Wednesday, June 13, 2012

[NEWS] SM Entertainment artistes rake in $1.2 billion NTD in profits from SMTOWN Taiwan!


Gathering 9 groups under SM Entertainment, with a total of 46 popular solo artists and group members including Super Junior, Girls’ Generation, TVXQ, SHINee, f(x), BoA, Kangta, Zhang Liyin, and EXO, the “SMTOWN World Tour” was held at the Hsinchu County Stadium. Despite having to go through high temperatures in the afternoon reaching up to 34 degrees and the brief drizzle shortly before the concert, it did not dampen the spirits and passion of the 28000 fans who attended the concert. The venue was 95% filled, raking in a total of $1.176 billion NTD in ticketing and another $6.5 million in merchandise sales, setting yet another new record.

Having held a concert at the Taipei Arena before, Super Junior, Girls’ Generation, and SHINee are touted as the ‘three major forces’, and their performance at SMTOWN was akin to a condensed version of the exciting concert at the Taipei Arena. This includes Super Junior’s water jet stage, Girls’ Generation’s beautiful legs, and SHINee’s laser show. The fans held balloons in the representative colour of each group, creating a colourful atmosphere at the venue.

Inaugurated four years ago, the SMTOWN World Tour has been held at locations which include Paris, Tokyo, Shanghai, Thailand, New York, and more, and saw 250,000 people thronging the concert within the last year alone. They have made a visit to Taiwan for the first time this year, and broke the record for the ‘largest number of audience in a single concert’, ‘most number of performing artistes’, and ‘most number of songs performed’ in Taiwan. They also broke the records for the ‘most number of artistes performing in an overseas location’ and the ‘most number of songs performed in one show’ in terms of their SMTOWN World Tour. The concert, which lasted close to 4 hours and saw 50 songs being performed, allowed the fans to experience the allure of Hallyu once again.

In particular, the Girls’ Generation members are currently busying themselves with their subgroup activities or their dramas, and Hyoyeon pretended to cry and said, “The 9 of us have not been gathered together for such a long time. Coming to Taiwan because of SMTOWN, I’m really happy.” The Girls’ Generation subunit TaeTiSeo also performed their new song for the first time in a blouse and black hot pants, showing a different, sexier side of Girls’ Generation.

f(x) and EXO, who are performing in Taiwan for the first time, grabbed this opportunity to speak in Chinese to boost their popularity, and Super Junior’s leader Leeteuk also revealed that “Super Junior will be releasing our 6th album soon”, the delightful news making the fans at the venue to be simply ecstatic.

There were also a lot of combined stages. The two sisters, Girls’ Generation’s Jessica and f(x)’s Krystal, came together for the first time and performed “California Girls” in a sweet-looking get-up. TVXQ’s Changmin and Super Junior’s Kyuhyun performed a duet on “Just the Way You Are”; the both of them serenaded a lucky female fan, teased, and even hugged her, eliciting the continuous screams from the fans below the stage. Seeing that they were holding a concert in Taiwan, many artistes chose to perform Chinese songs as a display of their sincerity.

The SMTOWN artistes left in 4 separate batches today; Kangta and one of Super Junior’s member left on the CI160 flight at 7.45am, EXO took the TG634 flight out of Taiwan at 12.50pm, BoA, TVXQ, Super Junior, and Girls’ Generation left at 1.30pm on the OZ712 flight, while SHINee and f(x) left at 3.15pm on the BR160 flight.


Source: UDN
Translated by eternalsnow @ SJ-WORLD.NET
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