It‘s not a complete failure, it’s almost a total annihilation. Only Suho and Chanyeol went up on stage called EXO.

On the 12th at 5 PM, ‘SMTOWN LIVE 2025 [THE CULTURE, THE FUTURE] in SEOUL’ was held at Gocheok Sky Dome in Guro-gu, Seoul, following the previous day‘s 11th. The performances on both days were live streamed simultaneously through the global platform Beyond LIVE and Weverse.

On that day, Suho and Chanyeol performed ‘First Snow’, a track from EXO’s winter special album (2013). EXO currently consists of Suho, Chanyeol, Kai, D.O., Baekhyun, Sehun, Xiumin, and Chen, but Kai and Sehun are currently serving in the military, and Baekhyun, Xiumin, Chen, and D.O. have transferred to other agencies.

After finishing their performance, Suho and Chanyeol greeted the audience and updated each other on their recent activities. Suho said, “I had new feelings watching the performances of our senior and junior artists this time. The seniors’ performances were great, and the juniors’ (trainees’) ‘Growl’ stage was also great. But there was a little problem. There was nothing to criticize. When you’re a trainee, you make mistakes and have weaknesses for the fans to find you cute.” Then he joked, “I thought, ‘This is SM after all.’ I thought I was happy because it was SM and happy because it was EXO,” and suddenly started to cry. Suho said, “I hope Pink Blood members are happy as fans of the artists they love. He said, “Let‘s all love together.”

Then, Suho’s solo stage, “Dotted Line,” was revealed. Right before the performance, a fan shouted, “I love you,” and Suho responded, “I love you too.” After the performance, he left the stage saying, “I love EXO-L.”

This concert included SM Entertainment (hereafter referred to as SM) artists such as Kangta, BoA, TVXQ, Super Junior, Girls’ Generation’s Hyoyeon, SHINee’s Key and Minho, EXO’s Suho and Chanyeol, Red Velvet, NCT 127, NCT DREAM, WayV, aespa, RISE, NCT WISH, Navis, Zhoumi, and Raiden, as well as SMTR25, a group of 25 trainees and artists from SM’s affiliated labels such as Mavistar, SM Jazz Trio, and Min Ji-woon, SMTOWN Family including H.O.T.’s Tony An, S.E.S.’s Bada, and Fly to the Sky’s Hwanhee, British boy group Dear Alice, which SM participated in producing, and trot idol Mytro.

As it is a concert held to commemorate the 30th anniversary of SM, it included diverse stages by SM artists as well as pre-stages by artists from affiliated labels, It was filled with various stages such as special collaboration stages between SMTOWN Family and SM artists.

In addition, songs from the 30th anniversary commemorative album ‘2025 SMTOWN: THE CULTURE, THE FUTURE’ (2025 SMTOWN: The Culture, The Future), in which SM‘s representative hit songs were remade by senior and junior artists to fit each team’s color, were revealed for the first time through this performance.

‘SMTOWN LIVE 2025’ will begin a global tour starting with the Seoul performance.

Jeong Hee-yeon, Donga.com reporter shine2562@donga.com