The Long Awaited World Tour from IU Finally Comes to America
Lee Ji-eun, also known by her stage name IU, is one of the world’s biggest known artists. If you have not heard of her, her beloved girl-next-door personality and impressive vocals at a young age garnered her support from South Korean netizens to be titled the ‘Nation’s Little Sister’.
I have been her dear fan since 2010 when her song ‘Good Day’ was released showcasing her vocal abilities and beautiful visuals. Unfortunately for most international fans, during her current16-year tenure as an artist, she remained in South Korea where she has a much bigger fanbase with ‘The Golden Hour: Under the Sun’ concert in 2022 filling a stadium of 88,000 fans.
After 10 long-awaited years, IU and her management team announced their first world tour with one stop in Atlanta, Georgia. I might’ve used all my luck this year, but I managed to grab 2 seats to her concert being one of the 2000 fans allowed into Ticketmaster came ticketing day. For the rest of my friends who tried their luck, they were in the queue line at 55,000.
BEST FAN SERVICE CONCERT
Overall Rating: 4.8/5
This concert was unlike anything I have ever experienced! From the fans to IU and her production team herself, everything was elevated.
Why is this concert the “best fan service”?
Prior to this concert, I did know IU and her mother tend to give out gifts to fans in South Korea. Her mom is so sweet and gave out seat cushions for the last concert she did in South Korea for fans who had a long 3.5-hour show on each seat so fans could have a comfortable time viewing her daughter own the stage. Although I knew it would not be practical to do the same for her stops in America, I did wonder if we international fans would get a similar treat and boy did we!
Upon grabbing out seats, we noted a purple mini metal box on the cupholder of every seat in Atlanta. Inside each box with her name and face printed on it were 2 photocards, 1 magnet, and 1 tour keychain. Forget paying for merch outside when the artist herself provided you with them! I have never gone to a Korean pop concert that gifted fans anything. Knowing how expensive these memorabilia can get, I would assume these could sell for $15+, but only took $2 to make. Nevertheless, it was a great start to this fan service we would continue to get.
Other key fan service details no artist has ever done is a day-off for fans project. IU and her team recorded videos of her trip to Atlanta, her soundcheck, and the fans waiting outside the stadium. They then edited the video and played it on the big screen on the same day. I have heard of wedding photographers and videographers having a turn around time of the same day, but a camera crew for an artist and her fans is definitely new to me! Most Korean artists tend to play a VCR during the 5 minute breaks we get between sets, but IU is different.
She continued this when it came time for the encore. As always, the ‘last song’ they announced is never the final song! If you have read at least 1 concert review, you would know a KPOP concert experience is not over unless there is a fake out. With this being a soloist and me taking a sneak peek at the setlist, I knew we had 5-6 songs left, but the fake out was so convincing that a good handful of the audience did leave their seats before rushing back moments later. Imagine this scene: IU just sang her ‘last song’ of the concert, arrays of colorful confetti are floating in the air drifting down on everyone, and the live band was rocking it on stage with the ending being their drummer throwing his drumsticks in the air. You would think it’s over…right?
Wrong! Just 3 minutes later, a prompt came on asking us to sing ‘Through the Night’ to get IU back on stage rather than chant her name. Mind you, this is a full Korean Hangul song. However, the crowd did not stumble on their words at all and even harmonized! When I say fan service, I don’t just mean the artist, but the fans as well! It was such a respectful and mature take of an encore!
IU also dedicated a rendition of ‘Strawberry Moon’ to Atlanta, but was ‘Blueberry Moon’ for the night instead.
Was there anything you wished could’ve been improved?
NOPE! I did have one near-impossible request of IU to sing ‘Good Day’. It was the song that introduced me to her back in 2010, but she has since retired this song in 2022. The only stop on this world tour to have gotten it out of retirement was Oakland this past week. Although unfortunate, I knew it would’ve been hard.
Most Impressive Note of the Night?
I did leave out some other details earlier. The demographic for IU’s Atlanta concert was 65% Korean-Americans ranging in age from 10-60, so it did explain why they didn’t struggle singing the encore song as much as me and my friend. With the demographics being much different than most KPOP concerts I attend, this was the most organized and calm concert I have been to yet. The fans were very considerate of one another and the volume of the screaming was kept to a very respectable and mature decimal as most fans also brought their parents and some parents brought their younger children. The fans along with IU made this concert!
The most impressive addition that I would love other Korean artists to do for American concerts would be having lyrics and fan chants on the screen to go along with the song. We knew when to cheer her on, chant, and what lyrics she was singing by simply looking at the screen.
IU is an artist that cares for her fans! A lot of artists do, but in that arena, I was among a community that cherishes and respects the artist onstage and the artist gave that love and support back to her fans. I have never been to a concert that did that.
She gave me an experience that made me question why other concerts were not held in the same manner. It was a lovely time and artists that allow you to inspire to improve have my full support!
What was your favorite part(s) of the concert?
There are a lot of good songs, however, my favorite have to be one of her oldest songs and one of her newest. Because I am nostalgic, her performance ‘You and I’ was my favorite with the instrumentals of the song being very magical and the dance break. On the other hand, ‘Love wins All’ was breathtaking to hear live. Her vocals echoed off the State Farm Arena and lifted me off my seat. Seeing one of her strongest ballads, ‘Love wins All’, live highlighted her strong vocal talent and had me visualize the lyrics as they were leaving her mouth. It was so beautiful hearing her balance between her head voice and chest voice.
Overall, there were no bad parts of this concert! I did fly all the way to Atlanta for it and don’t regret it one bit. Funny enough, I ran into a lot of Uaena, IU’s fans, at the airport the next day so it appears I was not the only one coming a ways to see the queen.
