Shinee steals hearts of Singaporean fans
It was a dream come true for the 6,000 Shawols -- the official name for Shinee fans -- at the Singapore Indoor Stadium on Saturday night, as their favourite five boys from Korea sang and gyrated right in front of their eyes instead of on the usual TV or computer screens.
With the stage production costing reportedly $1.7 million, it seemed like Shinee was aiming to go all out to please their fans, mostly young girls, as they made heavy use of pyrotechnics and flying cables to give an added boost to their trademark energetic songs in their Singapore leg of their world tour.
Despite a rocky start with the acoustics as the boys struggled a little to make their voices heard over the music, Onew, Jong Hyun, Key, Minho and Taemin showed their youth and energy throughout the two and a half hours on stage, performing a mix of their trademark upbeat songs and slow ballads with a slick sort of professionalism that belied their age. (Youngest member Taemin is only 17 years old.)
While performing their hit single "Lucifer", the five Shinee members were all attached to cables and hanging in the air with Wolverine-like laser pointers on their hands. (The green lasers shooting out could have hypnotic powers which was why I suspected one fan was overheard saying, "Onew please shoot the laser at me!")
"Ring Ding Dong" was another crowd favorite among the 29 songs Shinee sung, as the boys danced their way into their fans' hearts amid moving platforms that came with bursts of flames and neon lights while Shawols formed a moving sea of green, waving their light sticks to the song's infectious beat.
Solo performances came around the middle of the concert, with some titillating wardrobe choices.
In a gender-bender performance of "My First Kiss", Taemin also collaborated with Key as the former donned a blond wig, hot pink sequined skirt and pink Doc Martens and pretended to be a girl.
When they almost fake-kissed on stage, both of them drew sharp breaths from fans. Minho also drew screams from an excited crowd as he appeared on stage in a black and white blazer and pants combo -- with no shirt inside.
He eventually ended his dance performance of Usher's OMG with his blazer off, revealing his bare back to the delight of many young fans whom I'm sure would like to have taken his blazer off for him.
It was a surreal moment when leader Onew sung an Italian opera song in his powerful solo. Imagine that, a Korean belting out an Italian classic to a Singaporean audience.
Kudos to Shinee's leader for the attempt at being international even though those screaming fans probably didn't understand a single word of that opera song but cheered for him anyway.
While they occasionally worked the crowd, the Shinee boys only gave more "fan service" -- when K-pop idols interact with their fans and sometimes surprise them with gifts -- during their encore performances when they started to tease the attention-starved audience, who would wave their green light sticks frantically whenever a Shinee member came close to them.
During their encore songs, armed with bags of colorful balls, the boys started throwing them into the crowd, sometimes even kissing the balls first before giving it to their fans, who were in a frenzy catching the balls.
The boys also started splashing water from their bottles at each other, with Taemin the youngest member bearing most of the brunt. (Cute Korean boys drenching each other with water -- a Shawol's pipe dream perhaps?)
And Key, who was the most comfortable with the Singaporean crowd the whole night as he attempted to speak to fans in English, had a special surprise in store for him. His four other bandmates sprayed pink streamers on him as they celebrated his 20th birthday early, with fans singing a birthday song for him.
Speaking in Korean, Key also thanked everyone and said, "I'm happy to have this opportunity to be in Singapore."
Previously here in 2010 for a 4-song performance during a Korean Pop Night concert, it was their second time performing in Singapore, which was the sixth stop in a nine-city world tour that includes Japan and Taiwan.
An hour after the concert ended, Shinee fans, in their post-concert fervor set Twitterverse ablaze, as they made "Shinee", "Key" and "Taemin" trend locally.
And for 14-year-old Xavier Tan, going to a concert where the majority of its audience consisted of screaming girls did not bother him.
He thought that watching them live was an experience of a lifetime, even though he could only understand "Hello" and "Thank You" in Korean.
Despite the language barrier, Tan revealed to Yahoo! Singapore that it was also a family affair for the secondary two student, as both his 37-year-old mother and 12-year-old sister was there at the concert with him.
His mother, Angela Ong, paid for three tickets each costing $218, but she said it was worth it because the three of them were big Shinee fans.
When asked to rate the concert, Ong, who was introduced to the quintet's songs by her children a few months ago, said that she would give it a ten out of ten and cited "Ring Ding Dong" with its pyrotechnics as her favorite performance.
But not everyone would agree with her.
50-year-old J.S., whose maturity was a stark contrast to the young crowd, thought that their performance was predictable and was a bigger fan of Super Junior's live concert.
Having been a Shinee fan for more than a year ago after watching them on a Korean Broadcast Service (KBS) music show, she qualified her statement by saying, "I watched their concert on DVD before coming to watch them live tonight, so maybe that's why I don't find anything new."
Whether or not Shawols' expectations were fulfilled, it seems like Shinee has already set the bar high for future K-Pop groups to stage their concerts in Singapore.
Overheard in the crowd chatter after the concert was over, a young Shinee fan said, "I think I'm going to dream of Shinee tonight!"
And I think for Shawols, it was exactly that: a concert which gave them with many memories of Shinee to last them till the next time the quintet comes to our shores again.
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