By Hasan Beyaz
Photos by Ryan Coleman
Last year, TAEMIN arrived for a world tour date at London's Troxy – a 3,000-capacity venue that sold out almost immediately. A second UK date was added at Manchester Arena, making him only the third K-pop act to play there, after BLACKPINK and ATEEZ. Both of those acts have since headlined BST Hyde Park; as it happens, ATEEZ are headlining the day TAEMIN performs at it. The through-line writes itself.
TAEMIN debuted with SHINee in 2008, at 14 years old. By the time he launched his solo career with Ace in 2014, it was already clear that he was operating at a different register – a performer whose instinct for presence and movement didn’t always match the industry's ability to categorise it. He has since become what the industry calls the "Idol's Idol," a designation earned not through chart dominance alone but through the specific way younger generations of artists keep pointing back at him. When "MOVE" dropped in 2017, the choreography went viral not because it was technically difficult, but because it was hypnotic in a way that defied easy explanation.
That quality – the sense that TAEMIN is doing something you can't quite name – is still entirely intact between 3:30-4:10PM at Hyde Park.
TAEMIN is second on the Great Oak Stage – early in the day, before the headline energy has built. He has forty minutes. If you know TAEMIN's catalogue, you know that isn't enough. If you don't, the set makes the case anyway – and he doesn't waste a second of it. Forty minutes on a stage like this, in front of a crowd that may never have seen what he's capable of live, is its own kind of argument. He packed it accordingly.
"Sexy in the Air" – one of the two title tracks from his 2024 mini-album Eternal – opens the set, and it's the right call; you're immediately inside his gravitational field. “London, are you ready?” he shouts. “Let’s go” as the whirling guitars begin to fill the air. From there, five of his most iconic title tracks build the argument one by one: "WANT", "Criminal", "MOVE", "Guilty", "Advice".
These are some of the most recognisable solo K-pop title tracks of the past decade, and in an open-air setting, almost back to back, they feel like evidence of why a generation of artists keeps pointing back at him.
The sleek dance-pop of 'Permission', released earlier this year, slots in near the start – and the placement makes sense. A song built around doing what you want, when you want, dropped before a run of a decade's worth of proof that he meant it. “It’s so good to be back in one of my favourite cities,” he tells us afterwards. “I’m honoured to have been invited.”
"Criminal", from 2020’s Never Gonna Dance Again : Act 1, lands particularly hard. The opening choreography – TAEMIN sinking down, hands moving in a cuffed motion – cuts through the crowd in a way that shows the audience doesn't just know the song; they know his specific, signature gestures, and their response to seeing them live is a different kind of feeling entirely. “MOVE” does the same. The slow hip roll against the 'you got got the rhythm' lyric is one of the most recognisable moments in K-pop choreography, and watching it performed at Hyde Park – outdoors, in daylight, in front of people who may be encountering it for the first time – gives it a different weight. If anything, it gains context.
A mashup of "Advice” with “IDEA" is where the set takes its sharpest historical turn. BoA's "killing me softly" vocal line, intact during today’s performance from the original 2020 recording of “IDEA,” anchor the moment in an earlier era – not just of TAEMIN's catalogue, but of the genre itself. The K-pop that now regularly fills arenas, stadiums, and headlines major festivals like today’s was built on a generation of artists like TAEMIN; like BoA. Hearing her voice here, in this setting, with ATEEZ – one of K-pop's biggest acts – headlining a few hours later, makes the lineage impossible to ignore. This is where K-pop came from.
Then there's TAEMIN’s suit; all-black, and immaculately cut. He spends a portion of the set slowly unbuttoning the blazer to unveil nothing underneath. The reveal sits in interesting tension with the "Guilty" choreography’s killing part – that specific seductive pause with a lift of the shirt – but it doesn't undercut it. If anything, the crowd's thrilled response to the unbuttoning becomes its own event.
Two new songs close the set. "Let Me Be the One" carries a clear Michael Jackson influence – slick, warm-toned '90s pop with an ease to it that suits Hyde Park’s sunny afternoon light. It's fitting given that MJ is part of what drew TAEMIN to dance in the first place, and the stylistic debt here reads as genuine rather than borrowed. "1004" is a power ballad, built on the full weight of his vocal range. In Korean numeric slang, 1004 means angel; the backdrop for '1004' is a deep blue starfield – vast, celestial. TAEMIN, suit unbuttoned, one arm extended into the light, doesn't look out of place in front of it. He looks exactly like someone who found what he was looking for.
Forty minutes was the slot. It wasn't enough, as has been the recurring theme of TAEMIN’s UK appearances to date. From London’s Troxy to Manchester Arena to the Great Oak Stage at BST Hyde Park, TAEMIN’s trajectory isn't slowing down – and for someone who has been doing this since 2008, the only surprise is that it took this long.