EVERGLOW Slayed with All My Girls In London
Photos by Courtney Willis
Two years after they last performed in London, EVERGLOW made their long-awaited return to the UK on January 30, bringing their All My Girls tour to London's O2 Shepherds Bush Empire venue. Before this tour, the sextet girl group, comprised of members: Sihyeon, E:U, Mia, Onda, Aisha, and Yiren, had only performed in the UK once, where they joined the likes of ASTRO, Hwasa, P1Harmony, and more at HallyuPopFest in 2022. However, Yiren was absent at the time due to the COVID-19 pandemic, making this London stop of the All My Girls tour all that more special, with this tour being EVERGLOW’s first-ever headline tour in the UK and Yiren’s first-ever time in London.
Since their debut in 2019, EVERGLOW has mastered a diverse range of sounds that have made them a standout girl group within K-Pop, and this tour was the perfect place for the girls to showcase their impressive discography on an international scale. From the get-go, EVERGLOW brought an infectious energy to the venue that FOREVERs (EVERGLOW's fandom) reciprocated. The room filled with waves of cheers, screams, and chants, as the girls opened the show with the fierce and appropriately titled track “First” followed by “SLAY” and “Pirate.”
During the first talk break, the members spoke about their love of London and the UK. Onda said she wants to visit King’s Cross and the Harry Potter studios (Warner Bros. Studios), whereas Mia revealed her love of Sherlock Holmes with a recent Instagram post showing Mia visiting The Sherlock Holmes Museum with the caption “I love Sherlock.”
After diving into tracks from their first EP reminiscence (“Player” and the tropical house “No Lie”) EVERGLOW gifted their UK audience with two songs by popular British artists. Here, E:U and Mia put on a sensually, powerful dance to “Unholy” by Sam Smith ft. Kim Petras while Sihyeon, Onda, Aisha, and Yiren delightfully covered Little Mix’s “Shout Out To My Ex,” much to the excitement of their fans. Through these two performances, EVERGLOW said that FOREVERs could see all six members’ charms, although they believe that EVERGLOW shines the brightest when the members perform together as six.
With the UK known for its cold weather, Sihyeon expressed her concerns of catching a cold while visiting the country; however, the abundance of cheers and excitement from the crowd washed her concerns away with her labeling the UK FOREVERs as "hot", and revealing her desires to return to the UK because of their adoring reception.
While all members interacted with the crowd, there was something about Aisha’s interaction with FOREVERs that stood out the most to me. From beginning to end, Aisha engaged in a lot of waving, blowing kisses, and heart gestures with their audience. Her stage presence radiated a friendly and comforting aura that sometimes felt as if she was amongst friends and not fans.
“Don’t Speak,” “Company,” and the highly addictive “Dun Dun” followed the British covers and crowd interaction before switching up the energetic atmosphere with a couple of ballad tracks. Here, EVERGLOW gave a sit-down performance of the soft, melodious “HUSH” before standing to deliver a sweet performance of “Oh Ma Ma God.” EVERGLOW then changed the mood again, with an exciting K-Pop dance cover segment where they performed superb covers of BLACKPINK’s “Lovesick Girls,” JEON SOMI’s “Fast Forward,” Jungkook’s “3D,” and (G)I-DLE’s “Tom Boy.”
The chairs from “HUSH” were then brought back out for EVERGLOW to put on an alluring performance of “달아 (Moon)” from their first single ARRIVAL OF EVERGLOW, followed by the disco-pop track “UNTOUCHABLE.” Sihyeon revealed that her earpiece had fallen out allowing her to hear the loud volume reached by the crowd. Sihyeon was also shocked by FOREVERs' ability to sing along in Korean which she described as “awesome.”
After “UNTOUCHABLE,” the show entered its last section with EVERGLOW not wanting to ruin the mood, by revealing that there were only two songs left to perform before it was time for the group and FOREVERs to part. Before delivering the final tracks of the night, each member shared a happy thought and memory about their time in London. They expressed how grateful they were for their London FOREVERs and how they wished to relive the memories of the concert again. Onda described the London FOREVERs as shining brighter than a Monet painting she had seen at a gallery before the concert, which is a beautiful sentiment for FOREVERs to treasure.
EVERGLOW then encouraged the crowd to chant “EVERGLOW forever let's go” in preparation for their penultimate track "LA DI DA," before ending the show with the iconic, and another appropriately titled, track "Adios."
EVERGLOW then exited the stage before reappearing for the encore set, now dressed in items of their merchandise. They stripped the show back to a slow, heartfelt vibe with their emotional, ballad track “Back Together” before officially ending the show with a highly anticipated performance of their debut track “봉봉쇼콜라 (Bon Bon Chocolat).” The members held baskets containing plastic balls of some kind that they would throw into the crowd throughout the song, ending the show on a high note that no one in attendance wanted to end.
EVERGLOW’s All My Girls tour in London was a fantastic night of superb music, vibrant energy, and positive vibes from the girl group and their fans. Having seen them perform two years ago at HallyuPopFest, it was great to see them together on stage as a sextet and see their musical growth as a group, and as individuals.
The ALL MY GIRLS tour in London was a night not to be missed and we, UK FOREVERs, can't wait for EVERGLOW to come back to the UK again in the future.
Edited by Lacey Diluvio