“She’s the national pop queen,” Hannah Park, 27, said.
“It’s hard to draw a comparison,” Joshua Misa, 27, said.
IU’s HEREH World Tour, which began in March in Seoul, the city where she grew up, stopped in 17 other cities including Hong Kong, London and Atlanta. Its final stop was full of odes to LA, where she performed her hit song “Celebrity” as more than 10,000 fans held up pink banners that read, “In the city of stars, you’re our celebrity.”
She opened the concert with the song “Holssi” from her latest album, The Winning, noting that the music video was filmed in LA and that the child backup dancers were LA natives.
She went on to perform other hits, such as “BBIBBI”, “eight” and “Shopper”, whose music video was also filmed in LA. She also performed hits including “Blueming”, “You and I” and “Love Wins All”.
At the end of some songs, she would make the LA hand sign as the crowd roared.
In between sets, the K-pop star poured out heartfelt words of gratitude and awe at the love she has received on tour, switching between English and Korean.
Leading up to the tour, she said she had sleepless nights, worried about whether she could stay healthy enough to complete all the scheduled shows.
“There wasn’t a single show where I didn’t feel immense happiness as I walked off the stage,” she said in English from a script she had written, memorised and practised repeatedly so she could get the words just right.
“Every single show and city was so precious. Fans always love me purely and always make me want to improve my shortcomings.”
At times, she seemed lost for words and just bowed to the audience in respect and gratitude. But language never seemed to be a barrier for the K-pop star and her global fans.
Even when the crowd stumbled through the verses to “Celebrity” as they called her back to the stage for an encore, she found it endearing and showered fans with endless praise.
The two-and-a-half-hour show ended with a half-hour encore, during which IU scanned the crowd for fan-made signs of songs they wanted to hear.
She sang a string of shortened versions of requested songs including “Hold my Hand”, “Lilac”, and the song that propelled her to stardom in 2010, “Good Day”.
“Hurry up, what’s the next song before they kick me off the stage?” IU said half-joking, constantly checking the time.
It’s fair to say she soaked in every last moment.