With correspondence from Mari Linsangan & Jazmin Villegas
With movies and local gigs making a comeback after the pandemic, its only fitting that concerts make their long awaited return as well. Fans have long waited to fill our concert halls, arenas and stadiums with their cheers and their singing along (because we Pinoys just love to sing) to their favorite artist’s songs.
K-Pop has made a significant cultural shift, capturing a dedicated fanbase all across the globe. Any news on K-pop groups are automatic trending topics, thanks to their devoted fans. The Hallyu wave has also been able to successfully infiltrate western audiences with groups like BTS earning recognition from prestigious award giving bodies like the Grammys.
In the Philippines, the patience of K-Pop fans was rewarded with the ‘Begin Again’ the first K-Pop since the pandemic. Produced by CDM Entertainment in partnership with BRODYWORKS, ‘Begin Again’ was held last May 29, 2022 at the Araneta Center. The concert was headlined by NCT Dream and included performances from ALICE, WEi, and SHINee KEY.
Girl group ALICE opened the much awaited show. The K-Pop girl group is made up of 7 members. Formerly known as Elris, they debuted on June 1, 2017 under Honus Entertainment. It was under IOK company where the group was rebranded as ALICE. Members are EJ, Do-A, Chaejeong, Yeonje, Yukyung, Sohee, and Karin.
They performed 6 of their songs, including their debut song “We, First”, “Jackpot, “Power of Love”, “No Big Deal” “This is me” and a song that they think is perfect for the Philippines “Summer Dream”
In between songs, they talked about being warmly welcomed to the Philippines, wanting to come back and releasing a mini album soon. They also played a Pirate pop up game where the loser would do a punishment such as a Random Play dance, I love you Aegyo (acting cute) and heart poses.
They gave out signed Balls to the fans before performing their last song.
WEi
A six member kpop boy group under Oui Entertainment that debuted on May 5th 2020. Members are Jang Dae-hyeon, Kim Dong-han, Yoo Yong-ha, Kim Yo-han, Kang Seok-hwa and Kim Jun-seo.
They performed their Debut song “Twilight” and four more songs, “All or Nothing”, “Bye bye bye” “Super Bumpy” and “Too Bad”
Like ALICE, they played a game with punishments between sets. They talked about how in their recent concert that fans could not scream so it felt nice to hear the screams again.
NCT Dream
Is a Sub-Unit of the kpop band NCT, consisting of the members Mark, Renjun, Jeno, Haechan, Chenle, Jaemin and Jisung. They debuted on August 25, 2016 under SM entertainment.
NCT Dream came with only 5 of their members, Mark and Haechan could not make it.
They performed 4 of their songs, “Hot Sauce”, “Dive into You”, “Hello Future” and their latest song “Glitch Mode.”
In their meant section, they talked about how they missed the PH and how hype the crowd was, they also sang a bit of their upcoming song for their Repackage album “Beatbox”. Chenle danced a bit of the choreography as a spoiler but was stopped by the other members.
SHINee KEY (closing performance)
KEY is a member of the Boyband SHINee under SM entertainment. Currently consist of Onew, Key, Minho and Taemin. Originally a 5 member group, Jonghyun passed away in December 2017. They debuted on May 25, 2008 and has been dubbed as the Princes of Kpop throughout their career. KEY debuted as a solo artist in November 2018, months before his Military enlistment.
Key performed four of his solo songs, “Saturday Night”, “Helium”, “This Life” and his latest song “Bad Love”
In between songs, he talked about fulfilling his promise to Filipino fans about coming back and hoping to come back as SHINee next time. He danced a bit of Ring Ding Dong at the request of the fans who sang for him, shocked that it was picked instead of SHINee’s more recent song “Don’t Call Me”, teasing the fans about their age. He also sang a bit of Replay with the audiences at their request. For his TMI, he said that he showered twice that day after rehearsal as the hotel was just two minutes away from the venue.
Concerts are definitely back with a vengeance! With already a number of shows announced. Make sure to follow the Team PCheng Facebook page blog for news and updates.