SM Town Live in Paris June 10th ‘11: Recap, Pictures and Videos

After 1.5 months since its announcement, the first European SM Town concert was finally held in Paris on June 10th at Le Zénith concert hall, which has hosted concerts from various international superstars such as Ne-Yo, The Pussycat Dolls, and the Jonas Brothers. Fans from all over Europe gathered there to see f(x), SHINee, Super Junior, SNSD and DBSK.

I arrived at the venue at 4:30 PM and was not suprised when I saw many fans lining up already, even though the concert only started at 7:30 PM. Some fans did several flashmobs to get into KPop mood and showed off their fansigns, which attracted the Korean press. Fans could also get SM Town official goods such as fans, T-shirts, towels, and many other merchandises.

The fans screamed excitedly when the front gate was finally open at around 6PM. The security staff checked our tickets and our bags and at the front door of the hall they checked the validity of our tickets. Fans were welcomed by Pororo, who already appeared outside the venue as well. The goodies were also sold at the foyer to those who couldn’t get any outside and also gave goodies sets to fans with ticket + goodies special packages.

We entered the hall and were guided to get to our seats, while promotional videos from Visit Korea featuring SM Town artists were shown on the three screens. The empty seats were slowly filled until the whole venue was full. They added a Y-formed stage to the original Le Zénith stage so the distance between my seat and the front stage was quite close.

At around 7PM short MV cuts were shown and the audience screamed, which made me get goosebumps and feel that the actual concert was nearing. Several SM songs were played when everybody was waiting. Fans apparently could not wait anymore, thus they chanted ‘SM Town! SM Town!’ and called the groups one by one while creating waves around the hall.

The audience screamed when the lights went off at around 7.30PM and screamed even louder when f(x) started the show with their debut song LA chA TA. After the great performance they introduced themselves in Korean which was followed by the French translation. Krystal told us in English that she would perform Ke$ha’s Tic Toc with her sister Jessica. Afterwards, f(x) came back to perform Chu. Amber had apparently lots of fans as the audience cheered even louder every time she sang/rapped.

Then SHINee performed Boys Over Flowers OST Stand By Me, started by Onew, Jonghyun and Key at the front stage, while Taemin and Minho joined in a bit later. The audience couldn’t sit still so they started to stand up. SHINee introduced themselves in French and talks in Korean, which was then followed by an energetic performance of Replay, Get Down and Juliette. The hall with about 6500 fans shook. The artists started sweating as it was so hot in the venue so Jonghyun took off his jacket.

After a short video of SM artists talking in Korean and body language with a French translation, Super Junior KRY performed Sorry Sorry Answer, which was followed by a hilarious Lady Gaga & Beyoncé special stage by Heechul, Shindong, Eunhyuk and Leeteuk. Lady Hee Hee appeared with a blonde wig, tight black dress, coat and net stockings and performed Poker Face, while the three Beyonces pulled off tight black dresses for Single Ladies. The four ‘ladies’ then got together for Crazy in Love.

The hall became silent when maknaes Seohyun and Kyuhyun made a duet performance of Way Back Into Love. They looked gorgeous in white dress and white suit, making the audience envy their chemistry when they approached each other to hold hands. After the breathtaking performance an energetic sound came out. Shindong, Eunhyuk, Key, and Minho came from the audience and shook the hall with A-YO.

After the energetic performance, SNSD appeared for their first performance of the night: Run Devil Run. People started to move forward and fill out the empty aisles for a better view. Unfortunately there seemed to be some mic troubles though. Then they tried to introduce themselves in French and Jessica and Tiffany talked in English, thanking all the fans for this opportunity (we thank you, too!). During the introduction they took off their black dresses and revealed their black tops and plaid red skirts underneath for their next performance, My Child and Kissing You.

Afterwards, Super Junior appeared to perform the Korean remix version of Super Girl with flash lights from the stage which made the audience even more hyper. I think Super Junior’s introduction was the most entertaining compared to other groups. Kyuhyun and Eunhyuk took out their notes to look up their French sentence and Leeteuk had a huge memory paper. Shindong sang a little song, which I think was a French children song as I could only understand ‘petit petit Pinocchio’ (little little Pinocchio). Eunhyuk took a lucky fan’s camera for a selca. After the adorable talk they performed No Other.

The show continued with a happy performance of SNSD’s HaHaHa song and Himnae, followed by Super Junior’s Miracle and Dancing Out. Heechul went down the stage and hugged a lucky fan and kissed her forehead. Siwon took a fansign from the audience which said ‘French ELFs loves SuJu’ and some of the other members shook their hands with some fans. Super Junior sure knows how to do fan service!

SNSD performed Genie with a dance break, where Tiffany and Taeyeon made a little mistake, which I think was kinda adorable.

f(x) finally appeared again for Nu ABO. SHINee followed with Ring Ding Dong and a dance break accompanied by fanchants ‘SHINee! SHINee!’. I realized maknae Taemin looked grown-up, just like Changmin during DBSK’s Mirotic era. After SHINee’s epic performance, Super Junior was back for Sorry Sorry and Don’t Don. Eunhyuk, Leeteuk, Donghae and Sungmin were lifted up in the air.

A video was shown on the screens while some staffs cleared the golden strings spread across the stage from previous performances. Afterwards, f(x) performed Gangsta Boy for the first time on an SM Town live concert.

SHINee then appeared for Hello. I was excited to see them dancing for this performance live as they only performed it sitting down when they promoted the song on music shows due to Jonghyun’s injury. Then they performed Ready or Not and a remix version of A.Mi.Go, where the members were suspended in the air.

SNSD continued the show with Hoot and Oh! and Onew performed an opera solo with Nessum Dorma. Wow! I really got goosebumps and the audience applauded after the breathtaking performance.

Then it was time for each group’s dance kings and queens to show off their impressive skills. Taemin and Eunhyuk started the dance stage with a dance battle, followed by Hyoyeon and Luna. They were then joined by Yuri, Sooyoung and Yoona and lastly Victoria, Shindong and Donghae.

The audience went crazy when DBSK finally appeared at 10PM, that means 2.5 hours after the beginning of the concert. The lights went off and Yunho and Changmin were lifted up in the air. They kicked off their first SM Town appearance after their comeback with The Way You Are and Mirotic. The two of them did a very good job! After performing Maximum they introduced themselves, followed by hot stages of Before U Go and Keep Your Head Down.

Super Junior appeared again and performed Bonamana and A Man In Love. Everybody flipped out when Siwon took off his shirt and showed off his abs. Afterwards, f(x) finally performed Pinocchio. SHINee’s performance of a remixed version of Lucifer was one of the best stages of the night. All the members were suspended in the air and had green lasers attached to their hands.

After SHINee’s fierce stage, SNSD performed their hit song Gee. Everybody was excited hearing Tiffany changing the intro to ‘Listen Paris!’. Then Super Junior came out with U and DBSK with Rising Sun.

Then Sorry Sorry was heard again and all groups appeared in their casual SM Town T-shirts. At this point everybody knew that the show would end soon. This final stage was fun to watch though, as the artists moved on the stage freely and we could see them having fun. I spotted Shindong pouring water into Leeteuk’s hair, which surprised Sulli. Jonghyun held the camera all the time. Sooyoung showed off her gorgeous, slim and tall body.

After 3.5 hours Leeteuk ended the show by calling each European country one by one, saying thank you. After a bow they were gone backstage. I was hoping for an encore or another short appearance for another bow but unfortunately they didn’t come back. The audience started to go out, accompanied by an SM Town song.

I don’t have anything to complain about the show. I would’ve just liked to see more lightsticks. I guess many fans thought lightsticks were forbidden. Only a part of the audience was courageous enough to bring some to the venue. I would’ve also liked to see DBSK performing at least one ballad. Apart of that, it was definitely a great and exciting show. I didn’t regret it at all that I spent so much money travelling to Paris from Germany to attend it.