NOTE: All photos are copyright of Howard Shiau Photography 2025
The multi-talented Bibi (aka Kim Hyeong-seo) is a singer, a songwriter, an actress, a philanthropist, and, now, a touring musician! After taking second place in The Fan, she released her first single “Binu” in 2019 and has explored making pop, R&B, and hip hop music as her popularity grew. Here latest studio album Eve:Romance is the culmination of her “Era of Love” series where she tells the story of Eve and Eve-1. To bring that story to life, Bibi has embarked on her first world tour, starting in Seoul just days after the May release of her record. On June 5th, she stopped at the Great Canadian Casino Resort in Toronto to grace us with her presence.
Before the show, the venue was filled with fans waving their Bibi Light Sticks and taking selfies with their friends. I even saw an older gentleman walking around with a Canadian flag wrapped around his shoulders and pictures of Bibi on each side of the flag! It takes all kinds!
WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD!!
Without an opener, the show started promptly at 8:15pm with Bibi alone on the stage in a preppy schoolgirl outfit. She kicked off her set with “Midnight Cruise”, beginning her run through Eve: Romance. After saying hi to the Toronto audience, she continued solo with “Hangang Gongwon” before the set changed to a school and she was joined by her male dancers. They ran through a playful skit to “Scott and Zelda” and “Ban Yang Gang” before things got a bit risqué with some red lighting and a bed center-stage, accompanying “Burn It”.
Here’s where we got a costume change and the first video, telling the story of the main protagonist Eve who, in her despair, commits suicide by slashing her wrists in a bathtub! (It’s not clear to me if this was an all ages show but I thought it was odd that, in this day, there was no warning that something might not be appropriate for young children or a disclaimer if you know anyone who has experienced suicidal thoughts.) Anyway, then in 2044, Eve is cloned and the new sexy woman who takes the stage at this point is Eve-1. When they sing and dance to the “Sugar Rush”, it’s the first instance where we see that she is either lip-syncing the whole song or singing parts to a track unlike the previous song “Pygma Girl” where she actually holds the headset mic to her mouth. I understand that with pop nowadays, especially with k-pop it seems, current technology (lip-syncing and auto-tune) is used to the utmost but I personally prefer a live singer any day, breathy and not perfectly locked to key all the time.
Bibi then hit the next three songs in quick succession: “Hongdae R&B”, “Real Man” and “Meat”, after which she took some time to catch her breath and speak to the crowd. The music had been great thus far but here’s where I, surprisingly, got the most enjoyment…..listening and watching Bibi interact with her fans! She spoke a little about the story of Eve and Eve-1 before losing her train of thought and self-deprecatingly saying that maybe she should just shut up and sing! She asked the audience which of the last three songs they liked better and they overwhelmingly cheered for “Meat” with its seductive skit and dance. I personally enjoyed “Real Man” partly because she sang it live. She mentioned that “Meat” is very Adam and Eve but that she’s not religious and means no harm to anyone who might be offended by the imagery. Also, she’s also not Illuminati! This evoked raucous laughter from the crowd!! Bibi’s a funny one.
Then she did a costume change, an elegant dress in which she sang “Winter”. Then we had another video of Eve-1 going for a visit with Eve’s old boyfriend. The video ends and Bibi has added wings to her dress. After the beautiful “Bluebird”, she “flaps” her wings…again, so funny! Back to the video we go for the meeting, a videotape viewing of clips of Eve, and an attempted suicide before Eve-1 and her boyfriend wrap up the story in a positive way (I won’t spoil this one).
Bibi speaks to the crowd about the story, about how dark it is, but now “the bullshit is ended”. The first song of the rest of the set began with “Bibi’s Vengeance” once again eliciting screams of delight. One of my favorite “pauses” of the night was when she runs up and down the aisles in the venue, occasionally stopping to take a picture with a fan, and finally grabbing a confused looking young man onto the stage with her! Turns out his name is Chris, he has a girlfriend, has his 27th birthday coming up meaning he’s the same as as Bibi (her birthday is in September), and he definitely knows the lyrics to her songs! She sits him down in a chair and, as she begins to sing “Best Love” to him, complete with touches and crouching down in front of him, he looked like the most uncomfortable person in the venue! Even as he’s singing along to the song, he can’t bear to look at her, eminently embarrassed. The audience had a ball!! It all ended well as she gave him a signed copy of the Eve: Romance CDs (Eve Edition).
Quick note on the stage production: the backdrop is so simple, smart and flexible, switching between a school scene, a bedroom scene, a Seoul street sceen, etc as well as projecting the story of Eve. The show itself was a smashing success; between the twenty-five song set, the skits and dancing, and the wonderful banter with the fans, the concert was totally worth the price of admission. If there are still tickets available in a city near you, go see Bibi perform. You won’t regret it!
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