K-Wave 2 Music Festival comes with a surprise for K-pop fans

A crowd of more than 10,000 K-pop fans gathered at Stadium Merdeka last Saturday evening to sing and dance the night away with seven of South Korea’s hottest K-pop idols: A.C.E., Tahiti, Halo, Girls’ Generation’s Taeyeon, NU’EST W, Mamamoo and Super Junior.

There was even a lovely surprise for the fans, which was revealed at the end of the concert.

K-Wave 2 Music Festival kicked off with “Sing! China” alums Jeffrey Chen, Janice Tan and Jeslyn Khoo as the opening act, followed by performances from the first performer of the night, the five-member group A.C.E.

“Sing! China” alums Jeffrey Chen, Janice Tan and Jeslyn Khoo were the opening act.

A.C.E. excited to meet their Malaysian fans.

Donghun, Chan, Wow, Jun and Jason burst onstage with their dance intro and continued on to performed three songs, which included their singles “Cactus” and “Callin’”, as well as their own rendition of popular girl group Black Pink’s “Playing with Fire”.

Up next to heat up the stage was Tahiti. Miso, Minjae, Jerry and Ari who performed “Phone Number”, “Oppa, You’re Mine” and “Skip”. During the interval, it was revealed that member Ari’s oppa (older brother) is working in Malaysia as a tour guide and she was happy to be able to meet up with him – and eat lobster together – before the concert. Last Friday, the girl group even had a chance to hold a Meet and Greet session with their fans at Nu Sentral!

Tahiti saying hi to their fans.

Halo happy to meet their fans in Malaysian again.

Dino, Inhaeng, Ooon, Jaeyong, Heecheon and Yoondong of boyband Halo made their return to Malaysia with this concert, performing four songs in total including their debut single “Fever” and latest single “Here I Am”.

Their fans were lucky as they not only got to see Halo perform at the concert but they also got to see the boys up close and personal the next day during Halo’s Meet and Greet event at Nu Sentral (where member Ooon was even surprised with a birthday song from fans).

Taeyeon’s fans also sang along to her songs.

Fans of Taeyeon seated among the sea of multi-coloured lights that lit up the venue.

“The weather is nice,” said Taeyeon, who performed a total of five songs after Halo.

While to most Malaysians, last weekend’s gloomy weather (it had been raining non-stop for three days and only stopped a few hours before the concert) was considered cold, the South Korean stars were instead delighted by the change of temperature since it is currently bitterly cold in their country’s winter weather. So Malaysian weather, even at its gloomiest, was still considerably warmer in comparison.

Taeyeon heated up the stage just fine for Malaysian fans, though. There’s a reason why the main vocal and leader of Girls’ Generation is highly popular not just in her home country, as she belted out song after song, showing off her high notes with her hits such as “I” and “Hands on Me”.

NU’EST W greeting their fans at the concert.

NU’EST W at the press conference prior to the concert.

NU’EST W, the subgroup of NU’EST that consists of Ren, Baekho, JR and Aron (san Minhyun who is currently active as part of Produce 101’s Wanna One), took the stage next, opening with a well-loved older number, “Hello”, followed by five more songs including “Where U At”.

Earlier in the day, the group held a press conference with the media, during which Ren stated that he was happy to see so many fans waiting for them at the airport when they arrived. The group also expressed their happiness of being able to return to meet their Malaysian fans after their last visit five years ago.

‘Hearteu’ for NU’EST W fans.

Mamamoo showed off a strong stage despite Solar’s injury.

Mamamoo also did not disappoint with their stage despite member Solar not being to partake in the dances due to her injury. Moonbyul, Wheein and Hwasa did not leave their fellow member sitting alone, however, as they will occasionally wander to her to huddle together and show off their strong vocals with songs such as “Love Lane” and “Girl Crush” when they were not showing off their dance moves.

Closing the show was undoubtedly the most anticipated group of the night, a group that is no stranger to Malaysians – Super Junior. Making their umpteenth visit to the country were members Donghae, Eunhyuk, Leeteuk, Shindong, Yesung, Heechul and Siwon.

Siwon looking on while Heechul and Shindong huddled together with Leeteuk as the Super Junior leader spewed out random Malay phrases.

Like the others who performed before them, the group prepared Malay phrases to impress their fans with. Leader Leeteuk’s ‘Malay segment’ had fans cracking up, however, as he asked “Where is the bathroom” in Malay while Shindong and Heechul peeked at his notes. Heechul even pitched in, answering “Belum makan” (have not eaten) when Leeteuk asked the fans: “Sudah makan?” (Have you eaten?).

Amidst promises of holding their “Super Show 7” concert in Malaysia in the near future, the group performed seven songs including older hits such as “Sorry Sorry” and “Bonamana”, as well as newer tracks “Mamacita” and “Black Suit”. Yesung, Donghae and Eunhyuk (the latter two performing as their sub-unit D&E) also held special stages.

Yesung’s solo stage is filled with grandeur to match his silky voice as he serenaded fans with his ballad, “Here I Am”.

K-Wave 2 Music Festival, brought by Mcalls and organised by MacpiePro, stepped up its game this time around with the impressive stage setup, which included display monitors even on the stage floor, and a crisp sound system, making it a show on a par with some of South Korea’s best music shows such as Music Bank.

However, that was not all that delighted fans that evening, as the music festival closed with a more-than-welcome surprise for all K-pop fans. The crowd filing out of the stadium was stopped in its track when a video announcing the third edition of K-Wave suddenly popped up on the big screens, with a surprise message from Monsta X, who will be one of the headliners for K-Wave 3 Music Festival.

Stay tuned to find out when and where K-Wave 3 Music Festival will be taking place – and most importantly, who will be coming along with Monsta X!

Catch Monsta X at K-Wave 3 Music Festival!