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On July 26, 2023, SM Entertainment announced its much-anticipated annual family concert SMTOWN LIVE 2023. The agency revealed details such as the venue, this year’s significance, and the artist lineup. The family concert usually included all major and minor artists from the agency. However, this year’s lineup has irked several fandoms.
SMTOWN LIVE 2023 will be held in Jakarta to mark the harmony between South Korea and Indonesia as this year marks the 50th anniversary of the two countries’ diplomatic ties. Last year’s SMTOWN LIVE was held in Tokyo, Japan, and included a star-studded SM artist lineup. However, for the upcoming concert, many famous names such as Girls’ Generation aka SNSD, SHINee, and EXO were excluded from the lineup.
“Are we supposed to be happy”: SM artists’ fans disgruntled with SMTOWN LIVE 2023 lineup
SM Entertainment’s announcement of SMTOWN LIVE 2023 has unfortunately brought upon the wrath of multiple fandoms - both of artists who will perform at the concert and those who won’t. The lineup of the annual family concert that a majority of K-pop fandom looked forward to has apparently been disappointing, considering fans’ reactions online.
At the SMTOWN LIVE 2023 scheduled to be held in Jakarta, Indonesia, on September 23 at 6:30 pm WIB (7:30 am EST). The artist lineup for the same includes TVXQ, Super Junior, Red Velvet, NCT 127, NCT DREAM, WayV, aespa, and SM’s new boy group. However, the reactions for the majority of the groups bordered on concern.
Red Velvet’s fandom specifically mentioned their discontent with SM Entertainment releasing barely any schedule or details about the girl group’s ninth anniversary.
The NCT fandom expressed their wish to see DoJaeJung as a subunit on the lineup, while aespa’s fans were concerned for their health considering their back-to-back country-to-country travel. The former were also unhappy with the agency’s decision to have Jaehyun attend the annual concert instead of a big fashion event he was invited to attend on similar dates.
On the other hand, K-pop fans missed the “legendary” idol group’s addition to the SMTOWN LIVE 2023 lineup. BoA, SHINee, Girls’ Generation (including Taeyeon and Hyoyeon), and EXO will not be attending the upcoming event. While some fans jokingly celebrated the exclusion, others commented on how they had lost interest after seeing some of the biggest SM artists not included on the performers list.
The SMTOWN LIVE concert series began in 2008, with artists performing at different venues across the world. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the agency streamed the concert for free on all of its social media accounts in 2021 and 2022. Last year’s livestream also created history by recording the highest number of streams achieved by any online Korean concert ever.
As it is a family concert, this year's SMTOWN LIVE is also expected to include some collaboration dance and music stages between its artists, as seen in the previous renditions. Fans can expect more details about the concert, such as the streaming details and others, to be released closer to the dates.
