Ahn Jae Wook's Japanese performance, united through 'FOREVER'

Nov 10, 2006

Nov 9, 2006

10,000 audience members sing along in Korean

Ahn Jae Wook captured the hearts of 10,000 people at Japan’s Budokan of Tokyo.

With a concert on the 6th in Osaka and in Tokyo under the title ‘AHN JAE WOOK 2006 JAPAN AUTUMN ‘My Life is…” Ahn Jae Wook successfully brought out audience response from various generations of fans making it hard to believe that his official debut in Japan merely began this past March with the performance at the NHK Hall.

From students in uniforms to grandmothers with white hair, Ahn Jae Wook offered a stage full of smiles, laughter, and passion. Fans answered with colorful glow sticks, flank cards with the name ‘Ahn Jae Wook’ and even the Korean flag. Also memorable were fans not only from Japan, but also from China, Taiwan, Hong Kong and other countries.

Starting off with the song ‘Honjamal (Soliloquy),’ he took out a scripted memo. ‘I do not speak Japanese yet. That is why I am reading it like this. I wrote this on the Shinkansen coming from Osaka to Tokyo. I hope everyone makes this a part of their precious memory,’ said Ahn Jae Wook in a greeting to his fans.

The performance of Ahn Jae Wook was a collaboration of drama and music. In the ‘My Life is…’ album released in Japan last month, title songs from his past albums and drama soundtrack songs that were re-recorded by Ahn Jae Wook were listed.

Whenever a drama theme song was played, video clips of ‘Star in My Heart,’ ‘Goodbye My Life,’ ‘Oh! Pilseung Bong Soon Young’ and most recently ‘Mister Goodbye’ that was only introduced to Japan via DVD were displayed. As fan service, Ahn Jae Wook performed a dance routine he practiced with 6 other dancers for an entire month and brought about passionate cheers from the crowd.

During the performance, Ahn Jae Wook commented, "This is my third visit to Japan, but thank you for giving me such a warm welcome each time." He also made comments such as, "I hope there isn’t anybody pretending to know the songs even though you don’t," forming a friendly atmosphere.

During the second part, he sang songs such as ‘Doorooroo,’ ‘Ring,’ ‘As if you own the world,’ ‘Only you,’ totaling approximately twenty songs. Following his tradition of singing two hit songs of the country he is performing at, Ahn Jae Wook sang ‘Run’ and ‘Itoshi no Eri’ receiving applause from the crowd.

The concert climaxed during this encore performance of ‘FOREVER.’ All 10,000 members of the audience started singing along in Korean which moved Ahn Jae Wook. He could not hide his overwhelmed emotions at the passionate response he received. The concert ended with confetti that flew throughout the concert hall.

With the comment, "Next year I promise to meet all of you in more cities," the two and a half hour concert of Ahn Jae Wook came to an end.

Source: http://www.broasia.com/lwboard/lwboard.php?act=view&bid=NEWS&tpl=news&pg=1&no=109

How does this article make you feel?