South Korean boy band BigBang awed some 13,000 fans in its final Seoul encore concert on Sunday, dropping the curtain on its "MADE" world tour that kicked off a year ago.

The five-member K-pop group held three days of concerts over the weekend, drawing about 39,000 fans to the Olympic Gymnastics Arena in Seoul's Olympic Park. This year marks BigBang's 10th anniversary, adding to the scale and fervor of the stage.

Overall, about 1.5 million concertgoers surged to see G-Dragon, Seungri, T.O. P, Taeyang and Daesung in the world tour that kicked off in April 2015 and spanned over 66 concerts in 32 cities in 13 countries around the world.

Throughout every measure of every song, the five-member K-pop band was greeted with "ddaechang," or sing-alongs, by the whole crowd. A throng of luminous sticks glowed in yellow, a color dedicated to the band.

"Fans' ddaechang makes us at home and comfortable," said Daesung, the youngest member of the band, during the concert.

G-Dragon, too, drove female fans into a wild burst of ecstatic screams, saying "During the (world) tour season, I've almost forgot. Korean girls are beautiful -- makes my heart flutter."

BigBang exploded onto the stage with sound of thundering motorcycles, starting off a medley of the band's greatest hits with "Bang Bang Bang. " The excitement peaked while the group performed some of last year's hits "Loser," "Bae Bae," and "Sober."

Each member rocked the stage with mastery of every move and gesture throughout the concert, flaunting 10 years of experience as one of the longest-surviving boy bands.

Ready-to-stun special effects, such as holograms, a laser show and flames generated by computer graphics, also set the stage ablaze. Other extravagant factors included lights and video works by world-class lighting and production designer LeRoy Bennett. Videographer Ed Burke, known as the video producer for world pop empress Beyonce, also took charge.

A giant "nude stage," or a 48-ton steel truss stage, floated above the audience, wowing the fans.

Outside the stadium was another throng of BigBang fans from here and overseas, who failed to purchase tickets. The tickets for the Seoul concert sold out in only 10 minutes.

Fans, some in hijabs, gathered along the outer wall of the stadium, still glad to be near their favorite stars. They held tight to their smartphones, to watch the concert that was aired live on the Naver broadcasting app "V."

Towards the end of the grand concert, BigBang made a surprise announcement that it will throw another concert this upcoming summer to celebrate the 10th anniversary of its debut.

This celebratory concert will take the form of a festival, staged in a wide, windy setting for a long time, according to the members.

Fans greeted this surprise announcement with another fervent rally of yellow glowsticks. (Yonhap)

Source: Koreatimes

By Kim Jae-heun

K-pop idol band BIGBANG of YG Entertainment had it all from setting up a top-quality stage with excellent sound equipment, to hiring a world-class concert production crew for their last concert of "World Tour MADE" at the Olympic Gymnastics Arena, Seoul, Sunday. The show also celebrated the band's 10th anniversary of their debut in 2006.

The venue adopted a 48-ton nude stage, made of steel truss for the first time, to secure a clear view for every seat at the concert and installed the latest sound equipment "Adamson Energia System" to present the best sound quality for the audience. Renowned lighting and production designer Roy Bennet, Beyonce's videographer Ed Burke and music director Gil Smith II worked together to create BIGBANG's all-time best show.

On the last concert of their MADE tour, the K-pop band kicked off the show with their dance-pop and trap music hit, "Bang Bang Bang," off the latest album MADE released digitally last June. BIGBANG sang a total of 19 songs in the show including the members' solo tracks such as Seungri's "Strong Baby," T.O. P's "DOOM DADA" and Taeyang's "Eyes, Nose, Lips."

The five members of the group were enjoying the stage with their fans and dancing to the music with ease rather than perfectly showing off their original choreography _ which is often regarded as the BIGBANG style of performing as they always shout out "let's play" before walking out to the stage.

The show attracted a total audience of 39,000 during the three-day set in Seoul and some 13,000 fans attended on the concert on the last day holding banners spelling out: "BIGBANG is My Everything," creating a magnificent scene that impressed the musicians.

"Nothing would have been possible without our fans in Korea," said Seungri during the performance.

Taeyang said he visited many countries during the world tour and he missed Korean fans a lot.

The MADE concert also featured lighting shows with a total 106 large-output lasers that created 25,600 different colors, an enormous number comparing that to a normal concert use, which uses only eight lasers.

The concert held on the last day was video streamed live worldwide on both the Chinese portal site "Tencent" and Korea's No. 1 portal site Naver's "V App" mobile service, which recorded 3.62 million views alone.

BIGBANG's world tour concert kicked off last year, travelling to 13 countries including China, Japan, Thailand and Singapore, and performing at 32 cities. The K-pop group played to a total of 1.5 million fans in 66 shows.

BIGBANG's concert was particularly successful in Japan where the band played to 911,000 fans during 18 shows in four cities that set a new record for the largest audience at a foreign artist's concert. In China, 25,000 fans in 13 cities attended the band's concerts, which set a new record for a Korean pop group on the mainland.

The New York Times reported on BIGBANG's concert at the LA Staples Center saying that "A night with BigBang is a loud reminder that American exceptionalism is waning. " The show was ranked 10th for the year by Billboard.

Source: Korean Times