Im Young-woong closes 10-year run with historic Goyang stadium concert
Im Young-woong wrapped 'IM HERO - THE STADIUM 2' at Goyang Sports Complex on Sept. 6, becoming the first trot artist to perform at the venue.
First trot singer at Goyang — a decade in the making
Im Young-woong closed out IM HERO - THE STADIUM 2 at Goyang Sports Complex on September 6. The three-night run (September 4–6) landed exactly on his 10-year debut anniversary. He debuted on August 8, 2016 with the digital single 미워요 (Miwoyo).
The Goyang date was a record in itself: Im Young-woong became the first trot singer ever to perform at Goyang Sports Complex. He got there by working through a sequence of increasingly large venues. The gymnastics arena. Gocheok Sky Dome. Seoul World Cup Stadium (Sangam). Then Goyang.
The title track and the year around it
The concert sits inside the national tour IM HERO (아임 히어로). The title track driving this era is 또또, which Im Young-woong co-wrote and co-composed himself. Earlier in the summer, SBS aired the variety show 산골총각 영웅, adding another lane to a year that has kept him visible well beyond music charts. He maintained a consecutive No. 1 streak on the Idol Chart rating rankings — a run described as unprecedented.
On June 16, his birthday, Im Young-woong donated 200 million won to Korea University Medical Center for vulnerable patients. His fandom, 영웅시대 (Young-woong Sidae), ran a parallel donation relay and raised approximately 180 million won.
"The breath of about 20 fans"
In a 10th-anniversary thank-you letter, Im Young-woong wrote:
"The breath of about 20 fans who blew balloons with cold hands on a cold floor brought me here."
That image — a handful of people in an empty room — against three nights at a stadium that no trot act had touched before is the whole arc in one sentence. Goyang wasn't the finish line. Per the concert title framing, Sangam was the destination; Goyang is the next departure point.
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