[Epoch Times September 23, 2024](Reported by Epoch Times reporter Zeng Weixin) South Korean popular singer IU (Lee Ji-eun) held the encore performance of her first world tour concert “2024 IU HEREH WORLD TOUR CONCERT ENCORE: THE WINNING” at the Seoul World Cup Stadium on the 21st and 22nd. IU, who happened to be holding her 100th concert, not only sang the new song “Bye Summer” to bid farewell to her beloved summer, but also gave fans encouragement and meaningful gifts.
IU debuted her new song “Bye Summer” at the first encore concert on the 21st. She explained that except for Seoul and Yokohama, the cities she visited during this world tour were very hot, so she felt that this summer was particularly long, and although she didn’t like summer, she still had the best summer on tour this year. IU also said that this song was specially written for this encore concert, but she has no plans to officially release the song.
Since the autumnal equinox will arrive on the 22nd, she sang “Bye Summer” on the last day of this summer, which means that she will bid farewell to the long and beloved summer. The lyrics of this song were written by her and the music was composed by Seo Donghuan (transliteration), the composer of “Love wins all”.
On the 21st, Typhoon “Grassand” was approaching South Korea, so many fans were worried before the concert whether it would rain during the concert. However, the weather was relatively stable during IU’s concert on the 21st, and it only rained lightly when IU sang “Bye Summer”. This made IU blurt out “It’s raining” when she picked up the guitar to sing the song by herself, but she still sang “Bye Summer” with her heart with a cheerful smile in the rain, commemorating the long summer she loved deeply and saying goodbye to summer.
At the final concert on the 22nd, before entering the last song of the fourth part, “Love wins all”, since it was the last song before the encore, IU said that she knew the next day was Monday and some audiences who came from afar would leave and go home after listening to this song, so she wanted to tell these fans in advance that she hoped that the good mood everyone felt in today’s concert could last for a week, a month or even a year, and that this joy could cheer everyone up a little before the next concert and help them get through the difficult days.
IU also mentioned the support song “Istan U” she created for her fans and the scene where she raised her exclusive support hand lamp to cheer for everyone when she sang the song during this tour. She said that since she has been a fan of everyone for a long time, she hopes that everyone can remember the moment when she raised the hand lamp to cheer for everyone during the performance when they are having a hard time, and cheer up and continue to work hard.
She also talked about what she had emphasized several times when performing in different countries: “I hope that even if there are moments of hatred, love will win in the end. May you win your own victory every day and live happily until the next time we meet.”
In the past, due to the long duration of IU’s concerts, IU’s mother was worried that fans would not sit comfortably and prepared cushions for each audience member as gifts. For many years, IU has prepared cushions of different colors for fans during her concerts in Korea, and this year is no exception. For this encore concert, IU not only prepared cushions for everyone, but also prepared a telescope with the name of the concert “THE WINNING” printed on it, which was given to every fan who entered the venue.
On the first day of the concert, many fans received the telescope and shared photos on various social media platforms. After this was exposed, everyone generally believed that IU prepared telescopes for fans because she was worried that the audience would not be able to see clearly because the performance venue was large. IU also revealed in the first encore concert on the 21st that it was her brother’s inspiration to prepare the telescope, hoping that the audience sitting far away could also see the performance clearly.
However, IU also explained the deeper meaning of her gifting the telescope to her fans. IU said at the concert on the 22nd: “There is a scene in the MV of “Shopper” where I use a telescope. That scene means that I found my goal and welcomed the start. The focal length of the telescope is different according to your settings. I hope everyone will focus on their goals and find as many as possible and win as many victories as possible. This is the intention of preparing the telescope (as a gift).”
IU continued, “Although I don’t know everyone’s goals, some people’s goals may not be a big deal in the eyes of others, and some people may have lofty dreams, but because you love me and you are also people I love, I will cheer for your dreams and goals with all my heart, and hope that you can find more. This tour is prepared with the intention of ‘I hope you can welcome all kinds of victories, big and small’. If everyone can get a little courage while watching this tour, it seems that (for me) I have spent an extremely happy night.”
Not only that, IU also prepared something different for this encore concert than her previous tours. In order to include photos of female seniors and juniors who enriched her entertainment career in the VCR video before singing “Shh…”, she contacted the female seniors and juniors in the entertainment industry who inspired her one by one to obtain permission to use their portraits, and paid tribute to these female artists through the “Shh…” concert VCR.
Since the concert on the 22nd was IU’s 100th concert, the staff also prepared a giant cake to celebrate her. The staff and fans at the scene sang the melody of Happy Birthday and applauded to congratulate IU on her 100th solo concert.
IU said that it was unreal to hold her 100th concert and to hold it in such a grand manner at Sangam (World Cup Stadium in Seoul), but it happened to be her 100th performance on that day. She said that as a singer, she would perform with the same heart no matter which performance it was, but the fans went out of their way to calculate her 100th performance, and this love seemed to surpass family affection, so she was very grateful to the fans who discovered this.
IU also said that although she doesn’t know how many “hundred performances” she will have in her singing career, she will try her best to continue singing and hopes that everyone will continue to count. When the memorable number arrives, she will thank everyone again.
However, IU considered that there was not much time left for the concert, so she said “there is no time”, asked the staff to quickly remove the cake and prepare for the next link, and kept bowing to thank everyone, which also made the fans smile.
IU also prepared a drone light show for this concert. In addition to arranging patterns representing many of IU’s classic songs, such as “Spores”, IU also used the drone performance to transform “Last Fantasy” that she sang in the concert into “New Fantasy”, symbolizing a new beginning.
In the two-day encore performance, in addition to the fixed songs of this tour, IU also brought “Secret” and “LILAC” to perform. In the final “encore (second encore)” session, she sang “Autumn morning”, “Hey (있잖아)”, “Strawberry Moon”, “Unlucky” and “Last Night Story”. The last song of the last performance was “Dreams in summer night (여름밤의꿈)”.
BTS member V (Kim Taehyung), who plays the male lead in the MV of “Love wins all”, took leave to participate in the concert on the 22nd despite still serving in the military.
The character played by V in the MV was nicknamed “Taejun” by fans. On the day of the concert, V posted photos of “Taejun” during the filming of the MV, as well as photos and videos of him watching the concert on his official IG story. V also posted a photo of him and IU taken backstage at noon on the 23rd, and wrote “Jihui”, the name given by fans to the heroine played by IU in “Love wins all”, on the photo to commemorate the day.
IU is the first solo female singer to hold a solo concert at the Seoul World Cup Stadium. IU performed for about 3 hours in both encore concerts and sang more than 20 songs on both days. After the concert, “Special Thanks” and the “Uaena Logo” representing fans appeared on the stage, symbolizing IU’s gratitude to the 100,000 fans who became her “audience” in the past two days and welcomed the successful conclusion of her first world tour with her.
Editor-in-charge: Xin Youan
