Doh Kyung-soo's Singapore solo concert was awesome but my FOMO is real

A year after his solo fan concert in Singapore, South Korean singer-actor Doh Kyung-soo returned to the Indoor Stadium on Saturday (Aug 23) as part of his first solo Asia concert tour Do It!.

2025 has been filled with several firsts for the 32-year-old, also known as D.O. He released his first romantic film Secret: Untold Melody and took on his first villain role in the upcoming Disney+ K-drama The Manipulated.

Last month, he released his first solo full album Bliss and began the tour in Seoul shortly after, with stops in cities including Taipei, Jakarta, Manila, Kuala Lumpur, Macau and Tokyo.

He kicked off the Singapore concert with his new song Do You Remember, dressed stylishly in distressed khaki cargo pants, a printed white tee and a pastel pink knitted shirt. The night was a Bliss showcase with nine out of the 10 tracks from the album featured, such as Nobody Knows It, Where You Were and the infectiously upbeat Sing Along!.

Kyung-soo, who entered showbiz in 2012 with the K-pop boy group Exo, also performed his solo hits Mars, Simple Joys, Popcorn, Somebody, That's Okay and I Do.

There were fans from both his boy band and solo careers, judging from the sea of Exo lightsticks as well as his new personal lightsticks launched this year, all flashing in sync.

Call me nostalgic, but it was the concert band's instrumental montage of a few Exo songs, especially the iconic Growl, during his costume change that got me most excited.

Emerging in an all-black outfit, Kyung-soo sang a short portion of Love Me Right before telling his fans through a translator: "Don't you think we should sing Exo's songs?"

With the fandom Exo-Ls all hyped up, he launched into a sing-along of the wistful love song Don't Go from Exo's 2013 album XOXO.

FOMO

K-pop concerts are often about fan service and without games, cute poses, pre-recorded videos and heartfelt chats, Kyung-soo seemed intent on just gifting his adorable goofiness, hearty chortles and amazing voice to the audience.

In one highlight of the show, Kyung-soo performed his ballad It's Love while seated on a metal structure raised above the stage but it felt superfluous. While I had hoped it would at least rotate, the structure remained stationary and he ended up with his back facing half of the audience (stage left where my colleague Nuriyah and I were seated) for the song.

In another high, he left the stage and ran around the VIP section on the ground floor, high-fiving the fans there. We were seated on the second-floor balcony, and with the excitement hidden from view, the FOMO was real.

When the lights came back on after just less than 120 minutes, I felt my adrenaline replaced by a feeling of abruptness. While Nuriyah preferred this concert to the fancon last year, it was the opposite for me, as much as I loved Saturday's concert.

The latter seemed rushed with brief talking segments where he thanked his fans for their support and joked about the different expressions from the audience. On the other hand, he chatted at length with the audience during the fancon, which felt more intimate with a deeper personal connection.

Leaving the stadium post-show, we heard him serenade the VIP ticket-holders at the exclusive send-off session with The Greatest Showman's Rewrite The Stars, a cover he did with Lee Su-hyun. He also performed an acapella version of Exo's 2016 hit Monster there.

FOMO again but, it's okay, I'll just loop the songs on YouTube.

Exo's Xiumin will be performing here on Sept 13 at the Bubbling & Boiling Music and Arts Festival while Baekhyun is holding his concert on Nov 1.

Former Exo member Luhan will also perform on Sept 27.

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kwokkarpeng@asiaone.com

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