K-pop group Girls’ Generation rocked some 20,000, from children to their parents, from Koreans to overseas fans, at their “2011 Girls’ Generation Tour”at Gymnastics Stadium, Olympic Park in Seoul, Sunday.
The nine girls gave a powerful performance, offering 32 songs in three hours. The seats were filled with “samchon,” or “uncle fans” and followers from across the globe. As there were more males than at any other concerts, the sounds of the crowd’s shouts were relatively low but their spirits were higher than ever.
The crowd waved pink glo-sticks and chanted “so-nyeo-si-dae,” Girls’ Generation in Korean, as the nine members emerged from a lamp-shaped structure. They sat in a perfect line, gazing into the audience. They opened the concert with “Genie” — wearing white lacy jackets, shorts and knee high boots, instantly taking the stage by storm with their powerful choreography.
They continued with “You-aholic,” “Mr. Taxi” and “I’m in Love with the Hero” from their Japanese album. The girls even sang “Mr. Taxi” in Korean, for which the lyrics were written exclusively for this concert. The members ran around the hexagon-shaped stage, crossing all over the floor to see as many fans up close as possible. The audience might have wished they had a couple of extra pairs of eyes to see all the members simultaneously.
Girls’ Generation followed with numbers such as “Let It Rain,” “Kissing You” and “Oh!” They waved to the audience with broad smiles when the fans sang along with the songs loudly.
After a series of hits, the girls decided to show off their individual charms. Hyoyeon returned to the stage in a white leotard and danced to Rihanna’s “Don’t Stop the Music,” while Jessica showed off her sweet voice in Tamia’s “Almost,” playing the piano herself as well. Sunny broke with her cute image by choosing to sing Britney Spears’ “Three.” Wearing a hot pink jacket, she danced perfectly with pink ribbons. Taeyeon and Tiffany gave off a sense of maturity as they performed “Lady Marmalade.”
The mood was reversed when Taeyeon sang “Devil’s Cry” in a black costume decorated with feathers with rock vocals as an introduction to the group’s hit song “Run Devil Run.” All the members returned for the powerful track mixed with Tchaikovsky’s “Swan Lake,” hinting at their transformation, just like the black swan. “Hoot” was rearranged as a rock version, continuing the intensive color of the group with their signature choreography of shooting an arrow.
Yuri sang Janet Jackson’s “If” before Sooyoung danced the cha-cha with professional dancer Kim Dae-dong, and her slender body in a blue dress moved in perfect harmony with her partner. Seohyun became a cute 1960s diva in a black dress like Audrey Hepburn to wow the audience by tap dancing to Betty Hutton’s “Stuff Like That There.” Last but not least, Yoona gave a powerful dance display to Madonna’s “4 Minutes.”
The girls literally toured around the stage on a boat, wearing small crowns as if they were fairy-tale princesses when they sang “My Child” and brightened up the atmosphere by singing “Naengmyeon,” a summer song originally performed by Jessica and comedian Park Myung-soo. When the members appeared amid the seats on a moving stage, fans went wild and even S.M. Entertainment producer Lee Soo-man himself stood up to cheer the girls.
When the group performed “Forever” with fans as the last number, they bowed deeply and Sunny even shed tears.
After endless demands for an encore, the girls came back on stage with their debut track “Into the New World.” Taeyeon said the group celebrates its fourth anniversary this year and hopes to continue longer with their fans. Tiffany and Sooyoung thanked their international support in English and Japanese, respectively.
“I wish we could reminisce about this moment later, listening to the same music with our fans,” Yuri said.
The concert proved that Girls’ Generation stands at the heart of hallyu, or Korean wave. People from all over the world came to see the concert, from Japan, China, Singapore, Taiwan and even the United States. Some 100 members of fan site www.soshified.com came to Korea with help from the Korea Tourism Organization. They sang aloud to most of the Korean numbers together with the girl group and danced to their routines.
Girls’ Generation also seemed excited about those who came from a long way away to see their concert.
Sooyoung said of the overseas followers that came to the concert, “They buy plane tickets to come to Korea and see us and we are really grateful. I feel that music connects us and our fans together despite language.”
The girl group will continue touring Asia and with the full schedule still to be announced.
Source: The Korea Times
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