BigBang's Seungri shows off his Mandarin at concert

SINGAPORE - The Speak Mandarin Campaign can consider hiring Seungri of K-pop boyband BigBang as their new ambassador.

The South Korean lad declared he was picking up the foreign language on Saturday night - in Mandarin no less.

"Do you understand me? Is my Mandarin good?" asked Seungri, 24. Cue screams from fan girls.

He rattled off crowd-pleasing Mandarin phrases, and unabashedly engaged the crowd in the language throughout the three hour concert.

"I think the girls in Singapore are the prettiest! Am I right? T.O.P, am I right? Taeyang, am I right? GD (G-Dragon), am I right? Daesung, am I right?" said Seungri, the team's youngest member, as he addressed his fellow members.

South Korean pop royalty BigBang are back with, well, a bang. They staged a two-night extravaganza - on Saturday and Sunday - at the Singapore Indoor Stadium. All tickets for both nights have been snapped up. Disappointed fans were spotted trying to get tickets at the last minute, but to no avail.

This is the quintet's highly anticipated comeback since their last album Alive, and last world tour Alive Galaxy Tour in 2012. Their current world tour coincides with the upcoming release of their new album, Made.

In a savvy marketing move to drum up publicity, BigBang has been releasing new singles monthly in the lead up to their studio album launch in September.

At the concert, they performed old hits such as Fantastic Baby and Lies. They also took the chance to plug new songs. They opened the concert with the catchy dance tune Bang Bang Bang, and sang the song again during the encore segment.

Taeyang, 27, said in crisp American-accented English: "We have an album coming out this year. So, please be excited."

Excellent sales pitch at the concert. Fans, are you sold?

This article was first published on July 20, 2015.
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