SHINee Fansign Accounts Part 1

I meant to write this post out months and months ago when I got asked a lot of questions about fansigns. So I hope this comes off as kind of interesting and not as bragging, cause that's certainly not how I intend it. I get a lot of questions asking about foreigners at fansigns and peoples reactions to them, specifically SHINee's. I also got some requests to share cute stories about SHINee so I figured I'd smoosh the two topics together and write a post about foreigners at fansigns with examples from people I know who have been. I've bolded the fan accounts so people can skip what I've written about my own circumstances and just fansigns in general.



I guess I'm always kind of confused when people ask what SHINee's reaction to foreigners is. No reaction. Really. There isn't any special reaction for them seeing a foreigner. They see foreigners all the time as part of their job and have been travelling overseas A LOT. They see Japanese girls, Chinese girls, Indonesian, Singaporean, Taiwanese, European, American, Australian and every other colour and country inbetween. They're also very comfortably adjusted to the idea that they have foreign fans. So I can assure you if, you as a foreigner from any country, go to a fansign they're not going to gape at you or stare in wonder or be overly surprised. Which is actually going to be a really nice change because if you're really obviously foreign you're going to get stared at enough as it is.

BUT, I do get how it might feel. Being a foreigner at a fansign makes the whole experience a little more daunting. And you stick out a lot. I've been to public fansigns where months later I've met someone and they've been like: 'Oh, I saw you at that one fansign' >.> I always feel really weird when people say this because I'm like: omgosh new person I want to be your friend! and: wow, I stick out in a crowd so much that you remember my face months later O.O

Anyway, my very first fansign was way back in 2010 during Lucifer. At the time I was a total fandom noob; I'd been a SHINee fan since debut, but I was never particularly active in fandom. I used to watch the variety shows and mvs and buy the albums, but I didn't know much about fansigns or recordings or any of that stuff. It didn't help that in those days I had 2 really close friends who were both into K-pop, but awkwardly one was a total YG stan and the other was a big JYP/Cube fan and then there was me who started out a DBSK fan before SHINee's debut and now I'm 10000% SHAWol. We were never interested in going to the same events. My friend wanted to go to the 2PM concert, I didn't want to pay money to see a group I didn't love. I wanted to go to Super Show 3, my YG/JYP friends weren't interested. So I only went to a handful of Lucifer events because my Korean wasn't as functional as it is now and I was always alone. At the time SHINee were endorsing Mexicana Chicken and me and my YG friend (who turned out to have a little Onew bias which she concealed from me for ages) heard that they were going to have a Mexicana Chicken fansign event. 500 fans were allowed in (which is a positively HUGE number for a fansign) and SHINee performed a few songs. We really really really wanted to go, but being total fandom noobs we had absolutely no idea how to get in. So we just showed up at the venue. This would NEVER EVER work now. You could not do this. SHINee are way too popular and have way too many fans. But at that stage they didn't have quite as many fans.

You had to have bought a certain amount of Chicken from Mexicana and you got a voucher which allowed you entry. I think the fansign wasn't advertised well or for long enough because they had extra tickets at the end and so all the girls with tickets were allowed in and, after a few hours of waiting around, me and my friend were allowed in at the end. We were ecstatic!! So excited. I think my heart almost pounded out of my chest because it was the first time I'd ever been so close to SHINee and it suddenly made them so real when previously I'd only ever seen them in the distance or online. Because there were so many fans you could only choose one member to get an autograph from. If all of SHINee had signed for all 500 people it would have taken FOREVER. So unfortunately for my friend, Onew appeared for the performance but had to quickly leave straight after because he was doing Rock of Ages the Musical at the time. So she had to quickly scramble to figure out who her next favourite member of SHINee was. For me I knew I was going to go straight to Key and I didn't have to think about it too much.

So my friend went first and interestingly at this fansign SHINee asked what your name was and you had to tell them. Normally now-a-days you write it on a post it for them so there are no spelling mistakes. I was fully prepared because I wanted Key to write my Korean name and knew I might stuff up pronunciation because I was so freaked out, and wrote it on my hand. My friend didn't do this and told Minho her name and instead of Hyejeong he heard Hejeong because she stuttered for about 30 seconds trying to tell him her name, she was so nervous. He was apparently very kind and it took him a second to realize she was foreign and didn't speak Korean perfectly because my friend is Chinese-Malaysian and often was mistaken for Korean. Anyway Minho write her name wrong and so she has a signature from Lucifer era Minho to....someone who is not her basically.

As for me, because I'm very obviously foreign, there was actually a camera in my face the whole time I was waiting in line and a very loud MC was asking me questions in horrible English. It was really off-putting and I felt kind of singled out and uncomfortable because at the time I was only 18 and not as out-going as I am now. Thankfully he left me alone when I went up to Key because I would have been devastated if he'd been in my face the whole time I was meeting Key for the first time.

This is what Key looked like the first time I met him:

I can really vividly remember fixating on that flash of blue eyeshadow. It was so bright and perfect and beautiful and he was so gorgeous. I remember I was shaking so bad and gushing at him in Korean because I'd practiced for ages beforehand what I wanted to say to him. I was a full time student at the time and I was studying Korean, so I really really wanted to show off by speaking Korean to him but...Key didn't really co-operate. When I went up he immediately said: "Hi, what's your name~?" really cutely...in English. I showed him my hand where I'd written my name and he checked it and began signing. He then asked: "Where are you from?" and I said: 난 호주사람입니다. 호주에 샤이니는 사랑하는팬들 많아요! (I'm Australian. In Australia, SHINee have a lot of fans who love them!) and Key smiled and said: "Oh really? In Australia?' insisting on speaking English. I was SO keen to show off my mad Korean skillz, but Key was just as eager to use English so we just continued having this weird Key speaks English, I speak Korean conversation. I think we locked eyes when he looked up to hand me the piece of paper and he said: 'Thank you for coming. Bye bye~' and I was like: you win this time Key, you win. 

Only regret from this fansign was that I didn't really glance at the other members too much when I had the chance and it would have been fascinating to see Lucifer era SHINee up so close with my own eyes.

My first ever Key signature~ Signed to my Korean name.

Anyway at the end of 2010 I went back to Australia to finish my degree (JUST missing SHINee World Concert I because they moved the date to January when it was originally December and my mother threatened to kill me if I didn't come home in time for Christmas). So I was in Australia for the entirety of Sherlock era and made it back to Korea the same time as Dream Girl promotions started. I didn't get to go to many things at the time because I was still trying to get my feet under me and sort out my living arrangements and settle into my new life as a teacher. Lesson planning took up a huge part of my spare time. So I didn't apply for any Dream Girl fansigns, which probably turned out to be a good idea because apparently a lot of people had a lot of trouble getting into any of them because SHINee had had a huge break between Korean promotions and everyone was crazy keen to see them again.

As for Why So Serious, I didn't try for any fansigns in this era either for two reasons. Reason number 1 being that I was SO. BROKE. It's normal not to get paid the first month or two living in Korea cause you need to set up all your Korean ID and banking etc, so I was still super broke and scared about my chances. Other reason being that I didn't want my first fansign ever to be missing a member. I mean, it's a lot of money and I really wanted to be able to see Jonghyun as well. Obviously because our poor baby was injured at this time, he couldn't make it to the fansigns, so I didn't try.

However, I did try for the Why So Serious High Touch event which was the day after the SHINee 5th Anniversary party. Big weekend right? Saturday Night was the 5th Anniversary Party  and Sunday afternoon was the High Touch event. Jonghyun filmed his first Why So Serious stage on Thursday for Mnet Countdown I think and so for a lot of us Saturday at the party was the first time we were seeing him since Dream Girl. And naturally he came to the High Touch event on Sunday.

So a High Touch is basically where you get to high five SHINee. The reason these events exist is because a lot more fans can gain entry as obviously getting a high five takes a lot less time than receiving a signature. The average fansign usually only holds 100 people, a High Touch often has 500-700 people, maybe more. It means you get a lot less time with SHINee, but your chances of winning entry are higher.

Sel-ka outside the High Touch Event~

In any case the Why So Serious High Touch event was held at UniGloX which is where Show Champion used to record I think. Anyway I don't really know that there's much to say about this event. It was really stressful because for me it was the first time I was meeting most of SHINee and the first time getting up close to Key in over 2 years. Needless to say he grew up quite a bit in that time ^.^;;; I was thrown further for a loop when it was revealed that they were letting us up to meet SHINee from the right side. As most of you know when SHINee stand together it's usually Onew, Taemin, Jonghyun, Minho and then Key. And ordinarily at fansigns Key is last to sign or high five or whatever but today they began taking fans from the right and I was actually really upset because what ended up happening was a product of my stupid Key feels.

So like I said, the WSS High Touch event was the day after SHINee's Anniversary Party and I was still kind of freaking out over Key's cover of 'We Are Golden' so basically when I went up to high five him he greeted me by saying: Hi~! before I started babbling about how fantastic his performance was. I should stress that we get moved along really quickly and I owe a huge apology to whoever was behind me in line and Minho because I was still talking to Key when I was kind of hustled along to Minho and Key was saying: 'Thank you' very sincerely (and, as always, in perfect English). A lot of girls were kind of sliding their fingers in with SHINee's and holding their hands and shaking them around, but I felt like...I really just wanted to let SHINee lead. I didn't want to intrude on their personal space or what they were comfortable with so I kind of just hung back. Maybe that makes me a coward but oh well; I feel okay about it~

Minho was trying to get out his polished and perfect 5 English signature phrases: Hi, nice to meet you, thank you for coming, see you again and bye, but...I don't know everything was a blur after Key. I remember Minho seemed to have large hands though and, as always, was very sincere. I'm afraid I barely got a second of eye contact with Minho because I hadn't even realized I was being moved in front of him until he was kind of waving goodbye OTL. I felt like a total ass afterwards, but comfort myself with the knowledge that there were 700 fans there that day and he probably doesn't remember the crazy, dazed Key fan that just kind of blinked at him.

Jongyhun was next and...he was waving and eye smiling and saying: 안녕~~Annyeong. (I work at schools so it's kind of ingrained in me whenever I see a co-worker to bow and greet them formerly. I guess Jonghyun must just have that...boss presence cause my instinct was to bow and say 안녕하세요? which is a more formal greeting and...I dunno he must have found something funny about how flustered I was and kind of laughed at me. He had the most solid high-five of them. For Key and Minho it was just kind of gently pressing hands, but for me Jonghyun gave me a properly decent clap of hands. Also Jonghyun was standing leaning over the table with his arm propping him up. This is just me but seemed like he was....flexing? ^.^;;;

Okay so funny story about this fansign; there was a girl sitting next to me who I believe was from Singapore. She said she had a gift for Jonghyun but she wanted to explain to him something about it and asked if I knew any Korean to help her out. Turns out she had taken a KILLER photo of Jonghyun during Internet War in Singapore and wanted to show a life-size print of his naked torso to him. However she was carrying it around in a tube and she wanted to have it framed and hand it to him later (I don't know how she planned to hand it to him honestly ^.^) So I helped her explain in very simple Korean. And then tried to watch out very carefully to see his reaction. 

Turns out she showed Jonghyun this life-sized photo and explained that she had taken it and he didn't let her take it back. Apparently he liked the photo and before she could explain that she wanted to take it and have it framed, Jonghyun had already gotten his hands on it and eagerly passed it back to a manager. From memory Taemin had a good giggle-snort at the truly ginormous poster.

Anyway, I got to Taemin next and he was in a really really good mood that day and was holding both hands up and kind of...lacing his fingers with everyone's and staring into their eyes. I noticed what he was doing and held both my hands up, but...it was like I was getting too close to the sun. Something about how sincere and lovely Taemin was being made me chicken out and instead of letting him hold my hands, I awkwardly clapped my hands against his and took them away before he could hold them. Nearly every person I have ever told this story has been like: WHY DIDN'T YOU HOLD HIS HANDS?!??! I'm sorry okay, it was my first time EVER being that close to him and he's...really something. I was afraid if he got me in his hands, there'd be no escaping him o.O Taemin seemed pretty amused by how weird and awkward I was being about the hand-holding but chirped a cheerful 'Thank you~' and let me move onto Onew.

Onew...I don't know something about that man is really...different. Every time I get close to him I just feel very warm. He also has this way about him, that makes you feel like nothing is more important than what you're saying in that moment and he has such a strong, solid presence. Like a leader I guess ^.^  I kind of just met all 4 members after Key with breathless greetings in Korean. From experience and watching lots of fans at fansigns now, I tend to get the feeling that the girls that are completely blissed out and dying and imploding and freaking out, kind of bring this...almost fond amusement out of most idols. Honestly if I could give someone advice at a fansign or meeting an idol, even if you don't say anything, if you smile that's probably all any idol needs ^.^ 

The High Touch event ended with, once again, Key having foiled my plans to show off my incredible Korean by utilizing his flawless English and me walking away with about 10 million regrets because I went through those short moments in SHINee's presence in a breathless daze, unable to comprehend the beauty and glory in front of me. And also feeling like a dick for looking at Key while standing in front of Minho OTL.

Anyway, this is way too long so I think I'll write it in parts.

If you guys have any questions that I haven't answered you can leave them in the comments, mention me on twitter or ask anonymously via ask.fm if you want to~ I can answer some more questions about fansigns and my accounts in Part 2 (if I know the answer ^.^) Thank you~