‘If you‘re curious about the history of K-pop, look up and see SM’. Starting with the representative idol groups of the first generation, HOT and S.ES, and continuing with BoA, Shinhwa, TVXQ, Super Junior, Girls’ Generation, SHINee, EXO, Red Velvet, NCT, aespa, and Rise, SM Entertainment, which has led the idol industry by becoming the leader of every generation, held a large-scale concert to commemorate its 30th anniversary.

On the afternoon of the 12th, ‘SMTOWN LIVE 2025 [THE CULTURE, THE FUTURE] in SEOUL’ was held at Gocheok Sky Dome in Guro-gu, Seoul, following the previous one on the 11th. The concert, which lasted a full 7 hours including the pre-show that started at 3 PM, was live-streamed simultaneously on the global platform Beyond LIVE and Weverse on both days.





This concert will feature artists from SM Entertainment (hereinafter referred to as SM), including 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, Naivis, Zhoumi, and Raiden, as well as Mavistar, SM SMTR25, consisting of 25 trainees and artists from SM affiliated labels such as Jazz Trio and Min Ji Woon, SMTOWN Family including HOT‘s Tony An, SES’s Bada, Fly to the Sky‘s Hwanhee, British boy group Dear Alice, which SM participated in producing, and trot idol Mytro also appeared on stage.

As a concert held to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the founding of SM, it was filled with diverse stages such as colorful stages by SM artists, pre-stages by artists from affiliated labels, special collaborations between SMTOWN Family and SM artists, etc.

Kangta performed ‘Bukgukseong’ with NCT’s Jaehee and SM Jazz Trio, and performed HOT‘s ‘Candy’ and ‘Happiness’ on stage with HOT member Tony An, NCT, and Rise for the first time in a long time. BoA performed ‘Girls On Top’ (‘Hurricane Venus’ on the 11th) and ‘Only One’. ‘Only One’ in particular caught the eye with its joint performance with NCT’s Xion and Rise Shotaro.

TVXQ, who opened the concert with ‘Rising Sun’, performed ‘왜(Keep Your Head Down)’ ‘주-MIROTIC’. Super Junior performed their representative song ‘Sorry, Sorry’ as well as ‘탈정(A Man In Love)’, ‘Devil’ ‘Black Suit’. In particular, TVXQ and Super Junior, along with EXO‘s Chanyeol and Suho, NCT’s Rise‘s juniors, drew a hot response with their performance of the hit song ‘Show Me Your Love’ that was released 20 years ago.



There was no Girls’ Generation stage. Taeyeon had previously revealed that she had problems with SM Entertainment while preparing for this concert. Among the Girls‘ Generation members, Hyoyeon’s stage was the only one that was revealed. In addition to ‘Retro Romance’, Hyoyeon also performed her solo song ‘DESSERT’ with NCT‘s Yangyang and aespa’s Giselle.

EXO‘s stage was also extremely disappointing. Excluding Sehun and Kai, who are currently serving in the military, and Baekhyun, Xiumin, Chen, and D.O. who transferred to other agencies, only Suho and Chanyeol went up on stage and sang EXO’s ‘First Snow’. Suho said, “Watching my senior and junior artists on stage this time, I had new feelings. I thought, ‘This is SM after all.’ I thought I was happy because it‘s SM and happy because it’s EXO”,“ and suddenly got emotional. Suho said, “I hope Pink Blood members can be happy as fans of the artists they love. Let‘s all love together”. Before his solo stage, when a fan shouted out that she loved him, Suho replied, “I love you too”. After his performance, he left the stage saying, “I love EXO-L”. On this day, Suho performed ‘Dotted Line (1 to 3)’, while Chanyeol performed ‘Hasta La Vista’ and ‘Back Again’.

As a multi-unit group, NCT was divided into NCT 127, NCT DREAM, WayV, and NCT WISH and performed diverse performances. NCT 127 performed ‘Pigeudeok (Walk)’ ‘Fact Check (Mysterious)’, NCT DREAM performed ‘When I’m With You’ ‘Smoothie’, WayV performed ‘Give Me That (Korean Ver.)’ ‘FREQUENCY (Korean Ver.)’, and NCT WISH continued with ‘WISH’ ‘Steady’ stages.





SHINee‘s Key and Minho each performed solo stages of ‘Gasoline’ and ‘CALL BACK’ (‘Something About U’ on the 11th). Key collaborated with NCT’s Jeno for ‘Villain’, while Minho collaborated with aespa‘s Ningning for the ‘Because Of You’. Red Velvet performed as a four-member group without Wendy. Red Velvet performed ‘Cosmic’ and ‘Red Flavor’.

Artists who had left SM Entertainment long ago also appeared on stage and moved the audience. In addition to the aforementioned Tony An’s HOT stage, SES‘s Bada performed ‘Dreams Come True’ with aespa’s Karina and Winter, ‘Cosmic’ with Super Junior‘s Ryeowook, and also sang ‘Gathered Dreams’ by herself. On the stage on the 11th, SES member Eugene made a surprise appearance on stage, adding to the excitement.





The busiest artists at this concert were aespa and Rise, the ‘mainstays’ of SM Entertainment following NCT. Aespa performed their representative songs ‘Whiplash’ ‘Supernova’ (‘Armageddon’ on the 11th), as well as a joint stage with Girls’ Generation‘s Hyoyeon, SHINee’s Minho, and S.E.S.‘s Bada. RISE also performed their own ‘Impossible’ ‘Boom Boom Bass’, as well as a joint stage with BoA, Red Velvet’s Seulgi, Fly To The Sky‘s Hwanhee, TVXQ X Super Junior, and H.O.T.’s Kangta and Tony An.

The highlight of the concert that day was the cover stages between seniors and juniors. The tracks from SM‘s 30th anniversary album ‘2025 SMTOWN: THE CULTURE, THE FUTURE’, in which senior and junior artists remake SM’s representative hit songs to fit each team‘s color, were revealed for the first time through this performance.

WayV covered SHINee’s ‘Juliette’, Espa covered f(x)‘s ‘First Wisdom Tooth (Rum Pum Pum Pum)’, Rise covered TVXQ’s ‘Hug’, and Red Velvet covered Girls‘ Generation’s ‘Run Devil Run’. NCT DREAM performed SES‘s ‘Just A Feeling’, which hit EXO’s ‘Love Me Right’, and BoA touched everyone‘s hearts with her cover of the late SHINee’s Jonghyun‘s ‘End Of A Day’.




NCT WISH performed Super Junior’s ‘Miracle’, and Super Junior performed Shinhwa‘s ‘I Pray 4 U’. 127 reinterpreted Hyun Jin-young’s ‘You In Vague Memory’, EXO reinterpreted HOT‘s ‘Git It Up!’, and TVXQ reinterpreted Red Velvet’s ‘Psycho’ in their own unique way.

The last stage was, of course, a song by HOT, the starting point of the first generation of idols in Korea and the ‘legend itself’. Led by Kangta, all the artists came up on stage and sang ‘Light’ together to conclude the concert.

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

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