SM Town charms L.A.

K-pop singers, actors and actresses from the SM Entertainment agency in Korea captivated more than 15,000 fans at the “SM Town Live World Tour” concert at the Staples Center in Los Angeles on Saturday. 

The blockbuster concert featured some 40 of Korea’s biggest stars, including BoA, TVXQ, Girls’ Generation, Super Junior, f(x), SHINee, Kangta, Ara, Kim Min-jong and Lee Yeon-hee, who showcased 56 numbers. 

BoA, the 23-year-old global star who recently released her sixth Korean album“Hurricane Venus,” heated up the stage with “My Name.” SHINee’s Key, once a member of BoA’s fan club, joined BoA on stage when she sung “I Did It for Love,” from her first U.S. album. 

Girls’ Generation and Super Junior followed on stage, each showcasing hit numbers like “Run Devil Run,” “Kissing You” and “Sorry Sorry.” 

K-pop singers, actors and actresses from SM Entertainment perform at the “SM Town Live World Tour” concert in Staples Center in Los Angeles on Saturday. (Yonhap News)

Girls’ Generation’s Jessica and her younger sister Krystal from f(x) co-performed “Tik Tock” by Kesha and television stars including Kim Min-jong, Lee Yeon-hee and Ara also appeared on stage for joint performances with the singers. 

In the meantime, hollywood star Jack Nicholson made a call to ticket reservation center and purchased tickets of SM concert by himself, the Korean entertainment company.

"Nicholson showed up with his friends at the concert," SM official said.

Top-notch U.S. pop stars such as Beyonce, Usher, Justin Timberlake and Lady Gaga also performed at the Staples Center. 

“It is meaningful that Korean artists held a show here for the first time. The ticket sales list showed that only 30 percent of the audience was Korean. It is notable that non-Koreans took up nearly 70 percent of the audience,” said an official from SM Entertainment. 

“We saw potential for the success of not only SM artists but Korean artists in the U.S. market. A U.S. tour concert became a new hope for SM Town,” said Kim Young-min, president of SM Entertainment.

Started on Aug. 21 in Seoul, “SM Town Live World Tour” will continue in Shanghai on Sept. 11 then move to Tokyo.

The concerts are being filmed by PACE HD, a 3-D film shooting team which made the movie “Avatar.” Saturday’s concert marked $1.8 million (2.16 billion won) of ticket sales.

By Park Min-young  (claire@heraldm.com)

(Photos: Yonhap)