SMCU Express @ Kwangya Review

On the 1st Jan 2022, SM Ent., one of the largest entertaining companies, held their second annual free online concert. The concert was pre-recorded, but there was filled with fruitful content, featuring artists including Kangta, BoA, TVXQ, Super Junior, Taeyeon and Hyoyeon from Girls' Generation, Onew, Key, and Minho from SHINee, Kai from EXO, Red Velvet, NCT, WayV, Aespa and 3 DJs under SM Ent.. A total of 51 million viewers watched the free performance through platforms like YouTube, Facebook, IG, Twitter, Beyond Live, etc. from all around the world. (P.S., no, BTS, Blackpink, Twice are all from other entertainment companies and hence, not in this concert)

Before I start talking about the concert any further, some of you might be wondering, "What is SMCU? Where is Kwangya?" Well, SMCU means SM Cultural Universe, it is a universe (like Marvel) created by SM ENt., where all of the artists in the company are a part of. Kwangya ( 광야 ) in Korean means wilderness, like jungle/dessert/waste. In SMCU, it is the start of the universe, it is full of the unknown and there are no limits/boundaries. And now, we are all in KOSMO, SM is a country in KOSMO, and each group of artists is a city. We, the fans, are the citizens of each city. And SMCU express is the railway that goes from KOSMO to Kwangya.

Confused? Don't worry, me too kkk. The whole SMCU thing can be discussed for hours and have just a slight bit of understanding of it. But still, you can just enjoy the performance and music in the show! (And also pay for the merchandise and album that they released for the concert, including a fake passport, badges, etc.)

As a solid 2nd gen Super Junior stan (I'll put up another post about 'gen' later), here are some of the few most impressive performances from the show (because SM hasn't released the performance yet, I will put the MV in the title, I might add the performances later):

1. "Medley of The Crown, Burn the Floor, Black Suit, Mamacita" by Super Junior - Super Junior always have the ability to make a company's concert into their own. I mean, they started with Eunhyuk's (the main dancer of Super Junior) solo dance, and then followed with The Crown, which stunned everyone. And then there's Burn the Floor (gosh the song is a masterpiece!), the transition of it to Black Suit was like Tango, but Eunhyuk again danced his solo song be's dance move and ended the medley with Mamacita. The whole performance was just so fulfilling and entertaining, it was an enjoyment to watch!!
2. "Fever" by Max Changmin - This is actually an unreleased song that will be in Max Changmin's solo album. His high notes are so amazing! It's refreshing like soda! Not to mention the whole concept was so stunning! His clothes and the background made him look so powerful.
3. "Hope from Kwangya" by SMTown - It's actually a remake of the song sung by the very first idol group H.O.T., the original song was composed, written, and arranged by Kangta. It was a song that gave hope to society when Korea faced a financial crisis, and now, it is giving us hope and telling us we'll always have something to rely on when we struggle through the pandemic. The song is always being sung at the end of every SMTown concert and is the exact song that is needed under these circumstances.

Of course, these are just some of the awesome performances, the other performances are incredible well, I just pick these because I am a huge fan of these artists. Overall, the concert was a blast, I'm sure a lot of people have fun enjoying the show. It's for sure a great start for the year. However, there are some down parts to the performance.

To begin with, basically, a lot of the artists reused their items of clothing. Yes, it is a free concert, but they had a lot of sponsors and made a lot through selling the albums and merchandise, it would be nice to see the artist in some new clothes...

Secondly, Beyond Live being the main media of broadcast, a lot of different languages are provided for the audience to choose from, but a lot of people faced difficulties in loading, it lags all the time so people will just turn back to platforms like YouTube and just watch the English subtitles without other options.

Thirdly, I was quite disappointed that we couldn't see all the live performances in the newly released album for the concert. When they released the album, I thought for sure that all the tracks will be featured at the concert. I was really excited about some of the collaboration, but in the end, they never showed up.

Finally, probably the most controversial topic is the lyrics by the limited girl group GOT (Girls On Top). The lyrics are mainly women bragging themselves by dissing other women and saying that her 'men' are better... From the teasers and image, the group was supposed to showcase girl power, but the lyrics, show nothing of that, and that's frankly just straight up disappointing.

To sum up, SM Ent., release the full version of the concert soon, please!! TT

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