Flonique Guimary

From a Tagalog letter to a Confession about Clubbing in Manila: The Best Moments from The Rose's 'Rosetopia'

Article (news)

Push Team

<div>South Korean rock band The Rose has closed the Manila leg of its ROSETOPIA Asia Tour, and for Filipino fans, it was a night that will be hard to top.</div>The four-piece – Woosung on vocals and guitar, Dojoon on vocals, guitar and keyboard, Hajoon on drums, and Taegyeom on bass –  took the SM Mall of Asia Arena stage on Saturday, August 15, for a one-night-only show before the band steps away for a hiatus. They ran through &quot;Utopia,&quot; &quot;Back to Me,&quot; &quot;RED,&quot; &quot;Yes,&quot; &quot;Lifeline,&quot; &quot;Walking on Clouds,&quot; &quot;Control,&quot; and &quot;Sorry,&quot; among others.One of the sweetest moments of the evening came when Dojoon pulled out a letter and read it to Filipino fans in Tagalog.&quot;Napakalaking biyaya para sa amin ang makagawa ng musika at maibahagi ito sa buong mundo. Maraming salamat sa inyong pagmamahal at suporta sa nakaraang siyam na taon. Dahil sa inyo, narito kami ngayon. Ako at kami ay napakasaya at proud na masabing kami ang The Rose,&quot; Dojoon said.Hours before the show, the band sat down with select members of Philippine media, where the conversation went everywhere. Dojoon walked away with a new Tagalog word – &quot;lutang&quot; – after the group was asked who among them would make the most unlikely tour guide in Manila.Woosung, for his part, picked up a well-known Filipino expletive, abbreviated as &quot;P.I.,&quot; after he asked the local equivalent of a certain four-letter English word. That came up when he was asked what movie title he would give the night&#x27;s concert.Woosung also admitted the band once went clubbing in Manila – although he was quick to add that those days are behind them.&quot;In Manila, we have been to this really nice club. It was three years ago. We don&#x27;t do that anymore,&quot; Woosung said, referring to The Cove at Okada Manila. &quot;It was this really big club with a swimming pool and there&#x27;s like three different clubs in one club,&quot; he added.Asked what they love most about Filipino habits and culture, Dojoon, Taegyeom, and Hajoon all pointed to the warmth and hospitality they get here – the high-pitched greetings, the smiles, the way people go out of their way to be respectful. Woosung had a more specific answer: the &quot;Sir&quot; culture, and how everyone seems to greet them with a drawn-out &quot;Siiir&quot; wherever they go.Taegyeom, meanwhile, went straight to a gaming memory. He joined a celebrity Valorant showmatch at the CONQuest Festival in 2023, back when he still went by Jaehyeong.&quot;I was playing Valorant for CONQuest. It was so fun. It was this unique, iconic moment for me. I will never forget that moment. That&#x27;s why Manila is important to me,&quot; Taegyeom said.Woosung is no stranger to the country either. He lived in the Philippines for about a year when he was around six years old.&quot;To be honest, I used to live in the Philippines for like a year. And I think coming here, even though I only lived here for a year, because the people are so warm, it feels like a second home when we do the shows,&quot; he said.&quot;We go to all kinds of different cities. To me, personally, Manila feels like home,&quot; Woosung added.He also had high praise for Filipino crowds, particularly their singing, when asked which Manila show moment stuck with the band the most.&quot;First of all, you guys are good at singing. Like I said, we go to different cities, people sing along, but Manila is hitting every single note. Some people are even harmonizing. So that was very incredible,&quot; Woosung said.The band saved its warmest words for the Black Roses – the name The Rose&#x27;s fandom goes by – many of whom have followed them since their earliest days.&quot;We are very happy to be back in Manila,&quot; Dojoon said. &quot;That&#x27;s all we care about – being in front of you. So all I wanna say is thank you for coming back, and I hope we see [each other] again.&quot;&quot;As a band, our purpose is to heal through music. And that&#x27;s the kind of music and impact we want to make. Throughout the past ten years, we&#x27;ve tried making music that could heal people and be there for them through their ups and downs, happy times, sad times, and frustrated times. So that&#x27;s what we will keep doing throughout the years. Thank you for tuning in, thank you for showing interest in our music, that&#x27;s what gets us going. And we rose you guys, bye bye,&quot; Woosung said, ending with the phrase the band has used to sign off to fans for years.&quot;We&#x27;ve been together for ten years. Thank you for walking together side by side. The main reason why we keep making music, doing music, is because of you guys. Thank you for being part of the Black Roses for the past ten years. We rose you, and I hope to see you guys again soon,&quot; Taegyeom said.&quot;Like what Taegyeom said, we&#x27;ve been doing this for about ten years. We really thank you guys for supporting us and always being with us as well. We rose you,&quot; Hajoon said.Woosung, who underwent vocal cord surgery in April, also shared that the band will be releasing a new album before the hiatus officially begins. Some of the unreleased tracks they performed that night will be on it – a parting gift, of sorts, for the fans.Filipino fans have had several chances to see them up close. The band performed in Manila in December 2019 for the We Rose You Live Tour at Samsung Hall in SM Aura. They returned in January 2023 for the Heal Together World Tour at the SM North EDSA Skydome, then again that June as headliners of the CONQuest Festival. There is also a Filipino name in their discography: &quot;Yes,&quot; which they played on Saturday, features Kapamilya singer James Reid, from their 2022 album Heal. Woosung later returned the favor in James’ &quot;Hold On Tight.&quot;In April, the band announced it would go on hiatus following the release of its album ROSE and the completion of the ROSETOPIA tour, with the members saying they wanted time to focus on their own paths after a decade of putting the band first. The album&#x27;s title track, &quot;Utopia,&quot; came out in June. The Manila show was presented by L-Squared Productions.—By Paolo Lim

The Rose closed their Manila ROSETOPIA show with a Tagalog letter, a clubbing confession, and a goodbye to Filipino fans before the band's hiatus begins.

The Rose closed their Manila ROSETOPIA show with a Tagalog letter, a clubbing confession, and a goodbye to Filipino fans before the band's hiatus begins.