By Han Sang-hee
Staff Reporter
Pop group TVXQ held their first solo concert at the Tokyo Dome, Japan, July 4 and 5. It was a dream come true for the group, who had dreamed of performing at the venue since their debut, Yonhap News reported Monday.
Their fourth Japanese live tour, entitled ``The Secret Code,'' drew more than 100,000 fans over the two nights in Tokyo, proving once again the five-member group's star power in the neighboring country.
The group, comprised of Xiah, Micky, Hero, Max and U-Know, started the concert with ``Secret Game'' and continued with hits like ``Why Did I Start to Like You,'' ``Nobody Knows'' and ``Mirotic.'' Singing 32 songs during the pair of three-hour and 20-minute shows, the members also offered separate solo performances, from rock numbers like ``Wild Soul'' by Max, to a special duet song made just for the concert ― ``COLORS, Melody and Harmony'' by Hero and Micky.
``We have finally arrived here at the Tokyo Dome and we are so happy, it feels like a dream. We were very bad at speaking in Japanese when we first got here, but now we can not only communicate, but also express our feelings through music. We think we have grown a lot,'' TVXQ was quoted as saying by its agency, SM Entertainment.
The group held a total of 21 concerts around nine cities in Japan, drawing more than 300,000 fans.
Japanese newspapers like Nikkan Sports News and Sports Nippon wrote articles about the concert, mentioning that the ``Korean group was in the middle of the Japanese music industry'' and that TVXQ marked the ``triple 300,000,'' which includes selling more than 300,000 copies of their single, 300,000 copies of their official album and finally drawing more than 300,000 fans to their concerts.
The group's recent 28th single release ``Stand By U'' shot to No. 2 on Japan's daily singles Oricon Charts, behind Arashi's 27th single ``Everything'' released earlier this month.
The group will join other Japanese pop groups at the summer music festival ``a-nation,'' which will be held in cities across Japan Aug. 1-30.