NASA jacket dude is Jongho, their amazing main vocalist. Jean shirt dude is San, I'm not surprised your eyes constantly went to him since he's known for being an amazing dancer and performer (seriously, I've never seen a stage presence like his before. He's fr a stage genius). Blue hair dude is Hongjoong, their captain (leader), another stage genius tbh. They're all amazing performers but San and Hongjoong especially leave me awestruck every time! If you wanna learn their names I'd recommend checking out a guide :) It's totally worth it, these guys are awesome artists and people.
NASA jacket/high note guy - Jongho (maknae main vocal, also verified Fruit Ninja, impressed the hell out of Changsub and Eunkwang with that 4 part note and they not only went *A WORTHY COMPETITOR HAS APPEARED!!* but they also very quickly adopted him.) Jean jacket/shirt & pink haired guy you always get drawn to - San (lead vocal & performer, is actual soft child off stage, but he's in the Demon Line for a reason.) Blue hair/ fur jacket guy - Hongjoong (Captain - do not call him leader that's a 50 dollar fine - is also part of the infamous Demon Line) Those are the ones you picked out. And yes, Ateez has a 'Demon line' because of the way they seemingly get possessed while on stage. It's really hard to catch it in the Kingdom full video (but is clear on the fancam) you can see Yunho in the back right before the dance break literally just... getting possessed back there. Roughly half of them are demons, another 2 are dead ass making their way into being an incubus, Mingi's mostly trying to find holy water and god help *all of us* the day Jongho joins the demon line. We are all in for it.
Bit o' knowledge: ATEEZ's group concept is pirates, and more specifically space and time traveling pirates with the help of the hourglass (cromer). You'll note that in both the Wonderland and Guerrilla lyrics, they talk about the door opening, and reference beginnings and endings, which is all part of the group's storyline/lore. Our ship's captain, Hong Joong, started us off in both versions, and you noted his blue hair (still iconic, and the first time we saw blue for an MV). Yunho (1:29) is the group's main dancer, but also a splendid vocalist and everyone's boyfriend template. He's center during the dance sections in the Kingdom performances, and is the tallest member. Wooyoung (1:33) is an excellent dancer as well, and has his own Artist of the Month on Studio Choom, so that's highly recommended. Seonghwa (1:37) is the eldest member, got the best costuming in the Kingdom performance and got to shoot the Kraken down, and is both a vocalist and one of the two main visuals of the group. San, which is Korean for mountain, (1:43) is who you noticed during the dance practice in the jean shirt, and he's very memorable during Kingdom with his pink hair and flaming expressions at the camera. [Incidentally, the guy with the jean jacket is a backup dancer!] His performance and dance skills are basically group legendary. Yeosang (2:40) didn't used to get as many lines, but is a killer performer and the group's main visual. He's sweet and looks ethereal even when intense. Mingi (2:29) is our deep-voiced rapper, second tallest in the group, stellar dancer and despite badassery on stage, just the sweetest personality. He took a hiatus during the Kingdom timeframe, so wasn't in the performance (sad!!). Jongho (3:32) is the youngest (maknae) of the group, and he's usually who you'll see giving intense stares and delivering mind-bending vocals, as he does during Kingdom. You'll see him swing Yunho while hitting his notes during the Kingdom performance. What!? So glad you had a chance to see them doing some of their finest work. Wonderland is a masterpiece, and they combined it with classical for Kingdom, which made it even more spectacular. Thanks for your review!
Thank you Kloves 😂 Wonderland is a masterpiece. It was awesome seeing you enjoy it so much 😌 NASA jacket boi, Jongho is also one of the best vocalists in Kpop right now. To see more of his power and technique, there's an episode of Lee Mujin Service with him as the guest.. it's definitely worth checking out
Wonderland is beyond epic, glad you checked it out - and the Kingdom performance is legendary. During Kingdom they were short on one member as our deep voiced rapper, Mingi, was on a mental health break, and him being part of Kingdom was the only thing that would have made that stage better. Lucky for us, ATEEZ used Wonderland Symphony no 9 as an opening song for their recent tour, so we got to see them perform this live with all the 8 members. I got to see it live and just...no words! Kingdom was a competition (or well, is), where the 6 boygroups had different challenges for their stages and had a headache inducing point system with judges, voting and all that. The fanwars, the management of the groups etc. and filming hours were just awful during it, and for examples ATEEZ' members have talked about how utterly exhausting experience it was, but at the same time we got some absolutely legendary stages, like this. I watched it for ATEEZ, but all the groups did amazing job! And yes, oh this stage is so full of lore - ATEEZ used the Kingdom stages to further their storyline. Like their Guerrilla MV was teases year and a half ago during Kingdom stage too, because ATEEZ ties their storyline into almost everything they do from live stages to concerts to reality shows to the music itself.
I saw them in concert in Atlanta in January and they opened with this song and it gave me goosebumps. I have seen BTS in concert and it is magical and indescribable, but to me, Ateez is a very close second in concert!
So, about Queendom/Kingdom : it's a competition between kpop groups, each round all the groups do a stage performance with a given constraint (for Wonderland here it was "your group's representative song"), and there's some votes to determine a score and who won each round (the groups between themselves, and a public vote of some sort). The last round is an original song, it's released a week before they perform it in the final and chart performance counts. There's also a live vote during the final and the group that has the most points in the end is the winner. HOWEVER the groups that participate don't really care if they win, it's mostly a promotion tool and the most important part is that they can show off their performance ability ! Considering the charting/voting aspect the competition isn't really fair for groups with a smaller fandom - but it's a very good way to build a bigger one that's why groups will try to make the best stages they can to get noticed. There have been four seasons so far with those competitors (lists in debut order) : - Queendom (2019), with Park Bom, AOA, Mamamoo, Oh My Girl, Lovelyz and (G)I-DLE - Road to Kingdom (2020), which had lesser known groups compete for a spot in Kingdom : Pentagon, ONF, Golden Child, The Boyz, Verivery, OneUs, TOO - Kingdom : Legendary War (2021) : BTOB, iKon, SF9, The Boyz, Stray Kids, Ateez - Queendom 2 (2022) : Hyolyn, Brave Girls, WJSN, Loona, Viviz, Kep1er So Ateez were the maknaes in Kingdom but they pulled off some really amazing stages, starting with this one that pushed other groups to go just as ham as them with stage setups and props in the next rounds. Kingdom didn't have a public (cos of covid) so they could do a lot more in terms of stage setups and camera tricks, but the actual performance was done live just once like the other seasons (with the other groups watching).
Did you see that little box next to the Sandglass (chromer)? It say's From the New World. Which is this new comeback's album and has a song called New World.
Jean shirt guy is named San and he is a crazy good performer. I mean Yunho is considered (and rightly so) Ateez' best dancer (he 's the tallest often at the center). And with his clean lines and perfect execution Yunho deserves that title but San is insanely good. He finds ways to make a choreo is that are unique with facial expressions completely original and he goes hard, man. Harder than anyone I have ever seen. Watch Hala Hala on a live show to see how hard he can go, you won't be disappointed. Great reaction as always. So glad you're diving into Ateez.
When you said the whole room is shaking I died laughing. KQ entertainment WAS on top of a 7/11 and they got sued by them because when Ateez practiced things would fall off shelves and the ceiling would get damaged. 😂
Thanks for the reaction! Ateez are simply amazing at performance. I think it is because they focused on performance since before debut. They are encouraged to perform each song in character-and each member creates their own character. So while they dance in sync they aren’t uniform and each member is free to add their own spice. The dance practice for this is funny because you can see the lights flickering and camera shaking as they dance. The Kingdom version is a mash up with Symphony #9 (this was also sampled in the Jaws theme song) and an EDM version of the song. Those are real orchestral instruments along with the original arrangement. One of the best mash ups ever-they feel like they go together. Fun fact about this-They performed this without sleep for about 48 hours because they were in the middle of their fireworks comeback and only had about 30 hours before show time to practice this. You can hear the fatigue a bit in San’s voice-it’s a little fried in this where it usually isn’t and definitely isn’t in the studio version or concerts.
From what I've heard, Ateez and Dreamcatcher have same producers- Ollrounder and Leez. Although I'm not sure if they produced this specific song but they're beasts
![ATEEZ: Wonderland REACTION [MV + lyrics + dance practice + kingdom performance]](/img/logo.svg){kind=logo}
