ONE K Global Peace Concert in Manila unites people with music > K-POP

On March 2, Korea’s top artists united through the first Global Peace Concert held at Mall of Asia Arena in Manila at 7pm. Idol groups AOA, B1A4, B.A.P., BTOB, CN BLUE, SHINee and global star PSY performed their top singles in front of avid K-pop fans. SHINee’s Minho and AOA’s Seolhyun hosted the event.

Founder, Hyun Jin Moon, stated that the event supports the unification of peace in Korea and around the world and might just be the civil rights movement of the century. To fully formalize the event, delegates from many countries gathered to show their support, holding white balloons to symbolize peace and unity.

The much-awaited concert kicked off with a fiery performance by the warriors of K-pop, B.A.P. Performing their latest song ‘Skydive’, the group impressed with powerful vocals and rap verses and continued to show intense passion with popular hits ‘One Shot’ and ‘No Mercy’.

Next, bubbly group B1A4 lightened up the atmosphere with catchy tunes of ‘Beautiful Target’, ‘What’s Up?’ and ‘Baby Good Night’. Baro also announced the good news that they are planning to release a new album this year, earning excited responses from their fans.

The infectious Hallyu Wave consists not just of K-music but dramas are a hot favourite too. Embracing this, vocalists from three idol groups prepared a special stage and performed their own rendition of popular Korean drama OSTs. AOA’s Choa captivated with her singing of ‘You Are My Everything’, the signature OST of Descendants of the Sun while B1A4’s Sandeul performed a Love in the Moonlight OST titled ‘Swallowing My Heart’. Backtracking to a favourite from the past, ‘Almost Paradise’ from Boys Over Flowers got its own interpretation by B.A.P’s Daehyun and Youngjae.

Girl power took over the stage as sassy yet classy AOA put up a chic performance of their latest single, ‘Excuse Me’. Unable to leave their aegyo (cuteness) on stage after singing ‘Mini Skirt’, they demonstrated their own version of ‘aegyo’ and ‘sexy’, leaving fans speechless as they finished off with ‘Heart Attack’.

Cube Entertainment's boy group BTOB showed off their charming sides with ‘I’ll Be Your Man’, ‘Beep Beep’ and ‘Wow’. It seems like this will not be their last time in Philippines as they have fallen in love with the country especially Sungjae who confessed, “I love Philippines”.

Seasoned performers CN BLUE captured everyone’s attention with amazing vocals, drum beats and guitar strumming. Being the only band did not stop them from getting fans to groove to hit songs like ‘Can’t Stop’, ‘Cinderella’ and ‘You’re So Fine’. The group expressed their gratitude to Filipino fans, “Thanks for waiting, thanks for streaming and thanks for re-streaming”. Yonghwa, who never fails to display his humor, praised with a rhyme “Manila, you’re so sweet like vanilla” making hearts flutter.

As part of building relations between Korea and Philippines, BTOB’s EunKwang and Hyunsik impressed fans with their own rendition of Filipino song titled ‘Anak’, which is about the hardship of parents bringing up their children. AOA’s Yuna took solo limelight singing the OST of hit Korean movie ‘My Sassy Girl’. A Filipino version was also made popular because of the message which captured the hearts of Filipinos.

The most awaited comeback performance finally arrived. After years of waiting, Filipino fans of SHINee got the chance to see their idols perform on stage. Fans sang and danced to the group’s upbeat songs, ‘1 of 1’, ‘Everybody’ and ‘View’. The group performed so well with rhythmic dance steps possessing the stage like their own. Many Filipino fans became emotional and were in tears when SHINee sang ‘An Encore’ to wrap up.

Last but not least was the sensational PSY who was overjoyed to perform in Philippines again after his successful concert three years ago. As expected, he turned the stage into a big party with hit songs ‘Napal Baji’, ‘Gentleman’ and ‘Daddy’. Well-known for upbeat songs, fans did not expect an emotional twist when PSY sang ‘Father’ (아버지). He ended his performance with viral hit, ‘Gangnam Style’ and announced that he will release a new song this April.

At the end of the night, all the artists gathered on stage to sing the latest ONE-K global campaign song titled ‘PEACE’. Fans were in awe to see their favourite artists collaborate on one stage with the aim of promoting peace and uniting everyone with their music.  

ONE DREAM! ONE KOREA! ONE WORLD! ONE K Global Peace Concert in Manila 2017 was indeed a night to remember. Korea.com would like to thank organizer, All Access Production for the kind invitation to cover this momentous event.


Korea.com’s Crizza contributed to this report from Manila.
Photos were taken by Korea.com’s Jessica Biwang.