Super Junior celebrate ten years of Thai trips
By Suwitcha Chaiyong, photos courtesy of SM True
The guys of top K-pop group Super Junior are definitely no strangers to Thailand as local music fans have loved them for a decade. To celebrate the ten-year anniversary of their first visit to Thailand, the six members — leader Leeteuk, 32, Heechul, 32, Yesung, 31, Kangin, 31, Ryeowook, 28, and Kyuhyun, 28 — held a fan meeting called Super Camp in Bangkok on March 19. Though the other five members couldn’t attend the event because they are in military service, the two-hour show was great fun and highly memorable.
TEN-YEAR ANNIVERSARY
The guys began the show by entering through the back doors of Thunderdome and walking through their fans, E.L.F., while singing "Magic." During the second song, “Alright,” the E.L.F. used light sticks to make heart shapes and the number ten. During his greeting, Kangin reminded everybody that they first met at the 2006 Pattaya Music Festival. He said he loved Thailand and Thai fans. He showed a fan’s picture of Super Junior on their first visit, and Kyuhyun pretended to get mad because he wasn’t in the group at that time. Leeteuk welcomed everybody to the show and the guys sang their hits, “Sorry, Sorry” and “Mr. Simple.”
FUN GAMES
After the performance, the guys played games in a hilarious session hosted by Opal Panisara. One of games was to guess what was inside a box by touching the object without looking at it. The guys made the game more fun by pranking each other. When one member touched the object, another member moved it to make them think it was a living creature. They screamed as if the object was something scary.
SUB-GROUP SONGS
The E.L.F. were delighted to see the sub-group Super Junior-T, as Heechul and Kangin performed the song “Love At First Sight” in traditional Thai costumes while Leeteuk wore a Thai boxing outfit. Siwon, Donghae and Eunhyuk — the guys who left the group for military service — appeared in a surprise video to give a message to the fans. The video showed the latest single, “Winter Love,” from Super Junior D&E by Donghae and Eunhyuk. The pop rap song expressed their pain because they have to be away from the girls they love.
GOOD AND BAD NEWS
Super Junior began with 13 members, but this year the group will shrink again when Ryeowook joins the army on June 14. During his farewell speech, he said that the first time he met Thai fans, he didn’t expect that the E.L.F. would love the group for so long. Yesung then told the fans that he will release his solo album and thanked them for their support.
MEMORABLE MOMENT
After performing the closing set, including “Stars Appear,” “From U” and “Devil,” Leeteuk asked the fans to take pictures with them. While the guys posed for photos, a video created by fans was played. It was an animation which featured stories from Pattaya Music Festival in 2006 to the group’s first concert, world tour, awards and successful moments. The video was a reminder that the group and the fans had been through a lot and had grown up together. Everybody in the hall held up cards saying “Thank you,” making every member except Ryeowook cry.
THANKFUL MESSAGE
Leetuek thanked the E.L.F. for the video. He said Thai fans have supported them from the start and helped them get through their early years. When they first met the fans were students with short hair, but now everybody has grown up. A lot of fans burst into tears as Ryeowook thanked them and told them to not cry. Yesung said he hadn’t seen the guys cry for a long time. He confessed that he was sometimes worried that some fans didn’t like the group anymore until he found that so many of the E.L.F. still love and support them.
Vocabulary
decade (n): a period of ten years
pretend (v): to behave in a particular way, in order to make other people believe something that is not true
creature (n): a living thing that can move around, such as an animal
shrink (v): to become smaller
confess (v): to admit something that you feel ashamed or embarrassed about
Idiom
be no stranger to something: to be familiar with a particular experience or activity
burst into tears: to start crying suddenly
