[Fanaccount] JYJ European Tour 2011 in Berlin: Recap, Pictures and Videos

By Vanda Nur Ilmi

After 2 months since its announcement, the members of JYJ have held their second concert of their European Tour 2011 on November 6th at the Tempodrom hall in Berlin, Germany. About 3,000 fans came to see the concert, not only from all over Europe, but there were also fans who flew from Korea, Japan, and China.

As the reserved e-tickets do not have seat numbers on them, fans already started lining up in front of the ticket boxes since the day before the concert to get the best seats. They slept there overnight even though it was freezing. The ticket exchange was supposed to start at 10AM, but it only started at 10:45 AM. The exchange for SVIP and VIP ticket owners took quite long as some people had issues with their upgrade tickets (people could upgrade their tickets after it was announced that more VIP and SVIP seats were added).

However, the tiring fight for the tickets was forgotten when the concert venue opened at around 6PM. People started to shout ‘JYJ!’ and make human waves around the hall as they were waiting for the concert to start. At around 7:10PM ‘In Heaven‘ music video appeared on the screen and everybody screamed. At this point I couldn’t help but get teary eyes, realizing that my dream to see JYJ was finally coming true. I waited for years to be able to be part of a red ocean.

The audience screamed even louder when the members of JYJ appeared to start the show with their song ‘Empty‘. It was a fierce performance and I could literally feel the heat when the fire came out on the stage.

It was so hot in the venue so Jaejoong took off his jacket right after the performance ended. In the first talk section they introduced themselves. The way the members said ‘Danke’ (’Thank you’ in German) was so adorable! They were asked about what they think about Berlin. Junsu thinks that Berlin at night is beautiful and Yoochun thinks that German girls are so tall and sexy. Jaejoong asked fans what they think of short guys. Of course the audience screamed that it was okay but Jaejoong added that the guy should be taller or he has to wear higher shoes. I’m glad they had English translators so people who don’t understand German could understand the talk as well (SM Town in Paris only had French translators).

The members continued the show with ‘Pierrot‘ and ‘Ayyy Girl.’ The audience started to stand up but unfortunately the security staff told us to sit down again. German security staff is really strict! However, everyone didn’t care about the rules when JYJ performed the remix version of ‘Be My Girl,’ which was time to do the flashmob. The whole venue danced to the song together with JYJ members and the dancers.

After the energetic flashmob a behind-the-scenes video was shown on the s]creen, while the members went to change their outfit. Then it was time for their solo performances. Yoochun performed ‘I Love You‘ from their ‘The Beginning‘ album and made the fans scream crazily as it involved female dancers flirting with him. Jaejoong continued with ‘I’ll Protect You,’ the original soundtrack of his drama ‘Protect the Boss,’ and Junsu sang ‘You’re So Beautiful,’ the original soundtrack of drama ‘Scent of a Woman.’

The next talk section was definitely entertaining. The members were asked what they would like fans to take home with and Jaejoong and Yoochun answered the question with Junsu’s infamous duckbutt. Everyone also cracked up laughing when the members tried to speak German, especially when Yoochun said ‘Was geht?’ (’What’s up?’) in such an epic way. Junsu said ‘Ich liebe dich / ich liebe euch’ (’I love you’) and ‘Alles klar?’ (’Everything alright?’), while Jaejoong said ‘Berlin, wo seid ihr?’ (’Berlin, where are you?’). Unfortunately they announced that this concert would be their last activity in this year.

The show continued with ‘I Found You,’ the original soundtrack of Yoochun’s drama ‘Sungkyungkwan Scandal.’ It was a touching performance as the whole venue sang along with them. After another behind-the-scenes video, the members performed ‘I.D.S (I Deal Scenario),’ ‘Be the One‘ and ‘Fallen Leaves.’ The ‘Fallen Leaves’ performance gave me goosebumps. I couldn’t believe that I would ever hear those beautiful voices live.

JYJ performed ‘Mission‘ after another outfit change and then they talked about their individual future plans. Then they announced that the concert was coming to its end and that they would perform the last song, ‘In Heaven.’ The audience shouted ‘Kajima! Kajima!’ as they didn’t want the members to go. When ‘In Heaven’ performance started, the red ocean turned to a white ocean, which was a project organized by Phoenix, the unofficial European fanclub of TVXQ.

The members went backstage after the performance and the audience shouted ‘JYJ!’ and ‘Saranghae’ for an encore. After about five minutes, they finally came back to the stage for the encore songs, ‘Get Out‘ and the remix version of ‘Empty.’ Again, not caring about the rules, the fans stood up to jump along the beat.

Unfortunately the show really ended after a bow by JYJ and their dancers. Other than a few organization issues regarding the ticket sales, I have nothing to complain about the show. It was the best concert I’ve experienced so far (well, not that I have been to many). Even though it was only a small-scale concert, I could feel the unity of the fans. Red ocean, white ocean, fanchants, flashmob, and everything was successful. During the concert a security staff reportedly told the other ‘Dude, these fans are amazing!’.

The 2-hour show was a bit short, and I wish they performed their new songs ‘You’re‘ and ‘The Boy’s Letter,’ but I still had lots of fun, and I’m sure all concert attendees felt the same way. I hope JYJ will come back to Germany for another concert next year!