Writers: Amy (Madurai, Tamil Nadu, India) and Riya Choudhary (Delhi, India)

Editor: Tahoora Charfare (Fahaheel, Kuwait)

K-pop group SHINee, which shines brighter than diamonds, is celebrating its 17th debut anniversary. The group consists of five extremely talented members, Onew, Jonghyun, Key, Minho, and Taemin, who made their debut on 25^th May 2008 under SM Entertainment. To glorify their 17 year celebration, they treated fans around the world to a heartfelt lineup of events under ‘SHINee WEEK’ where they streamed their SHINee World concerts on Youtube from 18^th May to 22^nd May followed by this year’s concert SHINee WORLD Ⅶ [E.S.S.A.Y] (Every Stage Shines Around You) which was held from the 23^rd to the 25^th of May at KSPO Dome, Seoul.

What makes it even more special is that the final date of the concert was the exact date of the debut. The numbers 25 and 5 hold significant meaning for the group and their fans. With the concert held in 2025, the date, 25.5.2025, added further significance, as the concert time was 5:25 PM KST. Indian Shawol Amy (Tiny Shawol), who currently lives in Korea, attended the concert on their anniversary, and here’s her memorable experience.

^{Picture Credits: SHINee Official (Instagram)}

Moments that will forever be cherished

Sparking Stage Performances by SHINee Shawols dressed so prettily as they had a dress code which was SHINee’s official color, Pearl Aqua. The concert started with the live band blasting through the speakers. This concert was truly their celebration of the debut anniversary and their discography, rather than a celebration of the release of a new album. SHINee began the concert with Poet | Artist, their first Korean single, which was written and composed by one of their members, late Jonghyun. It has Jonghyun’s voice included, which is truly the best gift any shawol could receive from SHINee.

During the first segment, after the self-introductions, Minho said that they thought a lot about when to release the song, as Jonghyun not only wrote and composed it, but he even recorded the demo, so they decided to release it on their 17th year of debut anniversary, making it even more special. After their short performance on the song Dream Girl, they went to change their outfits while the live band carried out the performance. Then they re-entered the stage with a performance on ‘1 of 1’ that made fans jump up and down with joy. Especially the transition from ‘Don’t call me’ to ‘Juice’ was remarkable, and the live band made it even more unforgettable.

During the segment session, despite having a subtitle of the concert’s title, SHINee always has a habit of creating their subtitle. Usually, it is Taemin who comes up with such random names. This time, Minho said that they had failed to finalize the subtitle for the past two days, so they had to finalize it today. Key rapped all the suggested names from the past two days, just to make sure that this was not repeated. Taemin said two names today, so they will be able to finalize it today. The first one was suggested by their choreographer, which was 인생내콘 which translates to ‘The best concert of my life’.

It was a word play actually, because in South Korea, there are so many self-photo studios, which are called as 인생네컷 (capturing my life in 4 photos). The crowd went wild as they all liked this name. Again, Taemin explained how Poet | Artist song is the 525th song, today’s date is 25.5.2025, and they began the concert at 5:25. With all these, it can be seen that the numbers 2 & 5 are deeply connected with SHINee. So, he suggested the name he came up with, which was 오이콘 (52con).

^{Picture Credits: SHINee Official (Instagram)}

The semi-ballad section had left fans surprised as they started with ‘Blackhole‘ performance and continued with ‘Jojo’ and ‘Shift‘. During ‘Savior‘, the whole venue got drunk on the vibes. Shawols forgot everything and lived that moment. That was truly a special and most remarkable moment of this concert. The backup dancers had their own time to shine bright on the stage with the live band blasting the music of one of SHINee’s identical songs -‘ Identity‘.

The male dancers performed the chorus of identity. SHINee re-entered the stage performing the bridge part of the songs- ‘I Really Want You’ and ‘Married to the Music‘. During the Married to the Music performance, Key showed off the SHINee friendship ring, which Shawols call SHINee’s wedding ring as they wore it on their fourth finger and sang, we’re married to the music which was something that still brings a smile to everyone’s face.

^{Picture Credits: SHINee Official (Instagram)}

Then they started this section with Countless, and everyone turned on the flashlight on their mobile as it looked like they were inside a beautiful galaxy of twinkling stars. At the end of this performance, Key started crying. After that, SHINee performed the most remarkable song in their discography, which is their debut song “Replay”. This song never ages, but it’s been 17 years since this song came out. As they continued, Shawols surprised them as all of them were holding up the colored banners, and it read “대박신인 샤이니” which means “Amazing Rookies SHINee”.

For an encore, they sang ‘Colorful‘. Shawols are truly the best singers. After the encore by Shawols, SHINee performed’ Starlight‘, another new track from their new album Poet | Artist. During the closing moment, everyone talked about how they felt so emotional looking at the fan’s surprise events. Taemin said that he felt so emotional and wondered if the members also felt the same as him. When he checked, Key started crying. All fans laughed because Taemin started as if he was going to say something important or something serious, but he made all the fans laugh.

There’s this saying in Korean, “끝날 때까지 끝나는게 아니야” (It’s not over until it’s over). SHINee gave a special encore performance. They started with ‘Don’t Let Me Go‘, as it’s one of the emotional songs, and it’s been so long since SHINee performed this song, which made so many fans cry along with Key. As almost everyone was crying so much, Taemin joked that they were gonna change the flow and perform upbeat songs. But he fooled us as the next song was ‘Days and Years‘, a bright and hopeful song. The lyrics are so beautiful. Minho was looking into Shawols’ eyes and sang “Look, I’ll be here as long as you’re here. That’s a given”. That was so emotional.

^{Picture Credits: SHINee Official (Instagram)}

Once the song was over, Key said that he thought that Taemin did not know the setlist, because Days and Years wasn’t a song with choreography. Taemin replied that he would have also thought the same if he were Key. Minho said that they started the concert with Poet | Artist, that was the words Jonghyun was saying to the members, and they wanted to end the concert with the words they wanted to tell Jonghyun. Key added that he believes Jonghyun is still with us, somewhere in the crowd. He strongly believes that Shawols think the same way.

So he requested Shawols to sing along so that our voices could reach him. Before the start of the song, Onew also asked us to sing along. As soon as the music started, many of the Shawols started crying. It was no other than ‘네가 남겨둔 말 Our Page‘, the literal translation of the Korean title is ‘the words that you left behind‘. The song was so emotional that it left the whole venue crying. At the end of the song, the standing section was showered with confetti, which had members’ messages printed on it. Fans gave it their heart out.

Fan Experience – Amy (Tiny Shawol)

As a concert girly, this concert is one of the most memorable concert. I have watched all the SHINee World Concerts and been to the SW VI – Perfect Illumination in Seoul and the encore in Incheon. I really love to go to the last day of the concerts. It is something personal. SHINee usually holds concert whenever there is a release of a new album. But this time, this concert felt like celebrating their 17 years of Korean discography. Hearing Jonghyun’s voice made it even more memorable. We had so many fan events which was really fun. Being in the standing with enough room to move around, I enjoyed the concert to the fullest. I had to stay still in between to record a few fan-cams. I guess this set-list is going to be my second best SHINee concert set-list. I never ever thought that I would watch the live performances of the songs that are on my everyday playlist. Thank you SHINee for such a wonderful concert. Above all, I’m so grateful to God. I really wish for all the shawols around the world could get to experience this feeling at least once in their life. – Amy (Tiny Shawol)

Conclusion

SHINee made their 17th Anniversary memorable and meaningful as they filled the KSPO DOME with excitement for three days of concerts. Even though it was scorching hot outside, they filled every Shawol with excitement. The setlist for this concert was one of their best concert setlists as it consisted of around 30 songs.

They started the concert with Poet | Artist, which conveys the words that Jonghyun wanted to say to them, and they ended with Our Page, which conveys the words they want to say to Jonghyun. They walked this 17-year journey together and we wish they keep shining ahead, just like diamonds in their official mint color. We hope they live long and keep shining.

We look forward to knowing your thoughts as Shawols. Do let us know in the comments section if you have ever had any such wonderful concert experience.