The 'PRESS START' button that signals the beginning of a game always brings excitement. With each stage cleared, there's a sense of pride when you see a character that has grown. ILLIT, which held its first tour two years after debut, is no different. They approached with a fresh and lively charm, took on various concepts to gain experience points, and after repeated level-ups, the solid ILLIT of today was completed. That is why it is exciting to see how this group will grow going forward.
ILLIT (Yoonah, Minju, Moca, Wonhee, Iroha) met with fans on the 14th at the Ticketlink Live Arena in Songpa-gu, Seoul, opening their first tour, ILLIT LIVE 'PRESS START♥ in SEOUL'.
ILLIT was formed through the survival program R U Next? and debuted in March 2024 with mini album 1 SUPER REAL Me. With the title track Magnetic, they showcased the quirky and lively sensibility of teenage girls, capturing both the public and fandom, and through mini album 2 I'LL LIKE YOU and mini album 3 bomb they solidified their distinctive dreamy and bouncy color, then marked a point of artistic growth by presenting assertive and intense performances with single 1 NOT CUTE ANYMORE.
With their debut song Magnetic, they set a milestone as the first K-pop group to enter the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 and the U.K. Official Singles Chart with a debut track, and they also reached 100 million streams in the shortest time among K-pop girl groups on Spotify. Particularly, ILLIT, which showed strong music power beyond short-form platforms, proved their global popularity with Almond Chocolate, released last year, achieving 100 million plays on the Oricon chart and winning the Excellent Work Award at the 67th Japan Record Awards and Best 3 New Artists at the 40th Japan Gold Disc Awards, among others.
Having grown into a girl group representing fifth-generation idols, ILLIT will embark on their first solo tour two years after debut to meet fans around the world. Through 14 performances in seven cities, they are determined to firmly establish themselves as a live artist with ticket-selling power, beyond being a group with strong music.
The tour name 'PRESS START' means the 'beginning of a new journey,' like pressing the start button of a game. The 'heart' symbol suggests the first signal that powers the system and a heartbeat, revealing their ambition to deliver overwhelming excitement and thrills to fans through this tour. As proof, the Seoul performance, held over two days through the 15th, sold out on the fan club pre-sale day, and the Japan tour likewise sold out early.
Opening the performance with their debut song Magnetic, ILLIT filled the setlist with songs that define them, including IYKYK (If You Know You Know), Night Picnic, 'little Monster', CHerish(My Love), I'll Like You, Pimple, Almond Chocolate, jellyous, My World, oops!, Midnight Fiction, Finding Secrets, Tick-Tack, Borrowed Cat, NOT CUTE ANYMORE, Lucky Girl Syndrome, NOT ME, and other hits and album tracks.
Notably, Yoonah·Minju·Iroha and Moca·Wonhee formed units and newly presented the R U Next? release songs Desperate and Scrum (Short.ver), respectively. Before the concert, ILLIT asked fans to see how solidly they had grown and whether their potential was visible, and through the unit songs they delivered upgraded powerful performances and refreshing vocals compared with two years ago, bringing an emotional impact.
As the concept was based on games, the stage setup that provoked interest stood out. On the LiTTLE MONSTER stage, the members entered a huge crane game machine installed at one side of the stage to perform live and do choreography, and while singing Pimple they staged a classroom background, revealed handwritten letters expressing their feelings for fans, and delivered moving moments.
ILLIT aims to prove their capabilities as artists and take a step further as a global artist with a large-scale first solo tour consisting of 14 shows across seven cities. They marked a pleasant start by successfully completing the Seoul performance, the starting point.
[OSEN]