Okay, before I continue with the narrative, first I’d like to apologize because… try as I might, I won’t be able to give everyone a very objective runthrough of this fanmeet, since I was also fangirling the whole time — only reveling on the “here and now”. There are a lot of articles that came out which were able to provide a comprehensive .summary of what happened that night, so you can also check them out. 

What I remember, though, was that emotions were at an all-time high inside NFT when the clock finally struck at 8pm, signaling the official start of the fanmeet. Onew opened the show with CIRCLE, the title track for his full-length album with the same name which Billboard named the No. 1 Kpop album for 2023. 

We also had so much fun during the game section, as we really did get to know Onew better. We got to hear him sing a few more songs during the “GUESS Favorite Song” segment, among them, notably: Harry Style’s As it Was; and SHINee’s “Love Like Oxygen”; got to see unreleased photos from his recent activities; witnessed his artistic side with the painting game; heard first-hand his dad jokes – which I 525% believe really matched Pinoy humor perfectly – and saw Onew sangtae unraveling before our eyes (something every Jjinggu really dream of seeing first-hand).

We really could not have asked for a better way to have experienced his first solo event here in the Philippines. A big shoutout to Ms. Karen Bordador for spotlighting Onew very well during the whole show. From the moment they met on stage, until they were delivering their closing ment, their sibling energy was so evident, and she really put Onew at ease. I believe that she’s a big factor why we were able to witness a lot of Onew’s wacky and flirty sides that night.

Just to give everyone some context here – for the past 16 years, Onew was known to be the most savage member of SHINee who ALWAYS “Jjinggu-zones” his fans. So, to make him say things like “No, only me!” when the MC said we (his fans) got two (2) options; to making him say “Jojowain mo ba ko? (Can I be your man?)”; “Pa-kiss? (Give me a kiss)” and “I’m your man”? That was, virtually, unheard of in the fandom… So, thank you, Ms. Karen, for making us the most envied Jjinggus in SHINee World at the moment lol. 

Onew sang a few more songs for us during the fanmeet including his most favorite song from his discography “Sign” which is from his debut mini album, VOICE; his new, unreleased song “All Day”; and an unplugged version of “DICE”, the title track of his 2nd mini album with the same name.