Last night featured the first live streaming Kpop concerts ‘Youtube Presents MBC Kpop Concert‘ presented by Google/Youtube and in conjunction with popular Korean Broadcaster MBC. This event was put together to celebrate a new contract between MBC and Youtube which will hopefully bring kpop Fans everywhere exclusive content through YouTube.
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The event was MC-ed by Taeyeon and Tiffany from SNSD and featured Kpop Artists such as Girls’ Generation, TVXQ, Super Junior, Wonder Girls, KARA, B2ST, MBLAQ, SISTAR, and f(x). It was held over at the Shoreline Amphitheatre in Mountain View, California.
The venue was packed to the brim and the live broadcast was being watched by over 110,000 fans at one point proving how strong the Korean Hallyu Wave has become in the past couple of years!
Summary
The show kicked off with KARA performing their popular single ‘STEP’ where Nicole greeted the fans in English but was so nervous she forgot her words. KARA made an enigmatic start to the whole show with a brilliant upbeat song, but were hit with lip synching rumours yet again and I must say, it was very blatant in some cuts, but, never the less it was a very upbeat performance.
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After which MCs Taeyeon and Tiffany were introduced, they greeted fans present and online and welcomed them to the show. Tiffany also took the opportunity to talk to the fans and Greet them in English. I have to say Taeyeon effortlessly fullfilled her duties as an MC where as Tiffany unfortunately fell short. She seemed to be very reliant on her cue cards and even lost her words on a number of occasions while talking to fans in English which was surprising for a fluent English speaker.
The show continued with MBLAQ performing next, which received loud cheers from the female members in the crowd. They performed their song ‘This is War’ and ‘Y‘ after which they stopped and introduced themselves to the fans – again receiving LOUD cheers- and finally performed ‘Oh Yeah‘. Their performance was really good if not for a few errors at the end. Lee Joon like the performer he is smiled,winked, blew kisses at the crowd and asked them to join in which received feverish screams! I will say this I was very impressed with Thunders vocals!
Next on the Stage was sexy group ‘SISTAR’ who performed a sexy dance number before singing their single ‘Alone’, ‘Ma Boy’ and ‘So Cool’. As always the vocals were amazing, Hyorin never seems to disappoint with her powerful vocals! To be honest all the girls were spot on, Brilliant Live Performance! In addition to that the SISTAR girls looked stunning in their gold and black outfits. You could almost see all the boys at the venue off their feet with googly eyes staring at the girls!
f(x) was next on stage and performed their singles ‘Danger‘, ‘Hot Summer‘ and ‘Nu Abo‘. f(x) is a group I was really looking forward to because its been such a long time since we have seen them on our screens and they didn’t disappoint. Krystals vocals were awesome! Unfortunately Luna who is known for her amazing vocals didn’t wow as much but the overall performance was great. The girls looked quirky with their usual outfits. Krystal and Amber who are actually from the area greeted fans in English and were able to get them more involved which received massive cheers from the crowd.
At this point 2 special performances, the first by Sun Ye from Wonder Girls who performance a song titled ‘Father‘ for her late father who passed away last year. The song was very touching and she looked beautiful while singing it. The next performance came from Seohyun ( SNSD ) who accompanied with her pink electrical guitar sang the song she auditioned to SM Ent with ‘Flying Duck’. Her performance was unlike others she usually performs, this portrayed a grown up image which was a mix of girlie and punk- I loved her performace and vocals!
KARA then braced the stage again for 2 more songs. They performed ‘Lupin’ – which had a lot of lip synching!!- and finally their popular song ‘Mister‘ which got all the fans up on their feet dancing! I must say with the way the concert was filmed it made it a little obvious when the stars were lip synching but none the less the performance was full of energy and the girls looked stunning!!!! – I’m going to add a couple from !!!! for emphasis!
Next on stage were the much again B2ST, who received some of the loudest screams on the night! The boys performed their popular singles ‘Shock‘, ‘Fiction’ and ‘Beautiful’. The boys started off with a few hiccups vocally seemingly very nervous in front of such a big crowd but very quickly got into their stride and performed the songs very well, especially ‘Beautiful‘ with big smiles and a lot of fan service. As expected all the boys received massive cheers when they were introducing themselves especially Lee Ki Kwang.
SNSD was the next group to come on stage. They performed their songs ‘ The Boys‘ english version, ‘Mr Taxi‘ and popular song ‘Gee’. The girls wowed with their performance, looked amazing and matching that with their singing and dancing. The vocals were always spot on especially while they were performing ‘The boys’ but I don’t think that took anything away from the performance as the crowd was completely immersed. Unfortunately members Yoona and Yuri were not present as they were finishing up their dramas ‘Love Rain‘ and ‘Fashion King‘.
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The Wonder Girls were next on stage and performed their songs ‘Be My Baby‘, ‘Tell me‘ and ‘Nobody‘ English Version. Before singing Nobody the girls actually spoke to the crowd and even taught them the dance moves to Nobody this ensuring FULL crowd involvement. I must say the crowd thoroughly enjoyed it and showed their massive support with cheers. I loved all 3 songs but the Wonder Girls from vocals to outfits and since they’ve been quite active in America got a massive reaction from fans which was awesome to see.
Next was the much anticipated group SUPER JUNIOR…at this point the crowd went insane. Super Junior by far got the biggest reaction out of the crowd. They performed their songs ‘ Superman’ and ‘Mr Simple’. They stopped to introduce themselves which the crowd and I LOVED and even though LeeTeuk did not speak in English he seemed so comfortable in front of such a big crowd. He even spoke to the crowd right at the back and made them feel involved. They got the biggest cheers on the tonight in my opinion. After that they performed they epic single ‘ Sorry Sorry’. I must say Super Junior really are world entertainers they really known how to do it!
Last but not least was TVXQ who performed -on top of all the loud cheers- ‘Keep Your Head Down‘, ‘Before You Go‘ and ‘Rising Sun‘. I must say their vocals were really good, the performance was so capturing the stage was on fire. Out of all fan banners ‘Chungmin/Yunho Marry Me’ were probably seen the most proving how popular TVXQ actually are! I don’t know if it was just me but they were a LITTLE out of synch with their song at some bits?
At the end, each group came out individually and greeted the fans and waved good bye. After all the groups were on stage the 2 MCs were then reintroduced. They thanked the fans and the organisation for such an amazing concert and then the collective stage sang ‘Arirang’.
On the whole is was an absolutely brilliant concert and I can’t wait till the world tour includes London!! I think its such a great opportunity for fans to see some of their favourite Kpop artists and the fact that tickets were for free helped spread the Hallyu Wave ever more. For me Super Junior (as expected) absolutely STOLE the show!! The energy they showed translated into the fans and the crowd was on fire!
The only Criticisms I would have about the concert was that some of the camera work was not as good as on shows such as Music Bank, the online streaming was brilliant but the image was not good and turned blurry a lot of the time and lastly the translator REALLY annoyed me. I found her very unprofessional when it came to translating what the stars were saying, in the sense she was not able to accurately translate what they wanted to say and was pausing and unsure a lot of the time.
Check out the full stream of the concert below and let me know what you think!!
