YG Family Embarks on 10th Anniversary Tour

08-20-2006

By Cathy Rose A. Garcia
Staff Reporter

YG Entertainment celebrated its 10th anniversary with a four-hour concert featuring its top R&B and hip-hop artists at the gymnastics hall, Olympic Park, southern Seoul, Saturday evening.

The event also formally kicked off its "Past, Present and Future” world tour, which will bring the YG Family artists to Japan and the United States.

YG Family R&B and hip-hop stars perform during the 10th
anniversary concert Saturday night, at the Olympic Park
Gymnastics Hall, southeastern Seoul. The concert is part of YG
Family’s "Past, Present and Future" world concert tour, which
will take them to Japan and the United States.

Hip-hop duo Jinusean opened the show with an energetic performance of their first hit, "Gasoline.” One after the other, stars 1TYM, Gummy, Big Mama, Se7en, Masta Wu, Lexy, Taebin, 45RPM and Stony Skunk came on stage to sing their debut hits.

Then, the entire YG Family came back for a rousing performance of the classic Sister Sledge song "We Are Family.”

Sean, a member of Jinusean, said the concert is one big party for all the fans who have supported the artists for the past decade.

Lexy got the crowd on its feet with her powerful dance songs such as "Let Me Dance,” and "Girls.” Reggae duo Stony Skunk had everyone bobbing their heads to the beat, especially when they sang their version of Bob Marley’s "No Woman No Cry.”

Jinusean turned the concert into a high-powered showcase of their hip-hop songs, but surprised the crowd with a heavy rock song.

Also impressing the crowd with their vocal power were R&B singer Gummy and female vocal quartet Big Mama, who sang Gloria Estefan hits "Conga,” and "Turn the Beat Around.”

However, it was Se7en, arguably YG’s most popular artist nowadays, who elicited the loudest cheers from the crowd. He performed his hit songs "Passion,” "Nan Arayo (I Know)” and a song by former YG artist Wheesung, who left the agency last year.

Fans were surprised to see the reunion of hip-hop group 1TYM, who literally raised the hall’s temperatures with their song “Hot.” New group Big Bang made its debut at the concert, showing they have what it takes to become the next big boy band.

It was extremely hard to keep the crowd on their feet for the four hour-concert, but somehow the artists managed to maintain the crowd’s enthusiasm at a high level.

By the end of the concert, Yang Hyun-suk, president of YG Entertainment and the former member of the now-disbanded the famous trio Seo Taiji and Boys, came up the stage and thanked the fans for their support in making YG Family a success in the past 10 years.

YG Entertainment recently announced its plan to advance into the U.S. market, trying to expand its artists’ popularity in Asia to the West. The tour concerts in Washington, D.C. on Oct. 18, New York on Oct. 20 and Los Angeles on Oct. 21 has been mapped out as part of its plan.

Content with the Seoul concert, fans expressed their hope the artists would also be successful in the U.S.

Anita Williams, an Tokyo-based American who flew to Seoul just to watch the concert, was extremely excited to see all the YG artists perform at the concert. "The concert got me crazy. It was unbelievable. There were so many good parts in the concert, it surpassed my expectations,” she said.

YG Family will also hold concerts in Osaka and Tokyo on Sept. 8 and 10.

cathy@koreatimes.co.kr

Source: The Korea Times
http://times.hankooki.com/lpage/culture/200608/kt2006082017314011700.htm