The Made World Tour was the second worldwide concert tour and ninth overall by South Korean boy band Big Bang, in support of their third Korean-language studio album Made (2016). The tour began on April 25, 2015, and concluded on March 6, 2016, in Seoul, South Korea. It visited 15 countries including China, Japan, Australia, Mexico, and the United States.
Background The tour was first announced on April 1, 2015, with the announcement of the first two concerts in Seoul on April 25 and 26. On April 16, the first trailer of the tour was released on YouTube. On April 27, the remainder of the Asian leg was revealed with a total of 30 shows. In July, nine shows were confirmed in Mexico, Australia, Canada, Taiwan and Macau. It was the first time for the group to visit Mexico, Australia, Canada and Macau.
It was also revealed a highly acclaimed crew would be joining the tour, including LeRoy Bennett, Ed Burke, Gil Smith II, and Jonathan Lia. They previously worked with Beyoncé and Jay-Z on their On The Run Tour as well as with BigBang during their Alive Galaxy Tour.
Commercial performance In Asia, following the announcement of the tour, the first shows in Seoul sold out in a matter of minutes, resulting in server crashes due to high traffic. In Mainland China, BigBang gathered a record-breaking 280,000 people in attendance from 13 shows, making the tour the most attended concert tour by a foreign act of all time in China, with three sold-out shows in Shanghai making BigBang the only Korean act to hold three concerts in a row at Mercedes-Benz Arena and sold-out show in Chengdu, as BigBang held the largest audience drew by a Korean act for a single concert in China with 30,000 attending the show. Further sold-out shows were held in Guangzhou, Beijing, Dalian and Wuhan.
In Hong Kong, all three shows sold out in less than two hours after they went on sale, making BigBang the first non-Chinese singer to sell out three concerts in Hong Kong on two separate occasions The Macau two night concerts sold out within 3 hours, leading to a third show being added. It made them the first ever foreign artist group to hold three consecutive shows at the Cotai Arena, attracting over 28,598 fans with gross $5.3 million, and ranked the group at number 41 on the Top 100 International Box office Grosses of the year at Pollstars year end list.
In Singapore, demand was so high that "audio seats" were put on sale after regular tickets quickly sold out. In Malaysia, hundreds of fans lined up in advance to purchase tickets for the July 25 concert, which eventually sold out in a matter of hours. Due to high demand, a second show was added on July 24, making them the first Korean act to hold a two-day concert in Kuala Lumpur.
In Japan, BigBang became the first foreign artist holding a dome tour for the third consecutive year, the tour sold out and 4 new shows added in Tokyo Dome and Fukuoka Dome due to high demand. the tour that drew 911,000 fans in Japan making it the most attended concert tour by a foreign act of all time in the country. In Australia, a second show was added in Sydney after high demand, the tour became the highest-grossing and most-attended tour by Korean artists in the country. with $5.8 million from 35,000 tickets sold in 3 shows.
In North America, the tour became the most attended tour by Korean act as it was listed on Pollstars year end list, on the Top 200 North American Tours, BigBang ranked at number 126 and earned $7.8 million from four reported shows. In Mexico they performed their most-attended concert outside Asia with 19,141 tickets sold at Mexico City Arena. In Canada, they performed in front of 14,000 fans making it the attended concert by a Korean act of all time in the country. In the United States the tour became the most attended concert tour by a Korean act of all time at the time. BigBang ended the tour with three encore shows in Seoul selling 38,000 tickets within 10 minutes. A total of around 1,500,000 fans attended the tour, making it the biggest tour made by Korean act.
Critical reception
The tour received universal acclaim from music critics. Jon Caramanica from The New York Times called BigBang the "Smooth K-Pop Criminals" and described the concert as an "extreme, intense, overwhelming Korean pop carnival", listing it as one of the best tours in 2015. Bryan Armen Graham of The Guardian gave the Newark concert four out of five stars and begin his review by saying BigBang deliver fully realised pop at its sophisticated peak, describing it as "K-pop heroes delivering candyfloss hooks with a sharp edge" while praising all five members' individual talents. The Los Angeles Times described BigBang as "One of the most inventive, aesthetically visionary acts in its genre" and called their Anaheim concert an "incredibly significant moment for K-Pop", praising the diversity of their songs and performances. Grantland's Rembert Browne remarked that BigBang is "a boy band that in reality is a supergroup", praising each member's musical idiosyncrasies, saying "It's terrifying how good each member is". Billboard gave the concert a 4.5/5, calling BigBang "five individuals that are separately complex, but together an undeniable supergroup" and stating how the group are still redefining what a boy band is today, and how they shine as a collective and on an individual, human basis.
Other reviews from the tour included Maria Sherman writing for The Village Voice. Sherman described the show as unique and "unlike anything in the western pop schema" saying that the concert "served to reflect the rainbow spectrum of human emotion". Julianne Shepherd of the Jezebel described the concert as "the true definition of a spectacular" and stated they "have never seen a group nail being a boy band the way Big Bang did, playing up each member's individual strengths and personalities but also flawless when it came time to come together as a unit". David Lee from the Vibe called BigBang the "Kings of K-Pop" and praised their solo performances as the most interesting moments of the night, and naming the solo stages of the members as one of the most interesting moments of the night, praising the group solo diversity from giving nightclub vibes with Seungri, Daesung's feel-good rock anthem, T.O.P's rebellion stage, Taeyang's ballad hit to G-Dragon ending it with pop song, and described it as an "amazing thing to witness".
Gwendolyn Ng writing for The Straits Times opened the review with "Big Bang brings on the party with fancy moves, solid vocals and off-the-wall humour", and the live performance was "explosive" and stated that "Their solid vocals powered them through emotive ballads, high octane dance tunes and fiery rapping". Siau Ming En from Today Online wrote on their review that the megastars BigBang "wowed the Singapore crowd with not just their powerhouse moves on stage but also their seasoned and cheeky banter. Melanie Leung of the South China Morning Post began her article stating concert as the "Hong Kong's most anticipated show of the year", praising "Their sleek costumes stood out against the blasting fireworks, and every dance move was slick as they delivered a string of hits".
Live stream On December 2, 2014 YG Entertainment held a press conference in Hong Kong to announce a partnership with Tencent's QQ Music, the largest online music service in Mainland China. On June 20, 2015, during a joint press conference, YG Entertainment and Tencent announced the latter would exclusively live stream BigBang's concert in Shanghai the following night through Tencent's live concert streaming service, Live Music. On October 25, Tencent's Live Music held a second livestream for the concert in Macau which saw more than 120,000 paid viewers online, hitting a new domestic record for the number of paid online viewers.
The final concert in Seoul was aired live via Tencent's Live Music in Mainland China and Naver's V App internationally, with a total of six separate live-streams: five following each member and one showing the entire group. On the V app, the concert recorded 3.62 million views (total views from six different live-streams).
Set list
Tour dates +List of concert dates Date City Country Venue Attendance April 25, 2015 Seoul South Korea Olympic Gymnastics Arena 26,000 April 26, 2015 May 30, 2015 Guangzhou China Guangzhou International Sports Arena 24,000 May 31, 2015 June 6, 2015 Beijing MasterCard Center 20,000 June 7, 2015 June 12, 2015Hong Kong AsiaWorld–Arena 32,000 June 13, 2015 June 14, 2015 June 19, 2015 ShanghaiChina Mercedes-Benz Arena 30,000 June 20, 2015 June 21, 2015 June 26, 2015 Dalian Zhongsheng Center 10,000 June 28, 2015 Wuhan Wuhan Sports Center Gymnasium 10,000 July 11, 2015 Bangkok Thailand Impact Arena 20,000 July 12, 2015 July 18, 2015Singapore Singapore Indoor Stadium 20,000 July 19, 2015 July 24, 2015 Kuala Lumpur Malaysia Putra Indoor Stadium 40,000 July 25, 2015 July 30, 2015 Manila Philippines SM Mall of Asia Arena August 1, 2015 Jakarta Indonesia Indonesia Convention Exhibition August 7, 2015 Shenzhen China Shenzhen Bay Sports Center 12,000 August 9, 2015 Nanjing Nanjing Olympic Sports Center Gymnasium 10,000 August 14, 2015 Chengdu Chengdu Sports Centre 30,000 August 25, 2015 Hangzhou Yellow Dragon Sports Center 21,000 August 28, 2015 Changsha Hunan Int'l Convention & Exhibition Centre 7,000 August 30, 2015 Chongqing Chongqing International Expo Center 10,000 September 24, 2015 Taipei Taiwan Taipei Arena 41,000 September 25, 2015 September 26, 2015 September 27, 2015 October 2, 2015 Las Vegas United States Mandalay Bay Events Center 10,000 October 3, 2015 Los Angeles Staples Center 13,400 October 4, 2015 Anaheim Honda Center 11,000 October 7, 2015 Mexico City Mexico Mexico City Arena 19,141 October 10, 2015 Newark United States Prudential Center 22,000 October 11, 2015 October 13, 2015 Toronto Canada Air Canada Centre 14,000 October 17, 2015 Sydney Australia Qudos Bank Arena 35,000 October 18, 2015 October 21, 2015 Melbourne Rod Laver Arena October 23, 2015Macau Cotai Arena 28,600 October 24, 2015 October 25, 2015 November 12, 2015 Tokyo Japan Tokyo Dome 910,000 November 13, 2015 November 14, 2015 November 15, 2015 November 20, 2015 Osaka Kyocera Dome November 21, 2015 November 22, 2015 November 28, 2015 Fukuoka Fukuoka Dome November 29, 2015 December 5, 2015 Nagoya Nagoya Dome December 6, 2015 January 9, 2016 Osaka Kyocera Dome January 10, 2016 January 11, 2016 February 6, 2016 Fukuoka Fukuoka Dome February 7, 2016 February 23, 2016 Tokyo Tokyo Dome February 24, 2016 March 4, 2016 Seoul South Korea Olympic Gymnastics Arena 38,000 March 5, 2016 March 6, 2016 Total 1,500,000
Cancelled shows Date City Country Venue Reason August 16, 2015 Yanji China Yanji People's Stadium Unforeseen circumstance
Box office score data VenueCityTickets sold / available Gross revenueStaples CenterLos Angeles, California13,361 / 13,535 (99%)$1,715,587Prudential CenterNewark, New Jersey21,903 (91%)$3,397,699Cotai ArenaMacau28,598 (98%)$5,311,145Taipei ArenaTaipei, Taiwan44,000 (100%)$8,010,660
Personnel Credits adapted from the 2016 Bigbang World Tour [Made] Final In Seoul DVD.Creative directors LeRoy A. Bennett Ed BurkeVideo content Jonathan Lia – Producer Ed Burke – Creative direction Dikayl Rimmasch – DirectorBand BigBang (G-Dragon, T.O.P, Taeyang, Daesung, Seungri) – Lead vocals Gil Smith II – Music director/Keyboard 1 Adrian Porter – Pro Tools Programmer Omar Dominick – AMD/Bass Bennie Rodgers II – Drums/Percussions Justin Lyons – Guitar Dante Jackson – Keyboard 2DancersHi-Tec Park Jung Heon Kim Byoung Gon Kwon Young Deuk Kwon Young Don Lee Young Sang Lee Han Sol
Crazy Won Ah Yeon Park Eun Young Kim Min Jung Kim Hee Yun Choi Hye Jin Oh Hye RyeonShow' Lee Jae Wook – Choreographer Chris Grant – Co-choreographer Jeung Chi Young – Concert director Gee Eun – Visual director/stylist Kim Tae Hyun – Hair stylist