Exclusive: SMTOWN LIVE 2025 Celebrates 30 Years Of History At Unforgettable Concert

Jan 12, 2025

On January 11 and 12, SM Entertainment held their agency-wide concert SMTOWN LIVE 2025 in celebration of their 30th anniversary.

Uniting fans and artists alike under one roof, SM artists took to the stage of Gocheok Sky Dome for two days of nostalgic, high-energy fun, delivering unforgettable experiences and shining a light on SM’s impact on K-pop over the past 30 years.

The concert kicked-off with TVXQ’s iconic performance of “Rising Sun.” Introducing the future faces of SM, trainees SMTR25 took to the stage to perform iconic hits including “Lucifer” and “Growl,” evoking nostalgia and excitement amongst fans.

Following Super Junior’s “A Man in Love” and BoA’s performance of “Girls On Top,” BoA welcomed fans to SMTOWN 2025, sharing, “This is SMTOWN’s 30th anniversary, and from collab performances from senior and junior artists to performances by trainees who will lead SM’s future, there won’t be a moment of boredom.” Her performance of “Only One” with RIIZE’s Shotaro signaled the collaborations between SM artists to come throughout the star-studded show, also bringing back memories of her famous collaborations with SM artists over the years through “Only One.”

aespa further amped up the crowd with their entrance, their performances of the 2024 mega-hit songs “Whiplash” and “Supernova” once again proving the success of the girl group on the charts last year.

In addition to showcasing SM’s virtual artist nævis, SMTOWN LIVE 2025 introduced their new British boyband dearALICE, who showcased their song “Ariana” ahead of their February debut. The group shared in Korean, “It’s an honor. In particular, [this occasion] is even more special since it marks SMTOWN’s 30th anniversary. Congratulations!”

SM’s rookie group RIIZE took to the stage with deafening cheers from fans as Anton shared, “It’s a great experience to have collabs with such amazing senior artists,” highlighting the numerous unique collaboration performances as the show’s selling point.

EXO’s Suho and Chanyeol’s “First Snow” had all SM fans singing along, with Suho nearly tearing up as he expressed, “I’m really happy to be a part of SM and a part of EXO. Pink Blood—let’s love!”

Junior SM artists also expressed their support as senior SM artists shared their solo stages including NCT’s Yangyang and aespa’s Giselle with Girls’ Generation’s Hyoyeon, NCT’s Jeno with SHINee’s Key, RIIZE’s Sungchan with Red Velvet’s Seulgi, aespa’s Ningning with SHINee’s Minho, RIIZE’s Sohee with Fly To The Sky’s Hwanhee, and more.

The NCT family including NCT WISH, NCT DREAM, WayV, and NCT 127 each showcased their unique colors, drawing enthusiastic response from fans.

Jisung thoughtfully summarized, “SMTOWN’s 30th anniversary is such a meaningful occasion. What I want to say is that the artists alone do not make up SMTOWN—we need all the fans to become SMTOWN. Thank you for being SMTOWN.”

Reflecting on the cover stages for SM’s special anniversary album and of NCT DREAM’s rendition of EXO’s “Love Me Right” in particular, Mark remarked on what an honor it was to perform the song after looking up to the group while growing up, sharing, “It was a full circle moment.”

SM artists brought heartwarming energy to the stage as different groups came together as one act for collaboration stages such as “Show Me Your Love.” Original K-pop legends H.O.T’s Kangta and Tony Ahn as well as S.E.S’s Bada took to the stage with junior SM artists, taking on timeless hits such as “Dreams Come True,” “Candy,” and “Happiness” with fresh new twists.

Following Red Velvet’s performance of their iconic “Red Flavor,” Super Junior took to the stage with another classic SM song—“Sorry, Sorry.” Leeteuk concluded, “From H.O.T. to our newest group NCT WISH, please show lots of love.”

TVXQ’s Changmin and Yunho highlighted the history of SM, delivering their sincerest congratulations ahead of their performance of “Mirotic.” The celebration continued with SMTR25’s 30th anniversary dance performance featuring remixes of SM’s famous boy group songs.

The concert came to a climax with its first-ever look at cover tracks from SMTOWN’s special anniversary album including WayV’s “Juliette,” aespa’s “Rum Pum Pum Pum,” RIIZE’s “Hug,” Red Velvet’s “Run Devil Run,” BoA’s “End Of A Day”—in memory of SHINee’s Jonghyun—and more.

Finally, the anniversary concert came to a close as all the artists returned to the stage hand in hand to take their final bows and perform “Hope from KWANGYA” together.