This must be K-pop heaven

Thailand’s largest-yet concert of K-pop artists – featuring 20 boy and girl bands – the 2012 Korean Music Wave last Saturday lived up to the high expectations of the local fans, foreigners and Korean expatriates and tourists who packed Bangkok’s Rajamangala Stadium.
The 45,000-strong crowd, mostly Thais, sang along with the hits in fluent Korean, demonstrating
their devotion to the genre. The boy bands’ shows were full of the energetic and clever
choreography for which they’re renowned, while the girls came up equally well with impeccably
synchronised dances mixed with sexy poses, depending on each band’s characters.
The main stage was arranged in six segments, optimising the presentation – many catwalks jutting far into the audience – along with colourful videos that matched each band’s characters and songs.

The result was a string of individual shows that were unique, quite a feat when K-Pop artists share so many similarities.
Thailand’s TV Direct and South Korea-based JL Starnet, which jointly organised the concert,
claimed the stage would never be constructed again anywhere else in the world. Thailand, they said, had been chosen to represent the Korean artists’ performances for all of Asia.
Information about the artists and songs was displayed on three large screens as well as the giant stadium screen.
Adding to the lively atmosphere, light sticks and fireworks abundantly illuminated the stands and
seats. Two blocks of seats were filled with fans wearing lights on their foreheads with which they
collectively spelled out cheers and band names.
The four-hour event, sponsored by Fanta and Taokaenoi, yielded 67 hit songs from 20 groups,
ranging from those already famous, like 2 PM and SHINee, to newer faces like Infinite and
Boyfriend. All of the artists addressed the crowd in Thai through an interpreter and some had a go at English as well.
Nichkhun Horvejkul from 2PM and Tiffany and Taeyeon of Girls’ Generation (one band that didn’t
perform) served as emcees. The trio were entertaining throughout and kept things moving, with
both girls greeting the fans in Thai and even offering sympathy and encouragement over last year’s massive flooding.
Arriving onstage in tuk-tuks, the eight-member After School started the show with a special song,
“Bangkok City”. Boyfriend was next. Then solo vocalist G.NA wowed the crowd with her hit
“Black and White”, and the four-member Miss A offered songs from their new album and “Good-
bye Baby”.
Duo Norazo featured their hit “Superman”. Next was the four-member Secret, who pleased the
audience with ballads and high-tempo hits. Then it was the turn of the balladeer quartet 2AM, who thoroughly impressed with their powerful voices.
A video clip featuring three members of the absent Super Junior was shown to introduce the
concert’s new artists. MBLAQ performed Rain’s song “Rainism”, Miss A did “Tell Me of Wonder
Girls”, and SHINee sang the mega-hit “Sorry Sorry”. IU, elsewhere known as Lee Ji-eun, impressed with her ballads. Next was the septet Infinite, who sang four songs. The five-member MBLAQ took the stage and crooned hits like “It’s Way” and

“Mona Lisa”.Another quartet, Sistar, who are very popular in Thailand, presented their superhit “Ma Boy” and did the wave-body dance. Six-member Teen Top offered three hits next before IU performed a string of ballads with Taemin of SHINee on the piano.
The quintet FTIsland – the only band that played instruments – impressed with many hits, including “I Hope”, before the all-girl septet T-Ara got the crowd on its feet with their merry dances and hits like “Lovey-Dovey” and “Roly-Poly”.
Next came the five members of 4 Minute, who had visited Thailand before and offered kind words about the flood crisis. They did four hits including “Mirror Mirror”.
SHINee took the stage and a jam session followed that featured the Western tune “That’s What Friends are For”. Then came the all-girl quintet Kara with the bad news that Jung Nicole had been injured, but there she was, still performing.
B2ST and 2PM were the star performers, offering many hits before the show closed with Uknow
Yunho and Choikang Changmin of TVXQ! Performing their superhits like “Before U Go” and
“Rising Sun”.
All of the artists gathered onstage to bid farewell in an impressive atmosphere and sang the decades -old classic “Arirang”. The reception by Thai fans was so good that the organisers might as well start planning now for MBC Korean Music Wave 2013.