New Evolution Global Tour was the first world tour and second concert tour overall by South Korean

girl group A girl group is a music act featuring several female singers who generally harmonize together. The term "girl group" is also used in a narrower sense in the United States to denote the wave of American female pop music singing groups, many of who ...

2NE1 2NE1 (, ) was a South Korean girl group formed by YG Entertainment, which was active between 2009 and 2016. The group was composed of four members: Bom, CL, Dara, and Minzy. Known for breaking typical stereotypes of K-pop, musical experiment ...

. It saw shows in 11 cities across 7 countries in Asia and North America spanning from July to December 2012, and marked the first world tour by a Korean girl group. The tour attracted more than 170,000 attendees from several different continents.

Background

The New Evolution Global Tour was officially announced on June 13, 2012 through the YG Family website. Marking the first world tour by a Korean girl group, the announcement revealed that the group would hold concerts throughout Asia, North America and Europe. The tour kicked off at the Olympics Gymnastics Stadium in Seoul on July 28 and 29, following the group's " I Love You" promotions. The tour was originally set to conclude on December 8 in Kuala Lumpur, however the concert was cancelled due to unresolved technical issues and ended instead on December 1 at the

Singapore Indoor Stadium The Singapore Indoor Stadium, known exonymously as the Indoor Stadium, is an indoor arena located in Kallang, Singapore. It is within walking distance of the Singapore National Stadium, and collectively form a part of the wider Singapore Spor ...

. Three-time winner of the

MTV Video Music Award The MTV Video Music Awards (commonly abbreviated as the VMAs) is an award show presented by the cable channel MTV to honour the best in the music video medium. Originally conceived as an alternative to the Grammy Awards (in the video category) ...

for

Best Choreography The MTV Video Music Award for Best Choreography is a craft award given to the artist, the artist's manager, and choreographer of the music video. From 1984 to 2007, the full name of the award was Best Choreography in a Video. The biggest winner ...

Travis Payne Travis Payne (born July 5, 1971) is an American choreographer, director and producer. He was the choreographer for Michael Jackson's This Is It until Jackson's death. Payne also served as the associate producer for '' This Is It'' and along ...

, served as the main director for production and choreography, along with

Divinity Roxx Divinity Roxx is a Grammy-nominated American recording artist, composer, and musician. Her work includes elements of rhythm and blues, hip hop, funk, soul, and rock. As a rapper and bassist, her performances have been reviewed as radical and dist ...

(who previously worked on Beyonce's world tour) and Michael Cotten (who worked on production design for the Olympic Games). Beatrice Chia-Richmond served as the creative director and concert organizer. The tour costumes were designed by long-time fashion collaborator

Jeremy Scott Jeremy Scott (born August 8, 1975) is an American fashion designer. He is the creative director of the fashion house Moschino and the sole owner of his namesake label. Since launching his brand in Paris in 1997, Scott has built a reputation as ...

. The stages were transformed into a theme park, a club, a sporting arena, and a fantasy world which incorporated use of giant inflatable props, conveyor belts, and a video wall—where it simulated a rollercoaster ride during CL and Minzy's performance of "Please Don't Go".

Reception

The tour was well received following its conclusion, with ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' listing the tour's stop at the Prudential Center in

New Jersey New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...

their second favorite concert in all of 2012. SSTV stated that tour were some of the best concerts among any girl group and

Newsis Newsis News Agency (Newsis) ( ko, 뉴시스통신사) is a privately owned news agency in South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korea, Korean Pe ...

commented the tour was reminiscent of a summer rock festival and "the performance was more complete than anything else".

Set list

Main set # "I Am the Best" # "Fire" # "Clap Your Hands" # "I Don't Care" (Reggae Mix Ver.) # "Don't Stop the Music" # Club DJ (CL solo) # "Don't Cry" and "You & I" (Bom solo) # "Follow Me" # "Please Don't Go" (CL & Minzy) # "Pretty Boy" # Dance (Minzy Solo) # "Kiss" (Dara Solo) # "It Hurts" # "Lonely" # "In the Club" # "Stay Together" # "I Love You" # "Ugly" # "Let's Go Party" # "Scream" # "Hate You" # "Go Away" # "Can't Nobody" Encore # "I Don't Care" # "I Am the Best"

Shows

Cancelled shows

Boxscore

Personnel

* Artist: CL,

Minzy Gong Min-ji (; born January 18, 1994), better known by her stage name Minzy, is a South Korean singer, rapper, and dancer. She debuted in 2009 as a member of South Korean girl group 2NE1, which became one of the best-selling girl groups worldw ...

Dara Dara is a given name used for both males and females, with more than one origin. Dara is found in the Bible's Old Testament Books of Chronicles. Dara �רעwas a descendant of Judah (son of Jacob). (The Bible. 1 Chronicles 2:6). Dara (also known ...

, Bom * Tour organizer:

YG Entertainment YG Entertainment Inc. () is a South Korean multinational entertainment agency established in 1996 by Yang Hyun-suk. The company operates as a record label, talent agency, music production company, event management and concert production compa ...

Running Into The Sun Running Into The Sun is a Singapore-based concert organiser and concert promoter founded in 2009. Overview The company is best known for bringing the K-pop, K-Pop wave to Southeast Asia, introducing acts such as Super junior, Super Junior's S ...

(Singapore) * Music director/bassist:

* Keyboardist:

DANiiVORY Theresa Danielle Flaminio Romack, known professionally as DANiiVORY, is an American singer and musician. She is currently touring with R&B artist Rhye, and is also pursuing a solo career. During 2010 and 2011, she was a keyboardist with Scarl ...

* Engineer: Eric Racy * Drummer: Gabriel "Manuals" Wallace * Guitarist:

Sharon Aguilar Sharon Aguilar (born 1986) is an American multi-instrumentalist, singer, and songwriter. She toured with 2NE1 in 2012, and has both founded and performed with several other groups. She played lead guitar and violin with Scarlet Fever, the all- ...

* Creative director: Beatrice Chia Richmond * Production:

, Divinity Roxx, Michael Cotten * Tour guest performers :

Will.i.am William James Adams Jr. (born March 15, 1975), known professionally as will.i.am (pronounced "Will-I-am"), is an American rapper, singer, songwriter and record producer. He is the founding and lead member of the musical group Black Eyed Peas. ...

(Los Angeles only)

Broadcast and recordings

''2012 2NE1 Global Tour: New Evolution (Live in Seoul)'' is the second

live album An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as Digital distribution#Music, digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early ...

of South Korean

. The album was released on December 4, 2012, by

. The live album sold 10,613 copies in South Korea, while in Japan, it sold 6,000 copies. The album was recorded during the group's first world tour ''New Evolution'' during their

Seoul Seoul (; ; ), officially known as the Seoul Special City, is the capital and largest metropolis of South Korea.Before 1972, Seoul was the ''de jure'' capital of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea) as stated iArticle 103 ...

dates on July 28 and 29 at the

Olympic Gymnastics Arena The Olympic Gymnastics Arena (), also known as the KSPO Dome since 2018, is an indoor arena located within the Olympic Park in Seoul, South Korea. It has a capacity of 15,000 and can be extended upto 20,000. It was constructed between 31 Aug ...

Track listing

References

External links

2NE1 official site
{{2NE1 2012 concert tours 2NE1