REVIEW / CONCERT

GOT7 1ST CONCERT "FLY IN SINGAPORE"

Suntec Convention and Exhibition Hall

Last Friday

K-pop boyband Got7 knew they needed to up their game to keep their fans entertained as they were here for the fourth time in two years.

So they turned into a girl group, shedding their suave looks in favour of dresses and wigs to cross-dress as members of all-girl Korean pop bands GFriend and Red Velvet.

It was refreshing to see the septet unleash their inner comedians, drawing uproarious laughter from the 4,500-strong crowd at their first full-length concert here.

And how seriously the K-popsters took their funny business. A video showed how they took lessons on how to be a girl group member from Korean funnywoman Lee Gook Joo, whose three tips to exude a K-pop starlet's allure were: Be innocent, cute and sexy.

Got7's Mark, Youngjae and Junior proved themselves to be star students, nailing the angelic demeanour of GFriend in the breezy song Me Gustas Tu.

In Sailor Moon-like school uniforms, the trio sashayed gently and completed their gender-bending antics with sparkly eyes and sweet smiles.

In contrast, JB, Jackson, BamBam and Yugyeom threw out Lee's advice and went for comedic effect.

Unabashedly, they wore the siren-red baby doll dresses seen on Red Velvet in the music video of their addictive dance hit Dumb Dumb and then hammed it up by flailing their arms and gyrating their hips vigorously.

For the rest of the 21/2-hour show, it was back to the regular programming of the usual K-pop boyband antics.

Like clockwork, they delivered synchronised dance moves in time to the beat of their catchy tunes such as Stop Stop It and Girls Girls Girls, heightening the excitement for fans by peppering their routines with acrobatic flips.

A melancholic duet by Youngjae and JB was a welcome respite from the pounding dance beats. The dapper duo silky vocals were easy on the ears, even as they hit the high notes on their self-composed ballad 1:31 AM.

As a service to Singaporean fans, Got7 sang a rendition of home- grown singer JJ Lin's ballad If Only, never mind if some members and their harmony were off-key at times. The multi-national group - comprising South Koreans, a Hong Konger (Jackson), an American- Taiwanese (Mark) and a Thai (BamBam) - belted out the tune with gusto in commendable mumbly Mandarin.

Of course, no K-pop concert is complete without sweetnothings to tickle the ears of fans.

Jackson teased: "Maybe we'll come back soon, maybe for a concert, maybe for a fan meeting... Maybe in your house!"

Cue screams from fans as he paved the road for a fifth appearance here for Got7.