Why “HOT” is SEVENTEEN’s best performance the year

Yoon Hye Lim (PLEDIS performance directing team leader): I think it’s significant and timely that Face the Sun—an album about SEVENTEEN wanting to become the Sun—came out just as we were coming away from the darkness of the pandemic. Everyone knows SEVENTEEN’s biggest strength is their performances, so it was important that they make a strong, clear impression with their performance of the title “HOT.” It took us a while to come up with another new angle for them since they’ve been trying out so many different concepts. For this performance, we didn’t want to just stop at showing how good SEVENTEEN is at dancing. We also wanted to show how much they’ve grown. Even though it’s an intense dance, we still worked in an element of comfort into the movements in the chorus that bring out the figures and fit with the idea of the Sun. The result was a performance that everyone enjoyed—one that met viewers’ expectations and that made the members proud of themselves—and that’s why I chose it as SEVENTEEN’s performance of the year.

BE THE SUN opening = “HOT” + “March” + “HIT”

Yoon Hye Lim: I feel like the opening SEVENTEEN did for their BE THE SUN concert was the best of the year. It had a clear goal: to tell people, We’re the Sun now, and we’ll keep going further. We wanted the idea of the name BE THE SUN to come across just by watching the opening of the concert. “HOT” expresses that idea best, so it only made sense to make it the first song of the concert. On top of that, we wanted the three songs to come together to convey the idea of a journey to the Sun, including the idea of marching together in “March” and running together in “HIT.” To be honest, doing all three of those songs in a row meant the opening was going to take a huge amount of energy, so we talked it over a lot with the members of the group, too. We were all worried if they could really do it, but in the end they said, “Let’s do it! Let’s just go for it!” The audience’s enjoyment comes first for them; they don’t think about their stamina at all. (laughs) The members consider the flow of their performances to be very important. They knew they had to do it because they decided the setup with the three songs together was the best way to emotionally convey the message to the audience. If there’s something the SEVENTEEN members feel they should do, they just do it. Once they set their minds to something, there’s no more discussion—they focus completely with a single mind towards a common goal. They’ve got the perfect recipe for putting on a concert, with a strong desire to perform well. That’s why the staff always puts so much thought into creating performances that the members and the fans alike will all enjoy.

“Us, Again” … “VERY NICE”

Yoon Hye Lim: This tour was the first in-person concert in a long time and the one they were supposed to do two and a half years ago before it got canceled because of the pandemic, so expectations were really high. The ideas we get from the SEVENTEEN members while getting a concert ready are almost entirely for CARAT’s benefit. It’s always, “The audience should feel like this. We want to do this with CARAT.” (laughs) So we added in a part where the fans could all sing together and added a lot of songs to the set list where they could jump and have fun with SEVENTEEN. The keyword that penetrates the "Face the Sun" album is Team SEVENTEEN, and the members also said, "I don't want CARAT to go more than that. The whole idea behind Face the Sun is TEAM SVT, and they kept saying, “We don’t want CARAT to have just sat there watching us. We should be able to do something and have fun together.” It was important to make a concert where everyone could participate because the fans are just as important members of TEAM SVT. That’s why the SEVENTEEN members don’t let the fans just sit and watch. (laughs) As everyone knows, the members are basically drill sergeants when it comes to the “VERY NICE” encore. (laughs) They get really sulky if the fans don’t dance with them. (laughs) The number of times the song loops depends on how much CARAT gets into it. When the encore’s really fun, the members really don’t want to leave the stage. (laughs)

SEVENTEEN is teamwork

Yoon Hye Lim: It took SEVENTEEN so long to debut that it felt like they were working as a team from the moment they found out they would eventually debut and they just congealed together. They’ve still got the strong sense of teamwork they built up back then. Despite how many members are in the group, they all know each other really well and show each other a lot of understanding. That’s not to say they never fight (laughs) but even when they do, they know how to fix things right away. They never try to avoid that—they get it all out in the open and talk it out together. They’re always ready to talk and know how to come to terms with things. I think that springs from them knowing they’re always in it together. Even when they’re practicing choreography and feeling tired, if one of them is falling behind, they work together and tell them it’s okay and keep trying to get back in sync. They all have different personalities but they make sure they’re in harmony and in balance. I think that’s the secret to their longevity.

A shining promise

Yoon Hye Lim: I feel like this year we showed everybody in person that we’re still going and pushing boundaries. Naturally they feel good being at the height of their career eight years in, but SEVENTEEN doesn’t do what they do for the success. Even when it comes to practice, we closely consider every little detail and how it’ll make the final product look. I feel like SEVENTEEN is dedicated in everything they do and always tries to make a product that finds the best way to get their ideas across. There isn’t a single member in SEVENTEEN who isn’t working hard. They’re awesome. I’ve been at this for a long time but I never saw anyone like them before. They’re so great that I’ve been with them since just before they debuted and it’s still so much fun working with them. (laughs) I’m honestly so grateful I get to work with SEVENTEEN. There’s an advantage to growing step by step, but it can be tiring sometimes. But you just have to put up with it. I think it’s absolutely incredible that all 13 of them still put everything they’ve got into everything they do after overcoming all that. So I’m not worried about the future. They’ll keep working hard. SEVENTEEN is SEVENTEEN, after all. (laughs)