Siwan's fan concert was unsurprisingly full of surprises.
Focusing on the keyword of EXCITEMENT, Siwan delivered a high-octane performance with heart-melting moments in equal proportions!
Here are some stunning pictures of the concert from Plum A&C.
This was my first Siwan's fan concert. Beyond Live brought the experience to my living room. And what an incredible experience it was!
The concert started with a short video clip with Siwan doing his favourite activities like running and boxing. The intensity in the boxing made your heart thump and it continued thumping throughout the concert!
Siwan's first performance was nothing short of an explosion - setting the high energy vibe for the entire concert.
Being a non-Korean fan, anything Siwan does in English gets my highest attention. Here is Siwan's cover for Pink City (Pink Sweat$).
Siwan introduces the band towards the end. He asks the bandmaster whether they want a cool introduction or a simple basic intro. Bandmaster asks for a cool intro - and you see Siwan change character at the drop of a hat! Confidence & charisma overload!Yeah!
I made an edit for this song where I have removed the band introduction - only so that I can listen to it on loop. Here's that edit.
Siwan was very clearly comfortable in his skin. I have read a few times that he is generally very somber and cautious. But when he gets comfortable, he can be really goofy. And goofy he was!
A fan called out asking Siwan to marry her. Siwan replied that he is already married... waited for the audience to finish woo-ing and then added softly... "to the Swans". And then you can see his goofy expressions below... Oh, just too funny! As if the reply itself didn't tickle our hearts enough ;)
I have been researching (read stalking) Siwan for about three months now. And I have always felt that he is like an innocent sweet kid at a family gathering who just loves to perform - he loves to find anyone who cares to watch him and put up an act for them. Not because he wants the accolades. He just loves performing. And he feels very happy if they feel happy watching him. It is really as simple as that for him.
This innocent excited attitude of a child makes watching Siwan do anything, simply a sheer pleasure. It makes you want to treasure and savour every moment.
Siwan had promised to give his fans a unique experience and he lived up to that promise and even more.
(Here is Siwan singing the same song in 2017 for the promotion of his movie One Line).
Sweet short sketches/videos (which they call VCRs) were shown in between performances. The first being with his old friend Urban Zakapa's Hyunah. (Here is my blog on all the collaborations that Siwan has done with her).
This performance (like the entire concert) was full of happy surprises and quirks. The wink! The ice-break. The line "Times good by quickly, it's okay!" And finally the replay of the ice break. Siwan even commenting on his long trousers... You just can't help but keep smiling as you watch him.
The biggest surprise was Siwan's Hip-hop performance.
The choreographer, Hyojin Choi, is a brilliant dancer. Her choreography of the show is fresh and modern and lively. She and Siwan did a short act - that fooled us into thinking that she was just there to watch the show. Only when they started the performance below, we realized it was all planned!
You can really feel Siwan catching every beat! Here's another camera angle...
The act in the end that he missed the exit cue, gets funnier with every view!
Here's the entire act up close...
About a week after the concert, OMG studio released the same performance from their studio. Beautifully shot, single take performance shows the amount of practice Siwan (& the entire team) put in. You can see Hyojin's genius choreography. The steps, the formations, the quirks, all perfectly timed.
The fan concert also gave us a glimpse of Siwan's different roles - beautifully tied together in the concept of each character participating in a competition. Siwan performed as three of his iconic characters - Jang Gue-rae, Ki Seon Gyeom & Wang Won. (Having worked backstage in a theatre - I can only imagine the frenzy and the planning that went into changing each look in record time.)
Siwan's portrayal of each character was spot-on. It's incredible how his body language and the look in his eyes changed as easily and as perfectly as the costumes!
(Siwan did visit Broadway last year... He will kill it if it's on the cards!)
The characters didn't drink from Siwan's usual bottle kept on the stage and they drank water in different styles - true to their character. Such little details tell you how much thought was put into this show.
On one end of the spectrum, Siwan performed as the docile Jang Gue-rae and on another end, he literally lit up the stage with his fiery encore performance of his Tracer OST "Fire". A perfect finale.
Im Siwan has been a K-pop idol, and an awarding winning Actor, who has been invited to Cannes... twice. And on 11th February 2023, we found in him a...
TRUE ROCKSTAR!
Siwan gave his all - every note in his singing was perfect, and every move in his dance was spot on. Every joke, rehearsed or spontaneous, landed with perfect timing. From the flashy loose trousers to the graphic pop-art jacket to the uber-hot full-black look he nailed every vibe.
For me, this concert is an answer to the perplexing question - WHY I AM crazy about Siwan.
After all those high-energy performances, he even got the audience to JUMP! JUMP! on Hyukoh's "Big Bird".
Siwan's collab with SNSD's Choi Sooyung went viral almost immediately.
Siwan confessed that in his opinion there's no one better than SNSD. While the collaboration is a very sweet friendly gesture, it was a very smart move as well. Siwan brought back the vibe of being a k-pop idol with a legendary idol - without involving any competition or controversy. And judging by the reaction of the audience and netizens - Sooyoung has a huge fan base - and they all became very attentive to Siwan as well! This feels like a genius marketing strategy - natural and organic, and also very advantageous to all involved!
Many of Siwan's co-stars showed support by coming to the concert. But I personally loved Lee Sung-min's mini-performance as manager Oh.
The short sketches in between the performances were intelligently written and perfectly directed. The entire crew has worked very hard. It's heartwarming, really.
Siwan's comedy with the mic is extremely hilarious. It is still winning many hearts and has gone viral!
Siwan's rendition of My Heart at the whY I aM concert is very special for many reasons.
Siwan is always experimenting - here he tried to render the song with a different vibe - much more acoustic - very jazz-like. His voice sounding a lot more mature. In between he's almost speaking the lines. All culminating to the high finish (the original song's highlight). You can again feel Wang Won's pain. To me, the impact is much more than the original song.
In the concert, this is his 9th performance - after 5 songs & 3 dances (including the high intensity Hyun Choi's choreo). 1.5 hours into the concert, this is his 5th costume change. All the changes before this had some reasonable time, as they played AVs for the audience. But the change after this didn't have any AV. He had to appear as Siwan soon after his 'magical' disappearance as Wang Won. The MC could hold the audience for only a few minutes. Siwan took just under 3 mins to manage that change. (Also, he exits from centre back of the stage and enters from the left wing... All these little things add up!)
The reason I'm highlighting these points is that we only see what's put in front of us. But the frenzy, the madness and the preparation that goes on in the background is often missed.
Now take a look at this controlled performance again, keeping in mind this context - and you'll see Siwan's brilliance afresh.
Here's an incredibly high-resolution recording of Siwan's performance of the encore Fire OST - from the first row! You can see how adorably he kept saying thank you... till the very end! 💖
After Siwan's concert, I have seen concerts of other idols as well. Something that strikes me as amazing is that -
1- Siwan is the only male on the stage (apart from the band, of course). But he is not treating the girls around him as his trophies.
2- The girls are not dressed as hot & sexy... they look super sexy but they aren't in overtly sexy attire. In some of the other female k-pop performances they are really pushing a bimbo look (for lack of a better word)
3- Siwan is dancing with the girls as a team. They cheer him, yes, but are not drooling over him.
4 - He has a few interactions with the dancers - but none of them have a sexual hint... (e.g. - I saw some male idols slap the hips of their female co-dancers).
I know that Siwan is humble and kind and respectful in life - and I am not saying anything against other idols. But I am truly happy to see Siwan follow his principles even when creating a show!
The show ended with a video letter with sweet personal trivia from Siwan. The final slide was this...
I think, he meant to write in English 'I love you more than me'. The first line says let's be together always. The last line says I like you. As he wrote, in place of ㅈ, he first writes ㅅ erases it and then writes 좋아해요 which means I like you. I love you is written as "사랑해요" so him writing ㅅ could mean that he was about to write I love you, but changed it to I like you. I was sure of this quirk after I saw a clip from Siwan's Tokyo fanmeeting. There he read out a handwritten letter. It ended with him saying (in Japanese) love... love... I like you. I find this tease totally adorable. 😂💖
Siwan's reaction to being called "aagi" (meaning "baby") is just too cute!
The same video from the audience's side is here https://www.youtube.com/shorts/bZbNZ0xg0cA
(It's just too funny!)
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Here's Siwan's beautiful rendition of Yuki No Hana in the WHY I AM in Tokyo Fan meeting.
Soulful performance.
Here are behind the scenes of the three WHY I AM concerts. You will see how much fun Siwan has - but you will also see how much practice he puts in - for everything! Even the gag with Hyujin Choi was practiced!
In the making you can see Siwan explain to staff how he came up with the concert tagline, "Why I Am" (YIM) said he even talked to an English teacher to see if it made sense in English to write, WhyIAm. He said people usually write 임 as "Lim" but our family writes our name "Yim". So let’s use YIM and not LIM or IM.
Siwan was so involved in the entire process that he was given credit of Executive Director for the show!
More than three months have passed and I am still enjoying the very many moments from the concert. I wish Beyond Live had done a better job with the subtitles for the replay. I was disappointed to see the same quick-fix subtitles that were placed when the show was streamed live. People promoting Siwan really should put in as much hard work as he himself puts in all his endeavours.
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Here is English translation of a review of the 2-day Fan Concert in Tokyo that happened in January '23.
Actor Im Si-wan successfully completed a fan meeting in Tokyo, Japan, proving his global popularity.
This '2023 Im Si-wan Fan Meeting WHY I AM in TOKYO', which was held for the first time in about 8 years, was sold out early, and it was a time to feel the fans' warm support as they visited Japan for the first time in a long time.
Im Si-wan performed the drama Tracer OST 'Fire' with powerful dance and live performance, opening a splendid opening to the fan meeting with an intense stage. Amid enthusiastic cheers, Im Si-wan showed off his delightful conversation through rich corners such as Q&A, games, and a talk at the 'Im Si-wan Drama Awards', which fans participated in by pre-voting.
Next, Im Si-wan reinterpreted the acoustic version of the original song of 'Snow Flower', by singer Park Hyo-shin and received a lot of love, 'Me and You', the OST of the drama 'Run On', and 'Tick Tock', a song released for fans before enlisting in the military. Tick-tock’ along with the performance, adding to the heat. For this fan meeting, Im Si-wan participated in planning with various ideas and showed extraordinary enthusiasm, bringing special joy to both him and his fans.
Im Si-wan, who showed off his colorful charms through the two-day performance, said, “I realized that things that I took for granted when I was in front of me were precious when I looked at them. I didn't know that time would pass so quickly," he said. “Eight long years have left a lot of value for the time I can meet you guys in person. I hope to cherish the time we will spend together in the future.”
Meanwhile, Im Si-wan will continue this heat through the '2023 Im Si-wan Fan Concert WHY I AM in SEOUL' to be held on the 11th.
[Reporter Lee Da-kyum, Star Today]
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A fellow Swan, (who is now a dear friend - Thanks to Siwan!), went all the way from Hong Kong to Seoul just to attend this concert. She doesn't understand Korean and yet she enjoyed the show thoroughly. That's Siwan's magic!
In her words...
Siwan’s 2023 Why I Am in Seoul fan meeting is a powerful, overwhelming, and marvellous show! The production is of high quality, coherence, and smoothness. It started with the song “Fire”, and ended with a more powerful version of “Fire”.
Though I discovered Siwan only last September, I’ve watched quite some of his live performances on YouTube. I have to say Siwan’s singing and dancing tonight have both reached a new height!
Siwan is gifted with an intense and tender voice. And now he has also learned to sing with a more sonorous voice with a taste of jazz/blues. This gives him a brand new feeling.
Siwan’s dancing tonight was also different. I have a feeling (just my feeling) that in the past, dancing was not what he really liked to do - he was just doing the best he could to fulfill his part. But tonight, I have the feeling (again, just my feeling) that he truly wants to dance. His dance was full of passion and energy, unlike anything he did before.
I feel really good about Siwan’s new development. He will definitely become more global. My only complaint is that the design of his promotional materials and merchandise still use some very conservative image, and cannot reflect his shift of direction.
For a large part of my short history as a SWAN, I think Siwan resembles Ki Seongyeom a lot. But after tonight, Siwan has successfully shaken off some of Ki Seongyeom’s image from my mind.
The name of this fan meeting is “Why I Am”, playing a game of words with his own name. To me, I think the theme is more appropriately “Who I Am”, - “I’m telling you who I am.” He is Jang Geurae. He is Wang Won. He is Ki Seongyeom. He is all of them. He is none of them. He is Yim Siwan.
He is a new and different and better man every time you see him.
She went around the city finding the locations where Siwan's shows have been shot. Here are some incredible clicks!
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