Seventeen's concert was my first and I would pay $300 to watch them again

Like many fans, it was disappointing to know that K-pop boy band Seventeen did not include Singapore on their 2019 Ode To You World Tour.

However, they certainly more than made up for it with their Be The Sun concert on Oct 13 at the Singapore Indoor Stadium.

The band also performed songs which had never been shown before on a local stage to Singapore Carats.

"Hi Singapore, long time no see. You guys missed us right? Today, we're going to show you why you missed us," said 27-year-old Joshua as the Carats (fandom's name) erupted with cheers.

The 13 members — S.Coups, Jeonghan, Joshua, Jun, Hoshi, Wonwoo, Woozi, DK, Mingyu, The8, Seungkwan, Vernon, and Dino — were bursting with energy as they entertained the crowd with their synchronised dance moves and powerful vocals on stage.

The idols' adrenaline-pumping three-hour long performance — including a one-hour encore — even had an introvert like myself singing her lungs out and jumping up and down in my seat.

After introducing themselves to Carats, in case some may not recall all 13 of them, the members transitioned from serving hard-hitting EDM-spiked tracks including Hit and Rock With You to offering a variety of unit performances.

For the uninitiated, Seventeen's strength lies in the versatility of their discography. They cover a range of genres in their musical catalogue from EDM to jazz to ballads and even hip-hop.

Though all of the members are versatile in terms of skill, Seventeen divides its 13 members into three sub-units in order to better organise and highlight the abilities of each member. 

The three sub-units are as follows — a vocal unit, a hip-hop unit that includes the group's rappers, and a performance unit that is made up of the group's best dancers.

Each sub-unit was able to fully showcase their artistic talents with their performances complemented by an array of set pieces, stage outfits, and motion graphics.

The performance unit — comprising Hoshi, Jun, The8, and Dino — awed the crowd with their glittery, silken white outfits as they elegantly glided across the stage while sensually swaying to the bass-heavy R&B track Moonwalker and house track Wave.

The vocal unit — consisting of Woozi, Jeonghan, Joshua, DK, and Seungkwan — showed off their melodious voices as they got the crowd to sing along with them to sentimental tracks like Imperfect Love and Come To Me.

But what goes down must come up and the group's hip-hop unit hyped up the crowd with their fierce rapping skills in Gam3 Bo1 and Back It Up as streaks of rainbow beams flashed in the air.

The real treat for long-time fans, though, was when the band came together to perform nostalgic hype-songs such as Mansae and Very Nice.

Towards the end of the performance, the members expressed how grateful they were to hear the fans chanting and singing along despite Korean not being our first language.

"Just now, our Carats were singing along and I was so happy. You guys sang so well that made me very happy while singing," said DK, 25, as he placed his palm on his chest.

"We were actually surprised that you guys knew all the lyrics to our songs," Joshua chimed in.

While the group cited the fans as reason to come to Singapore, one member in particular had a more interesting reason.

"Personally, I really wanted to come to Singapore because I was watching this Netflix drama called Little Women. You know?" said 26-year-old Hoshi. 

The Netflix series was partially filmed in Singapore, featuring a few familiar sights such as Marina Bay Sands and The Fullerton Hotel.

Later, he cheekily added: "I really wanted to come to Singapore. I love Singapore Carats and I love drama. I love satay. I love chilli crab. I love chilli crab 'side bread' (mantou)."

Best had yet to come

As the show came to an end, Carats turned on their LED wristbands to light the stadium in a sea of orange. These wristbands were funded by fans and distributed to the whole stadium.

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However, Seventeen clearly saved the best for last as the members rushed back to the stage, dressed in fairly regular everyday outfits, for an encore performance of Very Nice and Snapshoot.

For the former, they even had fans sing along and the entire performance lasted an hour — including some light-hearted banter.

On the way home after the concert, I found myself playing my favourite Seventeen songs on repeat, refusing to believe that the concert ended and wanting desperately to relive the memories.

Be The Sun was my first-ever concert, believe it or not, and while we were invited to attend, I would pay $300 in a heartbeat just to marvel at the boys' spectacular performance once more.

ALSO READ: Fans gather at Seventeen concert venue seeking new tickets after theirs get voided

aishahm@asiaone.com

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