IVE’s 1st World Tour: SHOW WHAT I HAVE in Melbourne

Considering the fact that the show was held on a Thursday night, the turn out in Rod Laver Arena was considerably full with only one or two spots empty. For IVE‘s First World Tour, the girls were able to bring out the energy from the crowd! Right from the start, with the lights dimmed down and the background music that was playing softly in the background was made louder, the cheers from the crowd exploded. The amount of screams and cheers indicating how ready Melbourne DIVEs (fans of IVE) are to welcome IVE to the stage. The screen that was once a world map with a blinking light in Melbourne then changed to an introductory video that brings people on the first floor up to their feet, feeling excited.

Photo by MITCH LOWE / Supplied by STARSHIP ENTERTAINMENT

The girls from IVE then finally graced the stage with their presence with the song I AM and was followed by ROYAL. And as per typical WONYOUNG fashion before every ROYAL performance, she belted out a “Melbourne let me hear  you guys scream!” as back dancers came on stage to create a cohesive stage along with confetti blowing up, covering DIVEs on the 1st floor. They then ended the first segment before greeting the audience with Blue Blood.

While greeting the audience, the members were speaking in fluent English with the occasional switch to Korean (which was then translated), and this happened throughout the night. They were all very happy to be able to meet their fans in Melbourne and you can tell that the members were all very thankful and grateful to be able to perform in front of their DIVEs in Australia. 

The next corner continued with Blue Heart which they greeted their fans from the main stage and continued with Cherish. This one was an interesting stage as they had live camera action that was shown on the screens behind them with lyrics, making it seem like the entire venue was doing karaoke with IVE. And obviously, we can’t forget their iconic song, ELEVEN. This proves to be one of a crowd’s favorites with everyone singing along to the chorus. 

Photo by MITCH LOWE / Supplied by STARSHIP ENTERTAINMENT

Another video was played as the IVE girls did an outfit change and went back on stage sitting on chairs, to perform a slower song, Shine with Me. It was then announced that WONYOUNG participated in writing the lyrics for the song, along with Blue Heart. 

As half the team went off stage to switch to a headset instead of  a handheld mic, WONYOUNG, GAEUL, and REI stayed back and interacted with their fans. They talked about the most famous things in Melbourne with REI questioning if Vegemite was a major thing in Australia. This was answered by WONYOUNG who said that she enjoyed Vegemite which earned a laugh from the crowd. GAEUL mentioned that she was looking forward to seeing the kangaroos and acted like a kangaroo while WONYOUNG mentioned that she wanted to see the koalas as well. 

When the other girls were back on stage, YUJIN, LEESEO, and LIZ stayed on stage and took the role of an MC. YUJIN then mentioned that one of the things she was looking forward to when visiting Australia was the accent. She said she practiced her Aussie accent and said “Melbourne, g’day mate!” with the accent which the crowd then cheered for. YUJIN also mentioned that she wanted to see the wombat and quokka in Australia, which LIZ then jumped in to say that she wanted to see the kangaroos. 

Throughout the night, both WONYOUNG and YUJIN seemed to be eager to chant “AUSSIE AUSSIE AUSSIE” which DIVEs were very happy to respond to. It wasn’t only them, the rest of the team would, once in a while, also yell out the chant in times where they would want people to cheer and scream. 

Photo by MITCH LOWE / Supplied by STARSHIP ENTERTAINMENT

B-tracks were sung in the next part of the show starting with Lips on the extended stage, followed by Mine, that had umbrellas incorporated to the song as a prop, and ended the segment with Off The Record, which was also shown to be a crowd favorite. 

While REI and GAEUL were preparing for their solo stages, YUJIN and LEESEO entertained the crowd while doing a TikTok challenge ‘Pocket Locket’ and it was a short but sweet segment as they interacted with the crowd. 

GAEUL then came back on stage to perform a dance cover of Ariana Grande’s 7 Rings with chairs and back dancers which caused the crowd to go wild. REI also made the audience singalong to a cover she did of NIKI’s Every Summertime. Once they both reunited for a group cover of Spice Girls’ Wannabe, the fans were all hyped up and jammed along to the song. WONYOUNG and LIZ were next to perform the unit stage with a cover of Reality by Richard Sanderson, making the stage look dreamy as they sat and sang with grace. YUJIN and LEESEO then brought the heat up a notch with a cover of Woman Like Me by Little Mix. 

They then did an outfit change while a notably horror-like VCR played on screen, which was on brand with their next performance of Hypnosis. As they continued the stage with Accendio, the fans were definitely singing along to the pre-chorus and chanting together with the girls on stage. The next couple of songs were all their most popular hits with LOVE DIVE, Kitsch, and Baddie being performed back-to-back. The dance break in Baddie ignites a massive amount of cheers and screams from the crowd. This was then wrapped up with After LIKE with people yet again, singing along and fireworks adorning the stage. 

Photo by MITCH LOWE / Supplied by STARSHIP ENTERTAINMENT

IVE then mentioned that the next song will be their last song before wrapping up their performance for the night. They greeted goodbye and prompted cheers from their fans by asking “Melbournians, are you ready?!” and ended the stage with HEYA. 

And as per all K-pop concerts, it really isn’t over until it is. DIVEs were chanting for an encore stage which then prompted the screens to turn back on and it was signaling a dance session with the fans. The camera would then point and shoot at random fans to ‘see their moves’ with IVE songs. This then went on for quite a while before the fans had to cheer out loud and fill up a meter gauge to ‘bring the girls back in’ with IVE eventually coming back with an outfit change while singing OTT.

After OTT, the members went and spoke out their feelings of performing in Australia. REI was very very grateful and said “thank you” multiple times and was so happy to be able to come to Melbourne and see DIVEs in a big venue. She mentioned that time flies while she’s with DIVEs so it’s a little bittersweet, but because both REI and DIVEs are spending time together making good memories, she was very delighted and mentioned that the fans should look forward to their next performance in LOLLAPALOOZA.

GAEUL was next to speak and she was very looking forward to coming to Australia as she has never been before. She also mentioned that she heard that Australia is very pretty and that the energy was so ‘bright’ and she thinks of Aussie DIVEs and wanting to meet her fans. GAEUL then mentioned that she now understood why Australia is beautiful, it was because of the beautiful view (of DIVEs), which she then wrapped up with a “see you later alligator!” 

WONYOUNG then started off her mini speech (which was done in English) saying thank you to the fans who came to the show and that it was her first time visiting Melbourne. She was nervous but was also looking forward to being able to perform on stage for Aussie DIVEs. But now that she’s in Melbourne, she was really happy to see the fans from the stage and to stay tuned for their next shows. She then thanked the fans for coming, once again.

“DIVE!!!!” was the first thing YUJIN said during her part of the speech. She then said thank you for coming to the show and that it was her first time in Australia but she really enjoyed herself, especially in Melbourne cause she loved nature, animals and DIVEs. YUJIN also said that she thinks that she will never forget the passion of the fans from that day and that it was so amazing. She then closed it off with a “LOVE YOU!” 

LEESEO was next to speak. She started off by thanking the audience for coming to the show and being able to make nice memories with DIVEs. She also mentioned that she wasn’t feeling the best due to the extreme weather change from a hot summer in South Korea to a cold winter in Melbourne. She also said to look forward to the next time she’ll be able to meet (the fans). 

LIZ was the last member to speak before the night ended and she mentioned that it was such a fun night being able to spend it with DIVEs. She did a comparison of how it was really cold outside but the energy inside was hot and to hope that she will be able to meet the fans again. “I love you DIVE.” 

Photo by MITCH LOWE / Supplied by STARSHIP ENTERTAINMENT

To officially close off the night, they sang one last song (multiple times), All Night (ft. Saweetie). It wasn’t enough to just sing it once, IVE partied with their fans through a couple repetitions of the song before going around the stage (both main and extended) to ensure that they’ve greeted all their fans before going back off stage. 

Personally, I feel like there will never be two K-pop shows with the same vibe, same energy and this is the same. It’s just a whole entirely different experience and you can’t really compare it with anything else. 

A massive thank you to Live Nation and Starship Entertainment, along with Revolutions per Minute for the media passes.