Korean pop stars perform at MSG

NEW YORK SM Entertainment artists dazzled 15,000 fans at Madison Square Garden in a sold-out New York concert Sunday evening. SM Town Live World Tour in New York was the last leg of SM's tour, which launched in Seoul before going to Los Angeles, Tokyo, Shanghai and Paris earlier this year.

Tickets for the New York concert were sold out within an hour, according to SM Entertainment, similar to its June concert in Paris that sold out within 15 minutes.

Artists that performed were SM Entertainment's top K-pop stars, including Girls' Generation, TVXQ, Super Junior, SHINee, f(X), BoA and Kang Ta, the former leader of H.O.T.

The concert started at 7:30 p.m., but diehard fans waited between 31st to 33rd Street around Madison Square Garden as early as four hours beforehand in anticipation.

The concert launched with the newest addition to the tour, f(X), who opened the show with "LA chA TA". The show ran three and a half hours after some 50 songs, including an ensemble performance of H.O.T'.s "Hope".

Concert highlights included the first on-stage performance of the English version of "The Boys" by Girls' Generation, which was produced by Teddy Riley. SM Entertainment simultaneously released an English and Korean version of the Girls' Generation song on YouTube on Oct. 19, and it became an instant hit with almost 13 million combined views and counting.

TVXQ sent legions of female fans into a frenzy when they, suspended by wire midair, descended on stage from above. Many fans followed their dance moves.

According to a representative from SM Entertainment, more than 70 percent of the concertgoers were non-Asians, with many of them able to sing along to the Korean lyrics. Many U.S. fans cried out "I love you!" in Korean.

Jennifer Gunter, who flew from Canada to see the performance, said, "It's like a dream come true to see the K-pop artists that I have been only able to see on YouTube in real life. Someday, I really want to go visit the homeland of K-pop, Seoul".

Madison Square Garden, located in midtown Manhattan, has been the concert venue for many famous singers, including Elvis Presley, Michael Jackson, Beyonce and Lady Gaga, and is considered a dream stage for many aspiring world-class artists.

By Jung Kyung-min [[email protected]]