"XOXOXOXO!"
"Ah ah Yuan, look here, look at me!"
"I love you Chanyeol, I love you..."
The continuous withdrawal of members from the group did not seem to affect EXO's popularity on Hong Kong Island. When they walked out of the Hong Kong Island International Airport, they were still enthusiastically picked up by fans. Aili stood in a square formation, each holding a poster and As soon as the banners saw EXO coming out, they burst into cheers, making the already noisy airport even noisier.
There were a few people who looked like reporters next to them, holding cameras and taking pictures of EXO and the fans who were picking them up at the airport. It felt like they had found good news materials.
Chi Jingyuan followed the team and looked at the numerous posters of himself held up by the local Ai Li. He clasped his hands together under the assistant's supervision and slowly squeezed forward, generally facing both sides. Fans bowed gently to express their gratitude, and the screams immediately became louder everywhere they looked.
Such a warm reception made many members feel happy but also confused in their hearts. It seems that the welcome EXO received this year was much warmer than when they came last year.
Isn't the food here affected by the withdrawal?
After getting on the bus that had been prepared, the group went directly to the hotel. On the bus, manager Lee Seung-hwan said some things to pay attention to as before. XO has also been a group for two and a half years since their debut. Ignorant, this is the third time I have participated in MAMA and I already have a lot of experience. Li Chenghuan simply explained the schedule for today and tomorrow and did not say more.
What's interesting is that this year he didn't ban EXO members from leaving the hotel like before. He didn't even mention this. He just said not to run around during the break and remember to report to him wherever they go.
Several members looked happy after hearing this. The company's management of EXO is obviously much more relaxed than when they were new members.
Coincidentally, this year's venue is the same as last year's 2013 MAMA at the AsiaWorld-Expo, so the hotel booked by the company for EXO is exactly the same as last year. When he walked in and saw the fountain at the door, Chi Jingyuan said: There was also a familiar feeling.
They put their luggage at the hotel and after a little repair, they got in the car and went directly to the venue, the AsiaWorld-Expo, for the actual staging and rehearsal.
I have practiced many times in the practice room before, and I am already familiar with the dance and positioning of several songs on stage. However, there are many things that need to be paid attention to in the formal performance, including the production of scenery and some special effects that match the company. , the use of lifts, the timing and route of changing clothes during transition, etc. These all need to be rehearsed on site.
"The specific process has been told to you before, but there will still be some differences when we arrive at the scene. When EXO opens, we have practiced many times before standing in the Jiugong grid to cooperate with the special effects. I won't go into details..."
After arriving at the venue and waiting for a while, all EXO members and teams went on stage to start rehearsing. The nine members gathered in a circle and listened carefully to several stage instructors from SM Company explaining the detailed process.
"After the opening nine-square grid performance, the lights will be turned off. At this time, everyone will pull the curtain out and enter the first stage "dope". Needless to say, there will be dancers after the performance of "dope". It takes about forty seconds for the colorful silks to come up for the performance, and it takes almost a minute for the colorful strings of lights to fall. At this time, you should get off the stage as quickly as possible and go directly to the elevator. The assistant will help you put on the "dope" stage costumes on the way. The jacket was taken off, and then Jingyuan was the first to go up, and the special stage of "Let It Be" started, and the other members came up one by one in order."
"Remember that the stage will be full of colorful light strings that have fallen from the ceiling. It is best not to touch them with your hands. Whether they are of poor quality, leakage, or are not tied tightly and are pulled off, it will cause an accident on the stage. Do you understand? "
"knew."
The nine people nodded to express their understanding.
The special stage effect this time for the winter single "Let It Be" is impressive,
SM Company has made a lot of preparations.
During the stage performance of this song, in addition to the specially matched lights, there will also be dozens or hundreds of colorful light strings hanging from the ceiling, directly covering most of the stage, and at the same time, along with the song The colors change as the stage progresses, which not only sets off the atmosphere but also creates a dreamlike stage effect.
The organizer doesn't care about these things, SM has prepared them themselves.
"After "Let It Be" was Kai's solo dance, the others took advantage of this moment to transition. This time there was more time for the transition. They got off the stage to change clothes and then went directly to the elevator. Finally, it was the stage of "Addicted". There was nothing wrong with this. special……"
"The process is nothing complicated. Let's go through it first and we'll talk as we practice."
The instructor gestured towards the stage with his hands for a long time and said a lot. Chi Jingyuan and others who kept it in mind while listening also quickly responded:
"knew."
"let's start."
…
Because there were many performers who needed to rehearse, EXO wasn't given much time. Fortunately, the main thing was to get familiar with the process. After practicing it a few times, there was basically no problem.
Chi Jingyuan thinks the difficulty is that they have to run faster during the transition. It takes ten or twenty seconds for the elevator to go up. There is not much time left for them to transition. If they accidentally fall when they get off the stage to change clothes, That would be interesting.
In the afternoon, after finding time to queue up again, EXO left the venue and went to have a meal together, and then returned to the hotel to start free activities.
"Want to go out for a walk tonight?"
"Would you like to come over tonight?"
In the hotel room, Chi Jingyuan's cell phone, which was leaning on the bedside and playing games, suddenly rang continuously. He paused and picked it up and found that he had received two invitation text messages, one from Pei Xiuzhi and Jin Yarong. of.
Although MissA did not return this year, due to the popularity of "so", she will basically perform on several important stages at the end of the year with Chi Jingyuan. This MAMA is naturally no exception. In addition to performing on stage This year's "Best Collaboration Song Award" has almost been booked by them.
After Bae Suzy arrived in Hong Kong in the afternoon, she texted Ji Jingyuan and told her that the hotel JYP had booked for her was quite close to EXO, near AsiaWorld-Expo.
Girlslday, as one of the most popular girl groups this year, also attended this MAMA. However, her special relationship with Chi Jingyuan has a feeling of aloofness. She has not been in contact with her for a while. I just look at her appearance and tone. I didn't pay much attention to this.
Anyway, it’s just that they fell in love with each other, and it’s not a formal relationship.
The two of them invited him together as if they had agreed upon it. Chi Jingyuan was stunned for two seconds after seeing it, feeling a little funny in his heart.
Do Bae Suzy and Kim Ah Young have such a tacit understanding? He really didn't see it.
The company's management of EXO has been relaxed a lot and there are no restrictions on their outings. Not long after returning to the hotel, Park Chanyeol, Kim Jong-in and the others went out happily together. Judging by the time, they probably went to some scenic spot to form a team to explore. went.
"I'm a little tired today, maybe next time."
"We'll talk about it when we get back, I'm too lazy to go out."
After thinking about it, Chi Jingyuan sent a message to the two of them respectively. He didn't bother to read the reply, threw his phone aside, and continued to operate the game console.
Chi Jingyuan wasn't very interested in the invitation from the two of them. Going out for a stroll was really just a stroll without much meaning. This kind of overseas trip definitely couldn't stay up all night and had to go back to the hotel. These two It was the day of MAMA and the streets were full of reporters and fans. Hong Kong reporters are notoriously powerful. It would be easy to get photographed if you went out with one of them. Then it would be a bit hard to tell.
Speaking of which, Girls’ Generation seemed to have been photographed ugly by paparazzi reporters in Hong Kong a few years ago. In the report, two suspected Girls’ Generation members were clubbing with a rich man.
Later, he fell down on the road as if he was drunk and fell next to a garbage dump. His manners were completely lost. It was known as the "Lan Kwai Fong Incident" in history. Because only the back was photographed, it has not yet been determined who is in the photo. Even SM and The members of SNSD have all issued statements to clarify that it is not them, but many people on the Internet are still talking about it and guessing who it is.
Although Chi Jingyuan never asked the familiar sisters from SNSD whether they were them, he had naturally seen the photo. From his perspective, if he had to choose one person from SNSD...
That person must be Yoona sunbaenim, because the shape of one of the people’s legs in the photo looks very awkward from behind.
I don’t know when the members who went out to play in the evening came back. Anyway, when Chi Jingyuan saw them when he got up the next day, he thought they looked pretty good. The water and soil of Hong Kong Island are really quite nurturing.
Today is the day of MAMA. Everyone in EXO got up early in the morning and continued running to the venue for rehearsals, including "so" with Bae Suzy.
This rehearsal was to go through the evening process completely. All the guests were basically present, which made it look much more formal than yesterday's rehearsal.
After walking around in the morning, EXO and the others hurried to the beauty room and started doing styling work without even eating. At around three o'clock in the afternoon, they were picked up by a special car and started walking the red carpet, signing autographs, and accepting interviews. When they finally arrived at the venue, they were waiting. At the beginning of the ceremony, Chi Jingyuan felt a little exhausted. In order to be on camera for the evening ceremony, they had not eaten much since last night and were already very hungry.
I don’t know how those female artists who started dieting a week or even half a month in advance to look better in custom-made dresses in order to look better in large ceremonies persisted.
He couldn't do it anyway.
After grabbing a few biscuits from Oh Se-hun as a cushion, Chi Kyung-won did not go out to visit people like Kim Jun-myeon and Park Chan-yeol, but sat in the separated lounge backstage, squinting his eyes and resting, waiting. The ceremony begins.
"Come on! (smiley face)"
When the show was about to start at six o'clock, Chi Jingyuan received a text message from Zhou Ziyu. Looking at the silly smiling expression in the middle of the screen, Chi Jingyuan seemed to see Zhou Ziyu smirking in front of his eyes.
He exhaled and chuckled, returning a "smiley face".
At this time, Li Chenghuan quickly walked out from outside with a notebook and called him directly: "Get ready to start soon. Others are watching backstage and waiting for notification from the staff. Jingyuan, you can go directly to the artist booth to listen to the venue arrangements." , there will be your prize at the beginning.”
"Arasu." Without checking whether Zhou Ziyu had sent another message, Chi Jingyuan put away his phone, stood up and made a gesture, then ran to the mirror to check whether there was any problem with the style, and then He walked out quickly with the attendant waiting outside the door.
Because there are many guests at such a large award ceremony, and there are several large boy groups like EXO with a large number of people, the artist seats set up outside generally cannot seat so many people. The organizer will arrange the seats of the artist seats to stagger the guests according to the time of award collection and performance. Guests must sit in the artist seat before receiving the award. Artists who are about to perform on stage will come down in advance to prepare.
He followed the venue manager to the artist seat and found his seat. He glanced at Pei Xiuzhi who was placed next to him without saying a word. Chi Jingyuan smiled and nodded with the artists who were nearby. call.
Compared with last year's MAMA, Chi Jingyuan saw many familiar faces in this year's MAMA, such as GD, INFINITE, sistar and many other popular artists.
Except for EXO, CrayonPop, which was extremely popular last year and in the second half of the year, has long since disappeared.
The audience had all entered the venue, and the lights on the ceiling gradually dimmed amid the chaotic noise. Knowing that the performance was about to officially begin, the audience burst into loud screams, which gradually weakened after the music started.
At six o'clock in the afternoon, the 2014 MAMA Awards Ceremony officially began. Under the gaze of countless viewers, the first program was the passionate rapping of a group of rappers whose names Chi Jingyuan could not pronounce.
Performance.
The exposed arms of several rappers were covered with tattoos, and they wore large gold chains around their necks. Their gestures were hip-hop and real, and they sang lyrics with a strong rhythm on the stage.
Although he couldn't tell his name, Chi Jingyuan reluctantly recognized that he seemed to be a contestant on this year's well-known rap show "Shootheney" on the peninsula. One of them seemed to be a trainee of YG. He remembered which XO member he had listened to in the dormitory. Mentioned it once.
The opening rap performance did not heat up the atmosphere. The local Hong Kong audience basically did not understand what they were singing, but they still waved the cheering sticks in their hands enthusiastically and screamed twice.
After the VCR played the list of all the guests present at this MAMA, Song Seung-heon, this year's host, walked onto the stage.
Song Seung-heon is one of the well-known actors from the peninsula who became popular in Asia at the beginning of the millennium. His starring role in "Blue Life and Death" was very popular. It’s just that the momentum in recent years has weakened many works that are not too out-of-the-box. However, the large-scale and unusual performances of the male and female protagonists in the romance film "The Poisoning of the World" released in the middle of this year also caused a lot of discussion.
The stage of this year's venue is in the shape of a straight line. A long walkway extends from the main stage to the auxiliary stage, and then connects to the artist seats in a straight line. The three points and one line of the three places can be seen very clearly.
"Hello everyone, my name is Song Seung-heon."
Standing on the main stage, he first greeted the local audience in Chinese, which caused a round of cheers. However, he only said this sentence. Obviously, he did not speak Chinese and had only prepared this sentence in advance.
He naturally switched to English: "Welcome to Asia's largest music festival, 2014MAMA, and it is an honor to come to the beautiful Hong Kong."
"There will be many wonderful performances tonight, are you ready to enjoy it?"
"Yeah!" Song Seung-heon's reputation is quite big, and the audience's reaction has always been enthusiastic since his debut.
After the host made the opening remarks, the first award was awarded soon, which was the Best Newcomer.
Redvelvet, the girl group that debuted in SM this year, couldn't even make it into the candidate list. After watching the candidate VCR, Chi Jingyuan had to admit that every newcomer's performance was much better than that of redvelvet. Even their debut was not that big. Ledbebe’s got7 cannot catch up.
Sure enough, the best new artist award went to YG’s new boy group, “Monster Rookie” inner.
Their debut results are really amazing. The title song "Empty" got the first number one within five days of its debut, and it was released in August. Now in December, it only has four months of accumulation, but it has already ranked first on the Melon annual chart. It has entered the top 40, and the momentum is good and can continue to advance. For a boy band, this debut sound source is simply amazing.
Chi Jingyuan feels that without the operation of other companies, Inner is likely to sweep all the newcomer awards this year.
It seemed that inner was also very excited. He said a lot of speeches on the stage and thanked everyone. At the same time, the camera showed the audience below, many of whom were holding their banners and cheering items. Yue already has so many fans and popularity. The prospects of this new boy group are really good. I don’t know how successful it is compared to EXO when they debuted.
The following SOLO award for best dance performance went to Lee Sun Mi.
A name that long sounds like a consolation prize...
Speaking of Lee Sun Mi, I am an old acquaintance. She came out from Undergirls and soloed twice in 2013. The first time she hit EXO's "Roar", and the second time she hit Ji Kyung Won and Bae Suzy's "So". This fate has already happened. Almost overflowing.
Her solo performance was not as well-received as expected due to her two hit songs. It was largely overshadowed in terms of popularity and discussion, and she didn't even get the top spot in the singing competition. But in fact, her two solo songs were quite good. Whether it was last year's "24 Hours is Not Enough" or this year's "Full Moon", the music results were very good, and she also gained a group of fans.
Lee Sun Mi was obviously well prepared. She looked very eye-catching in a long red dress when accepting the award.
After she left the stage, the lights dimmed and it was her turn to perform on stage.
At this time, other members of EXO also quietly came from the aisle and sat down in the artist's seat, waiting for their awards.
The song performed at this time is a song that Girlsday has made a comeback this year, "Sothing", which is known as the pinnacle of the slutty style.
I have to say that after people become popular, their energy and energy look different. Chi Jingyuan hasn’t seen Jin Yarong and several members of Girlsday for a while. Now when I look at them on the stage, I feel that they look much better than before. It’s not just about makeup and clothing, there’s also a lot of confidence that emanates from within.
Speaking of which, Jin Yarong looks really good today, with black hair and red lips, a high-slit black skirt, and the exposed long fair legs, which form a sharp contrast.
From the corner of his eye, he noticed a VJ holding a camera and filming himself. "
When they heard their names being called, Chi Jingyuan and Pei Xiuzhi, who was sitting next to him, stood up together, looked at each other, smiled, and then saluted several times to the artists nearby who were congratulating them.
The members of EXO were much more excited to see Ji Kyung Yuan win the award than Ji Kyung Yuan himself. Several people who were close to him rushed up to hug him on the back and patted him twice. They clapped their hands quickly in excitement. Park Chanyeol even got close to him. He gave two thumbs up next to him.
It’s not like Daesang and the others are working so hard, but it doesn’t matter if it’s a little lively. At least they can get fans to cheer on the group spirit...
Chi Jingyuan and the members gave a high-five with a smile, and then walked to the sub-stage with Bae Suzy.
He was wearing a black suit and trousers, while Bae Suzy was wearing a long white skirt. Wearing high heels, she looked not much shorter than Ji Jingyuan. The two of them were tall and long-legged, and they both looked very superior among idols when they stood together. Appearing on the big screen really made many viewers' eyes light up, and they felt that they really matched well standing together.
But Aili definitely wouldn't think so, and neither would some people who were paying attention to Chi Jingyuan at this time.
