagined her standing beside him.

Wonder Girls was last to perform and the highlight of the concert I felt. They had the green outfits which they wore 2 weeks ago on Inkigayo and with the horse ponytail extension which was a great combination in their entire Nobody wardrobe. They sang Nobody and it was fun to watch them perform in person and singing Nobody Nobody but you. Having got off the plane just in the afternoon, they looked tired but gave a great professional performance. I thought they performed very well, everyone of them including So Hee. After Nobody, they exited backstage for some adjustments before reappearing for the finale song Tell Me. Everyone was into it, the entire crowd. Sun Ye was very hyper like she usually do for off-tv performances. Everyone was saying Omona when it reached that part. I still can’t believe that I saw them performing live.

My only regret was that the real fans, cheering ones were kept up high in the terrace, balcony seats while there were many inanimated faces in the premier seats facing the stage directly, what a complete waste of space. Park Jung Ah did a really good job as MC as while the other groups were performing, she would sometimes imitate their dance movements or try to get the crowd clapping or moving their clap sticks. Awesome. Andy was stretching his tired legs 3/4 into the night as the poor MCs have to stand for the entire concert plus he had to perform also. It was like a normal Korean music show in Singapore.

Hope it gets a good write up from the press and the organizers were impressed by what they saw, making this a possibility again next year and thereafter. I had fun and hope you did too. For those who were unable to make it, try to catch Jewelry at 1pm tomorrow at Square 2 shopping mall or send all the singers off at Changi Airport before 10:45pm as they return home.

The concert which will probably be edited for broadcast (hope not!) will be shown on MTV Asia (Starhub Channel 20) in due time while it will be aired on SBS back in Korea (so expect HQ quality downloads soon).

And I think no one spotted me. What a relief.

Credit to n-jjang@soompi for pictures.