Nearly 30 years after debut, it looks like H.O.T and fans of first generation K-Pop are still standing under the same sky!
On November 22 and 23, all five members of legendary K-Pop group H.O.T reunited for the first time in six years to perform a medley of their hit songs at the Hanteo Music Festival in South Korea. While Hanteo’s YouTube channel has only uploaded high quality videos of their performances of “I yah!” and “Candy” as of this article’s publication, their medley also included hits “Happiness”, “We Are the Future”, “Hope” and “Warrior’s Descendant”. During “I yah!”, leader Moon Hee-joon even donned a recreation of the iconic Freddy Krueger-esque gloves he wore during the track’s original promotions.
This stage marked their first performance since their 2019 High-five of Teenagers reunion concert. The concert was held at Gocheok Sky Dome from September 20 to 22, 2019.
H.O.T, an acronym for “Highfive of Teenagers”, debuted under SM Entertainment on September 7, 1996 with the track “Warrior’s Descendant”. Their second single “Candy” is considered a staple song in K-Pop. They disbanded in May 2001 citing contract disputes with the company. Members Kangta and Moon Hee-joon stayed with SME while Tony, Woohyuk and Jaewon went on to form jtL. As of this publication, only Kangta remains with SME.
They officially came back for the first time in seventeen years to perform a reunion concert, Forever [Highfive of Teenagers], at Seoul Olympic Main Stadium on October 13 and 14, 2018. Over 100,000 fans were in attendance.
Check out the full performances of “I yah!” and “Candy” below!