K-pop stars doing whirlwind tour across Asia

Kim Jae-joong, a JYJ member, performs at the “The return of the JYJ” concert in Tokyo, Japan, Thursday. He started a solo Asian tour in January. / Korea Times

By Park Jin-hai

Last weekend was more than enough to be called “Hallyu Weekend” with K-pop idols holding concerts all around Asia one after another.

Kim Jae-joong, the leader of popular boy band JYJ spent Saturday in China, performing for 4,000 fans.

His mini-concert “Your, My and Mine” in Nanjing was the fifth of its kind, following Seoul, Bangkok, Shanghai and Hong Kong.

The 27-year-old singer sang “One Kiss” and rocked the audience with other equally powerful songs, and his charismatic charm. His fans frantically chanted his name and when he sang “I'll Protect You,” from the soundtrack of the TV drama “Protect the Boss,” they sang alongside him.

Kim is heading to Taiwan for his next concert, slated for April 13.

The concerts are separate from his group JYJ’s world tour that ended successfully two days ago in Japan. The boy band’s three-day Tokyo Dome concert, “The Return of the JYJ: JYJ Concert in Tokyo Dome 2013,” sold out 150,000 tickets and their performance was broadcast live at 100 theatres throughout Japan.

CNBLUE is on their world tour. / Korea Times

On the same day, G-Dragon (Korean name: Kwon Ji-yong) was also jumping and shooting out raps across a stage in Japan.

Some 50,000 fans packed the Fukuoka Dome Friday to see his “One Of a Kind” concert. After a large screen beamed out heart-stopping car chasing scenes, he launched into his first song “Michi Go,” followed by a series of other hit songs including “Heartbreaker,” “One Of a kind” and “That XX.”

Despite rainy weather, his undeterred fans queued before the concert started to watch his performance, which Billboard Chart Critic recently described as “eye-popping” and “Michael Jackson-level.”

On his solo tour, he will visit eight countries and perform to over 550,000 fans.

CNBlue also jump on the Asia tour bandwagon.

The four-member rock band entertained 11,000 local fans on the concert of their “2013 World Tour - Blue Moon,” held at the Taipei Arena in Taiwan.

The band sang a total of 24 songs including the recent hit “I’m Sorry” from their mini-album “Re:BLUE” and the catchy lead single “I’m a Loner” from their debut Korean EP “Bluetory.”

After Taiwan, the group will head to Singapore on a tour that lasts until June with stops at Bangkok, Hong Kong, Sydney, Manila and Beijing.