Thousands of fans from all over Asia flocked to Seoul, South Korea this weekend for the chance to catch their favorite pop acts on stage at World Cup Stadium for the 6th Asia Song Festival hosted by the Korean ministry of culture and tourism and with top names from all over including Show Luo, Big Bang and Super Junior, it definitely was a non-stop, star-packed parade. [hidepost]
The night got off to fast start with the “Rain of Taiwan” Show Luo, who gave just about every girl in the stadium a reason to go visit Taiwan with his smooth dance moves and catchy songs. He was followed by Vietnamese pop princess Ho Ngoc Ha, Hong Kong star Ekin Cheng, Chinese cutie Chris Lee and Japanese power duo Mihimaru GT. But the scene stealers from the first act were definitely Korean group 2NE1, Japanese Johnny’s group V6 and Thai boy band K-OTIC.
2NE1 entered the stage to an eruption of screams from the thousands of fans. Though they only performed two songs, they brought their renown energy and cool attitudes while performing “I Don’t Care” and “Fire.” They were also honored with the ASF award of “Best New Asian Artist”.
After them was K-OTIC, a new band from Thailand with multicultural members from Thailand, Japan and Korea. Their Thai-infused pop music and break dancing was fresh and set them apart from all the other groups, especially their impressive opening mixing a fire theme and traditional Thai dance with a heavy Thai beat.
And it doesn’t matter where you are, Johnnys are sure to bring screaming girls to their knees. V6 was the last performance of the first act and they certainly pleased the audience from the Korean school girls to the Chinese and Japanese tourists. Even the Korean ahjummas were clapping and bouncing with the beat.
The second half started off with a flashy performance by Ukraine’s Ruslana, who is not only a pop princess but a politician lobbying for the rights of Korean immigrants in Russia as well as the Orange Revolution, a democratic movement in Ukraine. I don’t think the Korean audience had quite seen anything like her before with her long-haired, male back-up dancers or her red dress that wasn’t quite all there.
Of course, crowd favorites Big Bang, Girl’s Generation and Super Junior brought the thousands of Korean school girls to tears. (Or at least the girls sitting next to me.) The representative fan clubs were there in full force, setting lose balloons at the end of each performance. Big Bang put on a good show, despite missing Dae-sung, who is still recovering from his car accident and almost no one noticed Kang In missing from the Super Junior line-up. He’s probably missing as punishment from his latest exploits in a bar fight.
However, the two show stoppers for the entire evening were Indonesian singer Agnes Monica and Japanese rocker Gackt.
Monica, who appeared in the festival for the second year in a row, won over the crowd with her bubbly personality, amazing vocals and hot dance moves. Adding a touching moment to the show, she got the crowd to sing along with “Heal the World” in memory of Michael Jackson. She also showed fans what crowd participation is made of by getting everyone to stomp along with her and her back-up dancers.
And finally, veteran Gackt showed the youngins what a show is all about. He erupted onto the stage in a blaze of flames and robotic dance moves with his hit “Ghost.” His band appeared almost from nowhere as the main screen on stage split in half and separated. Everyone was on their feet screaming for the entire performance.
Another Asia Song Festival has come and gone… can’t wait to see what next year’s show brings.
Watch the press conference of the Asia Song Festival!
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