SHINee in Manila
Note: This is a really long post and my personal fan account of meeting my idols: SHINee. This was such a fail. I did not edit this. I just kept on typing whatever came to me.
Rumors were flying last October about SHINee coming here in Manila. I did not believe it at first since rumors about Kpop artists coming here are common and most of them are not true. But this was different. When Raechul sent me a link to Pep.ph confirming SHINee’s appearance for the Philippines – Korea Friendship Festival, I almost had a heart attack. OMG. Raechul and I already planned everything. The concert was free and we were planning to camp out at the Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP), wait for SHINee and spazz out till we die.
A week later, Arirang TV (organizer of the event) announced that there will be tickets (though it’s free) but it’ll be raffled off. That news broke me! Raffle? What the f*ck?! I always never win in contests that involve luck. Damn it. I passed my application of course and so did 8,000 other fans. But they only picked 360 people and I wasn’t one of them. Of course.
I was desperate for tickets! I’d do anything just to get in. Being me, I obsessively scoured forums, people’s Facebooks and everywhere for extra tickets. I was losing it. Then by some divine intervention a ticket just presented itself to me. I was so happy. Let us just say I got it the dirty way and it was ridiculously expensive. I wasn’t really thinking that time. Someone was auctioning her ticket so I immediately placed a bid and I won. I kept thinking: ‘anything for SHINee.’ And no money can replace my seeing Onew in the flesh.
This fanboy couldn’t sleep for days. Gawd. I was so excited to see them. Ya’ll know how big of a fan I am of them. If you click this you will see how often I blog about them. A day before the concert news broke out that the youngest SHINee Taemin got ill with swine flu. Everybody was just so sad and hoping for his speedy recovery. I personally think Taemin is vital in live performances (well, they all are) since he is the best dancer. In Korea right now most entertainers are getting swine flu. Tsk tsk. They should wash their hands!
On to the event! I woke up at about 6:30 and someone texted me that people were already at CCP. Gosh. I went online finding most fans spazzing and hella excited. The MRT was torture. I went against the rush hour and there were so many people. By the time I got to Taft hailing a cab was next to impossible. After about an hour of waiting and desperation I finally was able to get a cab to CCP. When I got there the queue was already long. Good thing I met up with some online friends and they let me break in the line. Gosh. Just look at how many kids came:
Some pics of us before the concert.
Raechul was able to score tickets thanks to a kind soul. There was this girl who just gave her extra tickets. That time I was so hyped. So happy that she’ll get to watch SHINee too. I mean how bad will it be if we talk SHINee and she wasn’t there? Hwaiting!
We got good seats! We were very near the stage. Thank gawd we were early.
The first half of the concert was blah. Teatro performed some Philippine folk dances, Brownman Revival sang a couple of songs, a Filipina girl sang Nobody, a Korean boy who looks like Shindong sang Anak and VJ Isak and VJ Luis were being funny as always.
Now on to the second half. By this time fans were freaking out. It’ll be only minutes before SHINee performs. First one was Mighty Mouth. They performed Smile and Energy. I was never really into them but after some listens and a few youtube videos I came to like them. They were so much fun and they really got the crowd going. While performing, their video for Smile was shown in the background. The video featured some popular personalities and idols. Every time an idol was flashed people went nuts. I went nuts when Jokwon appeared on screen. Haha. Isak asked ShorryJ (the cute one in the bolt shirt) what he thought of Filipinas and he answered that they’re his ideal type. Hmmm… Trying to please the ladies. Haha. Then they talked about food and Luis joked to Sang Choo (the one with the big guns) that he should definitely try isaw and adidas. That made everybody crack. Luis actually surprised me. He was a really great host. He made fun of almost anything.
When they sang Energy that was when they caught my heart. LOL. Such a catchy song and they were really into it running around the stage jumping. They even jumped down to the orchestra causing people to scream even more. Sang Choo showed off his crazy biceps and I almost died.
I like Mighty Mouth now.
Next was Winterplay. By this time I was losing it. I felt nervous, excited and anxious all at the same time. After them will be SHINee! Yayo and I were spazzing like crazy counting the minutes. Gosh. Anyway, I’m a fan of Winterplay. They are really really really good. I saw videos of them performing and I was mesmerized. I especially like their duet with Horan of Clazziquai and I thought that performance was classic. Hae-won, the lead vocals, was extremely pretty. She looks like a model and she sings really well. In all of K-Pop I think she’s the most beautiful. Well, next to Goo Hara of course. Haha.
They performed the Michael Jackson classic Billie Jean and killed it. There was a slight technical problem but all in all their performance was great. And Hae-won was so pretty. Gawd, I couldn’t stop raving about her beauty. Haha. Lastly, they did Gypsy Girl which was their popular single. The guy playing the contrabass was amazing. So good. They said they’ll be releasing their debut album here in the Philippines early next year and I will definitely be buying.
Ok. This time my heart was pounding like hell. Yayo already lost it screaming her lungs out. And the rest of the hundred girls started spazzing. Banners were up, penlights ready and balloons held high. It was time. A brief video of Ring Ding Dong was shown. Everybody was screaming. Then everything went black. OMG OMG OMG OMG I can see them! Four boys in the shadow came to the stage and then boom! I died. I was having a mild heart attack and I don’t know if I was gonna cry or scream. Gosh. My eyes were wet and the girl at my back patted my shoulder smiling as if telling me ‘be happy they’re here.’ Then I went nuts.
SHINee started with Stand by Me which was the theme song for Boys Over Flowers. They looked exactly like in my dreams. Haha. They all looked beautifully waif like and fashionable. I say heroin chic! Onew is just too cute. Deep breaths bitch! Deep breaths. I was dying. He wore a red jacket (very MJ) with a studded bracelet on his biceps, graphic shirt and shiny boots. Cool! I will totally copy that. I’m biased so my eyes were only on him. Minho was so tall and anorexic looking. He looks like a model that came straight from Hedi Slimane’s photo book. He was the most fasyon, I think. He wore this red and black scarf over a leather jacket and paired it with drop crotch jeans and boots. Very now. Key was the dapper one in his asymmetrical bowl cut hair, red scarf, red dress shirt under a leather vest and pants with shiny PVC cut outs. He looks dashing and a far cry from his feminine looks last spring. Jonghyun on the other hand was the odd one out in a black and white ensemble. His vest had fur trimmings and he wore an oversized shirt and pants. Not my favorite look but he was still handsome of course. I just thought his attire would look better on the taller Minho.
After Stand By Me, they mumbled something in Korean which of course I didn’t understand. Then they started Juliette. OMG. I’ve watched them perform this on many shows and I can’t believe they’re doing it in front of me!
On the interview portion Isak asked them to do something interesting. Minho did his modeling walk. Fierce boy right there. Onew copied Minho and also did a walk but this time adding his own charm by doing a funny pose in the end. OMG. That’ll be the tenth time I died that night. Onew! Sarang! Haha. Key rapped a part of Get Down and the talented Jonghyun showed off his amazing vocals.
The last song they did was Ring Ding Dong. Everybody went crazy while shouting the lyrics. And Jong dropped the mic. LOL. This was the first concert I’ve been in that the crowd was so loud. I was both elated and sad when the song was over. Still I could not believe I saw them perform live. I’ve been a big fan of them since they debuted and seeing them in person was so surreal. Up to now I still can’t get over it. Yesterday I was having a SHINee withdrawal symptom. Watching fancams kept me company.
So surreal. I wish they’ll be back. But next time I hope they’ll bring DBSK or Big Bang. Haha.
This is such a long post! Gosh. My fingers are tired of typing already.
Over and out. ToxicDiscoBoy loves K-pop! Saranghae!
Thank you to halfkissed|paperbucket for the HQ photos of the concert. Each of her photos are properly tagged and please do not hot link since you can download all HQ photos here. The rest of the photos are by Raechul. I do not own any of the photos. I just left my camera in my SHINee bag. LOL
UPDATE!
Here's us inside. LOL.
