Highlight's closing performance during K-Wave Music Festival in Sunway Surf Beach, Kuala Lumpur, recently, almost bring down the house due to the thunderous and waves of screaming fans, cheering for these five lads. The atmosphere as soon as the members appeared on stage, almost a throwback to where they held their first fan meeting at the same venue in 2011.
Highlights brought their A-game performance starting with Plz Don't Be Sad. It's wonderfully catchy and the wild upbeat tunes definitely impossible to be sad about it. They continued to ride the wave of this musical festival with Calling You and YeY. "Our group experienced a lot of changes recently, but we can see that your love for all of us never faded," said the leader Yoon Doojoon. He further added "We're so touched and we can't thank you enough. We thanked all of you loving other K-Pop artistes too."
Eventhough the group have rebranded themselves from BEAST to Highlight earlier this year, their performance on stage was a wonderful bonus as they sang their signature songs Good Luck and Beautiful Night. With those songs, it drove the happy crowds to reminisce the good time while carousing amongst the fellow fans- expressing their connectedness through the music.
K-Wave Music festival also featured another 5 Korean pop sensation. These idols really get fans blazing the summer spirit through their catchy music.
Rocking to open the stage is the super rookie Victon. Just like their name 'Voice to New World', their music too gave a refreshing tune as the next generation of K-pop. Their opener track Eyez Eyez' started off with powerful beat with distorted synths which are dominant throughout the entire song. They also performed 4 more songs entitled Chemistry, What Time Is It Now, I'm Fine before ending their performance of the night with a lighter and fun beat, Blank. It's nice to see the group demonstrated a new edgy concept which is suitable for next waves of Hallyu.
Next on the list to continue the summer party is BTOB. From the very first moment ('The weather is so hot! And with the palm trees surrounding this place, it looks like a beach party is happening here!'), the group clearly enjoyed every moment of this music festival as much as the audience, continuing to blast out thunderous funky R&B tunes such as Movie and Beep Beep coupled with some of their best ballads Second Confession, It's Okay, and I'll Be Your Man. With different music genres being performed, the fans were entertained with the versatility of BTOB.
A-Pink, being the only 'flower' of the night, squeezed every bright upbeat from their colourful tracks. The girls of A-Pink dressed in navy-blue suit sent the opposite gender to a frenzy performing Five and Shy. The group which possessed a strong sugary pop tunes continued to blast the fan favourite NoNoNo, Mr Chu and LUV. Their charm and bubbly attitude served a refreshing change of atmosphere of the night.
Meanwhile, TeenTop pull an extraordinary showmanship of the night. Performing 'Love Is' to begin their perfectly executed dance routines, the complexity of the dance footwork is a testament of their skills which elevate the song to a beautiful piece of musical art. They continued to perform To You before turn the surf beach into a dance club with their famous triple dance tracks Miss Right, Rocking and ultimately Crazy.
Not to be bias, the climax of the night came from B1A4. If there's one group out of the six performers, B1A4 probably the one who get the memo. Walking on the stage with their summery-themed costume, they started off with What's Happening. The quintet quickly shifted gears from their wacky and fun image to a ballad tune A Lie. The fun on stage continued when they performed Baby Good Night and the 'water festival' began when they sang A Glass of Water before closing their performance with a bouncy funk rock tune, Good Timing.
Overall, it was indeed a summer slam for the K-pop fans who attended the music festival. With fabulous performers dazzling the stage peppered with good music, the groove of K-Wave Music Festival for the second wave soon. With that, these merry festival-goers will surely be back. Like some people said, a little bit of live music is always a good craic; and good for soul too.
Kpopstarz would like to thank M-Calls and Galaxy Group for the media coverage
Writer: Amalina A Photo Credit: Ain Osman & Farasyaika
