IU Ends HEREH World Tour On A High Note In Los Angeles

Photos: EDAM Entertainment

After several weeks on her biggest world tour to date, IU closes out her tour, HEREH, with a sold out show in Los Angeles. From greeting fans across Asia, parts of Europe, and North America in large arenas, IU happily concludes the highly anticipated tour with such a bang. 

Fans have been eagerly awaiting for when the soloist would go on a tour again. Her last concert series, The Golden Hour, took place only within Korea due to the world barely beginning to open up again after the COVID-19 pandemic. For fans within the United States, particularly, this has been a long time coming, with her last appearance being during KCON 2014 in Los Angeles. 10 years later, the fans made sure to pack themselves in for the opportunity to experience IU live in concert. For many of those in the audience, this is the first time that they get to see the powerhouse soloist live. 

In the lead up to the start of the concert, the crowd was abuzz with excitement and thrill. IU brought perhaps one of the most diverse crowds when it comes to age. Whether you were a young fan or one of the older adults amongst the crowd, IU brought everyone together for this experience. It didn’t matter what age you were: if you were there and you saw the joy and excitement as fans purchased merchandise or get to their seats, it truly was a sight to see. 

The energy in the arena was palpable, especially as the seats began to fill up more and more. One of the most delightful surprises when getting to your seat was to see a small gift that was provided by the parents of IU. It’s not often that you get a gift from the artist themselves, especially with the large scale of the venue. This is a practice that you’d normally see in South Korea during concerts, so to bring the tradition over to the world tour was absolutely endearing. 

The moment that IU took to the stage and saw all the I-KEs (the name of her lightstick) light up in different colors, the venue was set ablaze with wonder and amazement. Opening up with “Holssi” alongside her live band, you could feel the room shake. It only became more energetic and lively as the concert went on. Having performed songs like “Jam Jam,” “BBIBBI,” and “Obliviate,” to her ballads like “Love Wins All” and “Through the Night,” IU commanded the stage with such grace and confidence. Even when other songs like “I Stan U,” “Celebrity,” and “eight (featuring BTS’s SUGA; however not present) fans earnestly kept up and brought such wonderful energy for the last stop of the tour. IU herself dubbed the Los Angeles crowd as “LAena” which is a play on her fans, UAENA. Throughout the show, IU did not hesitate to let the LA crowd know how much she loved the energy that fans brought. Those there got to witness how she deemed Los Angeles one of the best crowds that she’s performed for and that LA was great, stating it made her feel like she was back home in Korea.

A key detail that was present throughout the entire concert was that each song that was performed displayed the romanized lyrics for fans to sing along as well as highlighted key words that were part of the fanchant of each song. Hearing such coordinated fan chants and singing from the crowd brought chills down the arms and spine. IU’s crowd work was fun as well, as you could see her genuinely flutter around the stage, trying to ensure everyone had the chance to see her even without an extended stage. There were a couple of lucky fans in the crowd who received a gift from IU herself if she happened to catch you dancing along and catching her attention during one of her breaks. 

IU also performed two encores, which makes you wonder how does she do it? In the second encore, IU took in fan requests of what songs she should sing to end the tour and the biggest surprise was to get a portion of the ever-popular and forever iconic “Good Day.” Getting to hear this song live, especially if you have not gotten to see her live before, really is a full-circle moment as you can say that this song fully launched her into the massive artist that she is today. She definitely has promised that if she comes back she will perform it longer. 

There are simply not enough words to express how absolutely stellar the show was. IU surely has left a hunger for many, many fans for her to return back on another world tour. IU ended off the tour with such a bang and to hear her say at the very end when she walked off, “I did it!” left a sense of pride and love as she has officially and successfully concluded her biggest and longest world tour. There is hope that she will return again on another tour and greet fans all over the globe, perhaps even more cities.  Until then, we can all eagerly wait for when she returns. IU will have an encore of her HEREH show in Seoul to fully conclude her The Winning Era.

Edited by Rachael Lovette