HOT Kangta and Tony An reunited at SM 30th anniversary concert.

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 on the 11th. The performances on both days were simultaneously live streamed through the global platform Beyond LIVE and Weverse.

On that day, Kangta and Tony An performed HOT ‘Candy’ together. NCT Dream, who also remade this song, joined them on stage. Kangta and Tony An also performed the ‘Happiness’ stage with NCT‘s Xiaojun, Hendery, Sion, and Yuxi, and RISE’s Wonbin and Anton.

Kangta said, “It‘s been a while since I’ve used the name H.OT on stage” and he and Tony An exchanged the group‘s greeting from their H.OT days, “Hello. We’re H.OT. Please raise us!”. Tony An said, “I sincerely congratulate SM on its 30th anniversary. Isn‘t it our 29th anniversary as well? We’re almost the same age as SM, so I‘m so happy that we’ve grown together and been able to be on stage together until now.”I hope that everyone who came today had a happy time. I‘ll also finish up well and go back. Thank you.”.

Kangta said, “We performed ‘Candy’, which was released 29 years ago. Not long ago, our juniors from NCT DREAM remade it, and it was fun to join them on stage today. “It’s fortunate that we didn’t become a waste,” he said with a smile. Tony An said, “It feels good just to be on stage with such great juniors. “I am happy and proud that the younger generation got to know ‘Candy’ thanks to the NCT juniors,” he said, expressing his gratitude.

This concert was attended by 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, Naibis, Zhoumi, and Raiden, as well as SMTR25, an artist from SM’s subsidiary labels such as Mavistar, SM Jazz Trio, and Min Ji-woon, 25 trainees, SMTOWN Family including H.O.T. Tony An, S.E.S. Bada, and Fly to the Sky’s Hwanhee, British boy group Dear Alice, which SM participated in producing, and trot idol Mytro.

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

In addition, songs from the 30th anniversary album ‘2025 SMTOWN: THE CULTURE, THE FUTURE’, in which SM‘s representative hit songs were remade by each team’s senior and junior artists to suit their own styles, 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