UAE media zero in on K-pop mania amid recent SM gala concert

Media outlets of the United Arab Emirates have offered extensive coverage of a recent K-pop gala concert thrown by SM Entertainment, South Korea's largest entertainment agency, last week in Dubai.

The concert, "SM Town Live World Tour VI in Dubai," was held at the Autism Rocks Arena in Dubai on Friday. A total of 14 acts, including EXO, Red Velvet and TVXQ, participated in the joint label concert. The company announced that some 15,000 gathered at the event.

Gulf News, a Dubai-based English language daily, on Monday (local time) published a review of the four-hour show, describing it as an "unforgettable night for K-pop fans."

"Although Arabic lyrics appeared on the big screens, the SM artists sang and danced with so much emotion and energy that it needed no translation," the daily reported.

The National, an English-language daily published in Abu Dhabi, filed a column on Saturday (local time), titled "SM Town Live Dubai: 5 takeaways from my first K-pop concert."

The column, written by the paper's assistant features editor Evelyn Lau, pointed out how the K-pop fan base in the region was more than meets the eye. "Even though they mostly sing in Korean, you'd be surprised at how many fans knew every word of a song - even if they didn't know what they were actually singing."

"Even though the majority of fans were millennial, it was also clear that though we've come from different backgrounds, we were - at least for one night - united by our shared love of Korean pop music, and I find that comforting," Lau wrote.

Dubai TV and Al Arabiya, local TV networks, also provided coverage of the SM concert and its stars, with Al Arabya describing the show as the biggest and trendiest K-pop festival held in the Middle East to date.

The SM Town Live series, a joint concert of recording artists under SM, was launched in 2008 and has been held in New York, Paris, Tokyo, Beijing and other major cities around the world.

The Dubai concert was the first SM Town Live event in the Arab world and one of the largest K-pop showcases ever in the region.(Yonhap)