K-Pop Goes International: 2013 World Tours Officially On!
Spring is here, and that means that around the world (or at least in the temperate climate zone) people are getting outside looking for ways to spend their new sun-given energy. To tap into that feeling, lots of K-Pop World Tours have kicked off this April. In fact, some of the most popular Korean pop music acts (and I'm not just talking about PSY) have begun touring the world, including G-Dragon, CNBLUE, TVXQ and Super Junior.
G-Dragon kicked off his 2013 "One of a Kind" tour in Seoul back in March, but he spent April touring three of the four Japan domes scheduled. Thus far, G-Dragon has performed for over 360,000 fans.
Other countries that G-Dragon's 'One of a Kind' tour will visit include Thailand, Indonesia, Taiwan, Malaysia, China and Singapore.
The 'Big Bang singer told the crowd at his kick-off show in Seoul on March 30, "I thank everyone who came out. I hope I get to see you again next year. I'm sad that the concert is over. Now my overseas concerts are waiting for me, and whenever I go overseas, my heart feels a little homesick. I think that all I can do is work hard. I ask for a lot of support, so I won't faint. A new Big Bang album is also planned to release soon, so we will meet fans on stage in the near future. Please just wait a little longer."
Some fans got a teaser of G-Dragon's reunion with his Big Bang band mates, when G-Dragon opened up the Japan leg of his One of a Kind tour in Fukuoka. The artist got up on stage in a glass car and performing 'Michi Go'. He then sang 'Heartbreaker,' 'One of a Kind,' and 'Set it on Fire.' But Big Bang fans got the best surprise when Taeyang appeared with G-Dragon on his encore set singing Big Bang's 'Bad Boy.'
G-Dragon is planning to visit 13 cities across 8 countries and hold 26 concerts by the end of June - a very stressful schedule.
That stress started to show when he performed at Osaka's Kyosera Dome. During the April 27th performance, he sprained his ankle, leading him to take 2 weeks off to recover completely. Showing off his professional performance skills, G-Dragon continued performing with a Segway scooter and a cane, despite his injury. He later posted, "I finished the Osaka concert today. Immaturely, I hurt myself a little. Sorry, I wanted to give you guys a good show."
However, fans needn't worry. G-Dragon continued, "I'll rest well tonight and greet you tomorrow! Thank you for everyone who came today and stuck it out until the end."
Daesung and Taeyang went onstage during the second Osaka show to help G-Dragon after his injury. G-Dragon finished up in Osaka on April 29. Although he won't perform his final Japan shows until June 1 and 2, he won't have too much time to rest. He will perform on May 4 and 5 at Beijing's MasterCard Center.
Ensuring that fans don't get too anxious about his later shows, G-Dragon sent his greetings to his fans, who will have to wait to see him on his solo tour.
G-Dragon will be performing on May 17 and 18 at Hong Kong's AsiaWorld arena. All 23,000 tickets for the shows were sold out within hours of their release.
CNBLUE recently began their '2013 Blue Moon CNBLUE World Tour.' The group initially confirmed shows in Taiwan, Singapore, Thailand and Hong Kong, later adding more dates in Korea for May 25 and 26.
CNBLUE will head to Australia, holding a concert on June 1, followed by a concert in the Philippines on June 15.
The Australian concerts mark the first time CNBLUE will perform solo in Sydney and Melbourne, and the first Korean band to do so at all.
The 7,000 tickets for the Hong Kong concert were sold out within five minutes, so an additional show was added on the 10th of May. A concert was added in Malaysia after tickets for the Singapore concert sold out very quickly.
Fans are still hoping for more dates to be announced in Europe and North and South America.
CNBLUE started off their tour in Taiwan on April 6, which 11,000 fans attended. The band performed 24 songs, including some from their album 'Re: BLUE.' During a press conference for the concert, held on April 5, Jung Yong Hwa performed an acoustic version of his self-composed track "I'm Sorry," exciting fans even more.
FNC Entertainment said of the April 6th show, "They put on quite a show with their wave, led by Yong Hwa. Even after the concert was over, the fans stayed for a long time and sang together to the background music for 'I'm Sorry.'"
CNBLUE appears to be a favorite among other celebrities, as JJ Lin, JPM and Sodagreen all attended the Taiwan concert.
CNBLUE will next perform at Bangkok, Thailand's Impact Arena on May 4. They will then in Singapore, Hong Kong, Seoul, Sydney, Melbourne, and Manila, ending in Kuala Lampur on August 24.
TVXQ has started their spring tour, as well. The TVXQ! Live World Tour 'Catch Me' in Kuala Lampur is scheduled to take place on May 18, 2013 at Stadium Malawati, Shah Alam at 6:00 pm.
It will be the first TVXQ concert in Malaysia as a duo, and the first concert for the group since 2007.
TVXQ will also be performing at the Nissan Stadium in Japan. The group, consisting of 'U-Know' Yunho and 'Max' Changmin officially began their 5-dome Japan tour on April 27 at the Saitama Super Arena. Two additional dates at Nissan Stadium on August 17-18 have been confirmed. The 5-dome tour includes performances at the Tokyo Dome, Osaka Kyocera Dome, Fukuoka Yahoo! Japan Dome, Sapporo Dome and Nagoya Dome.
The Nissan Stadium, where TVXQ will head in August, can hold 72,000 people.
The Tohoshinkin Live Tour 2013 ~TIME~ is being held to celebrate TVXQ's 6th Japanese album. The tour started on April 27 and will hold 16 concerts at 6 different locations. Throughout their journey, the boys will meet about 650,000 fans.
The two performances at Nissan Stadium will be the last concerts of the tour. In March, TVXQ announced that they would release a new album for Japan, titled TIME. After the album's release, it sold over 27,000 copies in a single month.
Super Junior shook up the status quo, since most K-Pop groups stick to tours around Asian, when they announced that they would tour in South America. Super Junior will be performing four concerts around South America.
The group headed to Brazil, Argentina, Chile and Peru. Super Junior kicked off the 'Super Show 5' or 'SS5' at the Credit Card Hall in Sao Paolo, Brazil on April 21.
Super Junior reached out to the Brazilian audience with the hit 'Ai Se Eu Te Pego,' and fans loved it.
The show in Argentina was incredible, and "melted the hearts of their fans." The concert started with the Super Junior fan club 'ELF' members shouting the names of the members to show support. The group then took the stage with a fan favorite "Mr. Simple." During the show, the members admitted that they had "fallen in love with Latin America," a statement that made the fans so grateful to the performers. They even donned Argintina football jerseys towards the end of the performance.
One of the concert highlights was a performance of PSY's "Gentleman," the international star's follow up to the viral hit "Gangnam Style."
Super Junior performed at the Movistar Arena on April 25 in Chile and finished up their South American tour with a concert on April 27 in Peru.
Although Super Junior has ended their South American leg of the tour, the SS5 tour is far from done. On June 1 and 2, the group will perform at the Mata Elang International Stadium in Jakarta, Indonesia, followed by performances in Hong Kong, Singapore, Tokyo, and finally, Kuala Lampur on October 5.
On May 1, Shinhwa announced thir return with their 11th album titled 'The Classic.' The Shinhwa comeback will be released on May 16. Even more exciting for some fans was the teaser that they released for their upcoming Asia tour. Check it out below:
And Shinhwa isn't the only K-Pop fave that recently announced a tour. Girls' Generation will kick off their '2013 Girls' Generation World Tour - Girls and Peace' on June 8 and 9 at Seoul Olympic Park's Gymnastics Stadium before traveling to other stops around the world.
This will be Girls' Generation's first solo concert in Korea in two years. Tickets go on sale on May 9th.
Hopefully, the Girls' Generation tickets won't sell out as quickly as B.A.P.'s U.S. tour. B.A.P sold out all 10,000 tickets to their U.S. tour within a single hour. The boys had 2,500 available tickets in each of four cities: Los Angeles, San Francisco, Washington DC and New York. This is the quickest that any rookie group has gone on an international tour - they only debuted a year and 2 months ago.
So if you want to see Shinhwa and Girls' Generation, you had better get on those tickets quick!
