 |
Onew of SHINee kicked off the last day of his concert, "O-New Note," with "Sunshine." (SM Entertainment) |
Onew of SHINee welcomed the beginning of spring with his first-ever solo concert, “O-New Note,” filling the space with different fragrances while his mellow voice warmed things up.
The concert, which was held for three days starting Friday at Olympic Hall in Seoul, was lit with the aqua-colored fan lights of SHINee’s fan community, Shawol.
As soon as the concert began with the main stage opening up, everyone in the hall stood up ready to enjoy the gig to the fullest.
Onew, dressed in a green and flowery cardigan and jeans, kicked off the gig with “Sunshine,” a side track from his second mini album.
On the stage, decorated as a rose garden, the artist showed off his solid live skills and relaxed performance as a professional K-pop idol with more than a decade of experience.
The concert was divided into four different “scent notes:" floral, woody, aqua and “Onew note.”
For each section, the hall was literally filled with respective scents as fragrance sprays were installed inside the hall to satisfy diverse senses of the audience.
“The word, 'Note,' from the name of this concert derives from the scent note of a fragrance. As you know, a fragrance has a top note, a middle note and a base note. In today’s concert, there will be four different scent notes. Can you smell the floral scent right now?” Onew explained the theme of his concert to the audience.
The floral section was characterized by lovely and bubbly tracks, during which Onew gave out flowers to his fans.
He greeted his fans in five different languages as the concert was live-streamed through Beyond LIVE.
Onew performed warm ballads and medium-tempo tracks such as “Yeowoobi,” “Love Phobia” and “Illusion” for the woody section.
He also performed a medley of ballads in an unplugged style accompanied by piano and guitar.
Many were touched by his mellow voice, which swiftly changed from a falsetto to his normal voice, even bringing some fans to tears.
Then the tone of the concert switched to sensual and fast-tempo tracks during the aqua section.
“When the curtains went down during the ‘In the whale’ performance, I got chills all over my body. I think this is the charm of doing a live performance, as I get to search for something new and show what I want to. I really get a lot of energy from you guys and I am happy that I get to communicate in real time with you. The message of the song was that I would grab your hands even in dark places. Now, the next song, ‘Expectations’ is one of the side tracks from my new album, ‘Circle,’ to be released on Monday, and many of you seemed to really like it. They say it’s a sexy song,” said Onew, introducing one of the new tracks from his new album.
Onew made his debut as a soloist on December 2018, with the EP, “Voice,” and he made his debut in the K-pop scene in the legendary K-pop boy group, SHINee, in May 2008.
 |
Onew performing the title track, "O," from his first full-length solo album, "Circle" (SM Entertainment) |
He premiered seven out of the ten tracks from his new and first full-length solo album, “Circle,” including the titular track, “O,” and side tracks “Anywhere,” “Paradise,” “Cough,” “Always,” “Expectations” and “No Parachute” during the concert.
The titular track, “O,” which was performed during the Onew Note section, was a mystical R&B song that compares life to nature.
Onew Note is the fragrance that Onew himself made to make his concert more memorable.
“The message of the song is just like the cycle of nature, our hardships will go by and we will be happy again. I wanted to convey the message in the performance as well so the choreography itself tells a story,” said Onew.
He hinted that there will be content that shows the behind-the-scenes process of making the album and preparing for the concert following the release of his new album.
One of the highlights of the night was when the Shawol fans sang the song, “Shine On You,” to call Onew back to the stage for an encore.
His fans were actually good singers, staying on key and filling up the space with their beautiful voices, and Onew was proud of his fans for that.
Onew then sang the song, “Starry Night,” a duet, with his fans, during which the Shawol fans turned their phone flashlights on, making the hall look like ripples in the ocean.
Other SHINee members were there to support Onew, as well as other celebrities, such as the content creator, Haetnim the Short Mouth, and Apink’s Namjoo.
Onew wrapped up his three-day concert with the song, “Your Scent.”
“Thank you for coming to my concert during your precious weekend. The concert was successful thanks to your support. I will continue to make good music and show the best of me,” said Onew.
