Fans of Super Junior in the UK have been waiting for a Super Show for a very long time, and finally, on November 9th the boys held SS5 at Wembley Arena to thousands of fans – not only from the UK, but all over Europe. The Super show kicked off to a grand build up, the excitement from ELFs filling the Arena from the moment the doors finally opened at 6:30pm, the luminous glow of the infamous Sapphire Blue Ocean soon lighting Wembley Arena by 8pm as fans waited anxiously for the Super Junior members to reveal themselves behind the huge backdrop showing their introduction VCR to the concert. Fans began to chant ‘Super Junior’ waving their sapphire blue light sticks in a united rhythm anticipating Super Junior’s first appearance to the crowd and looking out over the audience, it was incredible to see the famed ‘Pearl Sapphire Blue Ocean’ in person as well as actually be a part of it.
As the introductory clip finally played, the audience immediately went crazy. Each video clip played throughout the show seemed to follow a common theme of spies, of course relating to their most recent Korean repackaged album: SPY. Each member was introduced eliciting huge responses from the awaiting crowd, until finally the backdrop fell to reveal a total of 8 members: Kangin, Shindong, Sungmin, Eunhyuk, Siwon, Donghae, Ryeowook and Kyuhyun in a line while the first song- ”Mr. Simple” echoed through the Arena. Eliciting ear-piercing screams erupted while the members got into position to begin the song, the fans dedicated to singing the fan chants of the members names as well as the lyrics during each song throughout the concert, anyone could tell both crowd and performers fuelling each other their never ending energy. If the crowd wasn’t already going crazy with happiness, they were then.
From Mr. Simple the members blew the crowd away, with Bonamana before standing together to officially introduce themselves with the infamous ”Urineun Super Juni-oyeo!” (We are Super Juni-oyeo!) greeting to which the audience immediately responded with the answer ”Urineun ELF-oyeo!” (We are ELF!). The members then further began to charm the crowd with their wonderfully practised English some of which you may recognise from what they learnt during filming ”Super Junior’s Full House” back in 2006 repetitively telling everyone ”You are so gorgeous!”, as well as continuing to surprise the London crowd with their always impressive language skills.
After continuing to entertain the starstruck audience, especially after Donghae’s speech for everyone to ”For tonight, forgetting everything. Forget your boyfriend, forget you guys homework, money, forget it okay? Because only one day. Only one show. Let’s have fun okay?” they introduced their next song ”Super Girl – Korean Version” and a quick VCR including Siwon, Eunhyuk, Donghae and Kangin: SJ as ”SJI” was shown so they could change costumes. They performed the song with immense passion and energy with an emotional ”It’s You” following on from that. Another quick break of ”Super Show 5 Mission Complete Bomb” VCR including Siwon, Eunhyuk, Donghae and Kangin was shown until they burst into a rendition of ”Sexy Free & Single”, from their most recent album comeback then ”SPY” with all of Yesung and Leeteuk’s parts wonderfully substituted by Kyuhyun and Ryeowook who not only performed their parts note perfect but also the missing members.
Then next short ”Finger Guns” video clip break played, now, the first two clips had been fairly serious keeping to the professional spy style, smouldering looks, and cautious side glances to each other, but by that third clip, they had finally revealed their typical comedic nature becoming silly spies role playing with fake hand guns, grenades. Along with Shindong squeezing the life out of a ketchup bottle of his ‘blood’ in the park. They ‘fought’ until one grandpa was left standing, and then they all promptly got up and walked away as if nothing had happened. Super Junior’s gag performances had finally begun!
Leading from their fun performances, and much to the delight of fans, was the first solo stage! Kyuhyun with his cover of Stevie Wonder’s ”Isn’t She Lovely”, which he previously performed as his solo stages in SS4. Kyuhyun played with the audience as much as he did the keyboard during his rendition of the song, Everything from his sly smirks and cheerful tunes from his harmonica brought the crowd to its feet, and of course laughter once Shindong appeared in ‘support’ to hijack Kyuhyun’s harmonica, exposing his pre-recorded track, much to the amusement of the audience. All the while Kyuhyun struggled to wrestle with Shindong for the harmonica for the remaining minutes of the song, adding to the hilarity and making a wonderfully funny change to his original jazz performance.
Now, just a tip to the next performance to come – Super Junior’s much famed cross-dressing segment, of course.
Super Junior’s SS5 cross-dressing act was well anticipated by both ELFs and casual fans alike. With Siwon popping up first as Son Dambi performing her ”Saturday Night”, Ryeowook appearing from under the stage as Bada of SES performing their bubbly hit ”Loving You”, Kangin then appearing as a shy Gain dancing to her song ”Bloom” and finally a fantastically in-character Sungmin, as a strikingly confindent ”Hyuna” arrived and performed her recent solo single ”Ice Cream”. The quartet then came together for a brief performance of SISTAR’s “Alone”, ending with chaos ensuing between the four members as they amusedly danced to the song while Siwon attempted to pull down Sungmin’s skirt.
However the fun performances weren’t over yet, as next up was Super Junior’s very own pair; ‘Eunhae’ with their solo stages of “Hello” and “Oppa Oppa”. First was their performance of ”Hello”, a new track which some fans may have recognised from their performances at their SJ-M fanmeetings earlier this year. The two strutted down the stage, singing to their hearts content, full of energy, all the while, typically acting playful with each other throughout the performance, fanservice galore, much to the excitement of the audience. Then, to get the crowd hyped for their next song, the duo started a competition to see who could get the audience to shout the loudest with their lines from “Oppa Oppa”. The back and forth banter powered up the audience even further, and Donghae in the end had to admit his defeat to Eunhyuk. They then performed the song together, eventually calling the other members on to the stage for an “Oppa Oppa” group performance, cheering each other on with crazy comedic dancing and hip thrust competitions. They then launched into ”A-OH”, followed by ”Shake It Up (Remix Version)”, with new choreography some of which had the audience screaming even louder than ever before.
The energy bursting “Rockstar” was up next, featuring shirtless Siwon and Eunhyuk much to the crowd’s delight. The next video clip “Coma/Destiny” played – a sad video of the possibility of changing time and save the one you loved, although both Donghae and Kyuhyun were sacrificed in the process, to save the girl, it was worth it in the end. The next song was probably the most heartfelt of them all as Super Junior’s Kyuhyun and Ryeowook of their sub-unit K.R.Y. stepped forward, as tribute to Yesung who is currently serving in the army, performed his last OST ”Grey Paper” which was released before he enlisted, in which the two remaining members of the sub-unit sang together harmoniously, with both members covering Yesung’s lines. Despite Yesung being enlisted in the army, he was present in the background the form of a video compilation on the screens behind Kyuhyun and Ryeowook.
After the K.R.Y performance, Super Junior spoke briefly to the audience again, talking about the missing members as well as thanking the fans once more for coming to the show. They commented on how all Super Junior members can sing, and stated that Shindong had improved greatly, prompting the aforementioned member to launch into The Beatles “Let It Be”, showing off his improved skills yet making the audience laugh as he ran out of lines to sing to which Donghae also impressively followed on singing ”Hey Jude” before bursting into laughter also running out of lines by the end of the first verse. They entertained the fans for a few more minutes before it was then time to introduce their next song, also from their 6th album, ”Daydream”. The 8 members flaunted their harmonies and strong yet beautiful vocals as the crowd waved their lightsticks from side to side. The members then also followed on to continue their ballad segment of the concert to then sit in chairs to perform their ballad medley of three compiled songs ”Memories” from their 5th Album as well as ”Bittersweet” and ”Someday’‘ from their 6th Album.
The next clip played, signalling an end to the ballad segment of Super Show, and the start of another of Super Junior’s comedic performances apparent in every Super Show; the cosplay stage of course! In the clip the members teamed up together to defeat a giant white teddy bear, as if they were imitating the popular video game “Street Fighter”. Following the end of the clip, the members appeared on stage in full cosplay outfits and performed ”Wonder Boy”. They all ran around the stage, mock fighting each other and pretending to be the characters they were dressed as. Another clip played of Eunhyuk, Kyuhyun, Shindong and Ryeowook showing how to dance to the chorus of ”Sunny”, which of course, led to a performance of “Sunny” with fans dancing along with their newly learned moves. ”Dancing Out” followed next, with the members dancing energetically and messing around.
It was an overall bright mood in the venue until SJ announced it would be the last song before leaving, unless the audience wanted an encore – which naturally received a resounding shout of ‘Yes’ from the audience. ”So I” was up next, at which point fans revealed their 8th anniversary project banners, to the delight of the Super Junior members, who graciously bowed to the audience before leaving to stage to change once more. The crowd launched into chants for an encore, to which Super Junior responded to with a powerful performance of the legendary ”Sorry Sorry”. Although once a 13-member performance, Super Junior still managed to nailed their high energy 8-membered version of the performance. In another turn back in time, “Sorry Sorry” was followed by ”Miracle”, in which the members pretended as though the stage was a catwalk, strutting down the stage and pulling funny poses.
Finally, they performed ”Sapphire Blue” playfully running around the stage in a circle, still hyper and full of never-ending energy. They then expressed their gratitude for their fans coming once again, expressing their surprise to the number of male fans in the audience while in turn then called for all the few present male members of the audience to make themselves known to Super Junior and cheer for them. But of course, many fangirls ‘rebelliously’ screamed too, much to Donghae’s amused annoyance as he shouted, ”No! No! Guys only!” jokingly into the microphone. The girls then got their turn as the members asked for only girls to shout and then humorously asking the venue staff to shout. To finish off their ‘screaming session’ the members altogether finally took their turn in shouting back to the audience without their microphones, and impressively loud considering the size of the arena.
The members then continued to talk to the crowd, playful teasing each other throughout, before introducing their last performance and asking the audience if they would accept their proposal in ”Marry U”. During which the last and main fan project was held up to the members; banners with ‘KEEP CALM AND YES, I DO” in homage to the famous British line “KEEP CALM AND CARRY ON”. The project was well received by the members, bringing them as well as the crowd close to heartwarming tears.
However after the song, and their supposed final bow they had yet one more surprise for the audience! EXO leaders Suho and Kris were present and were invited up onto the stage to greet everyone. Both EXO leaders greeted fans warmly, and Kris proved his English skills were still existent as he gave his own message to EXO fans. Super Junior then jokingly encouraged them to show off some of their dancing skills as their own song “Rockstar” played. Suho promoted EXO’s song “Growl” with a snipet of their choreography, whilst Kris made a rather shy attempt at the choreography mixed with the Dougie.
Lastly, with a reluctant final goodbye, the members stood together for one last final bow after EXO leaders finally left the stage, thus ending the concert. But the fun wasn’t quite over, as a final video clip was revealed; a blooper reel of their previous clips and their preparations for the concert which was a wonderfully light end to the Super Show 5 in London.
As a whole, it was truly a memorable concert. Even just over 3 hours long, it was consistently entertaining and exciting proving that there really is a reason why it is called ‘Super Show’. And although there were missing members, it was still definitely a night to remember. Super Junior are incredibly charming, never failing to surprise the audience with each performance they do from greeting the audience all night long with their impressive English, to their comedic spirit and their overall stage presence. Let’s hope for a Super Show 6 in London too!
What was your favourite part of the concert?
Did you have any special experiences during the show?
Let us know in the comments section below!
For more photos of the concert, check out our gallery HERE.
