Fans really wanna Wanna One

How big of a deal is Wanna One?

The demand for tickets to the K-Pop group's fan meet caused servers to crash.

Tickets were snapped up so fast that extra seats had to be added for their first fan meet in Singapore.

That's fan meet. Not concert.

The fans deafening screams The New Paper experienced at the fan meeting on Friday (Sept 22), almost drowned out the Wanna One member's voices as they spoke.

The eleven-piece Wanna One only made their debut in August and yet the group has achieved popularity globally.

Earlier this year, the boys were part of a Korean boyband survival reality show, Produce 101.

Out of the 101 contestants, 11 were chosen.

The chart-topping group is made up of leader Ji Sung, 26, Sung Woon, 23, Min Hyun, 22, Seong Woo, 22, Jae Hwan, 21, Daniel, 20, Ji Hoon, 18, Woo Jin, 17, Jin Young, 17, Dae Hwi, 16 and Guan Lin, 16.

With fans voting their favourite trainees into the group, the group came with a built-in fanbase.

THE FAN MEET

Despite exams looming on the horizon, nothing was going to stop fans from turning up at their support for the band at .

"It's okay, anything for Wanna One," said student Cheyanne Teo, 14.

Her friend Rachelle See, 13 added: "Anything is possible, nothing is impossible. It's Wanna One."

Clad in headbands with cut-out faces of the members attached and armed with banners, they were part of the 5000-strong army of Wannables (Wanna One's official fanclub name) at Zepp @ Big Box in Jurong East.

Energy levels soared the moment the members stepped on stage and performed catchy, hit tracks from their debut EP, 1X1=1 (To Be One), "Never" and "Energetic".

What followed was a segment called 'It's Wanna One Time' where the boys got to showcase their party-tricks and debunk myths about themselves.

That was quickly followed by a performance of the crowd-pleaser Wanna Be (My Baby).

After a video of their pre-tour rehearsals, the band came back on stage dressed in school uniforms to perform to Produce 101 season two theme song, Nayana (Pick Me).

Befitting with the outfits, the next segment was a "Wanna One School" session involving an "art and physical education class".

During the art class, the band were tasked to draw the members beside them within a time limit.

The group fired up the stage again with dance-centric songs Hands On Me and Burn It Up.

The highlight of the latter were Daniel and Woo Jin displaying the signature 'abs flash' dance move.

As the group's youngest member, Guan Lin was turning 16 a few hours after the fan meet, there was time for a quick birthday celebration for him.

Fans waved banners as they sang the birthday song for him in three languages; Korean, Mandarin and English.

"This is a big surprise to me, I didn't expect this. You guys are the biggest gift to me," said the Taiwanese member, grinning with gratitude.

"I will try to remember this moment for a long time."

Closing proceedings was the ballad Always, which left fans teary-eyed as they sang along in unison.

PRESS CONFERENCE

Earlier that day, from over 1,000 VIP ticket holders, only 50 lucky fans were invited to join the band's press conference.

One of them was Temasek Polytechnic student, Eunice Ong, who celebrated her 17th birthday on Thursday.

She bought the VIP ticket as a birthday gift to herself, and was rewarded with the unexpected bonus at the stroke of midnight when the benefits were announced.

It was like a birthday miracle for her.

"I didn't expect to be chosen because the chances were so low," she enthused.

"It was surreal seeing them so up close. I've only seen them through their videos, so seeing them in real life was really an experience to remember."

During the press conference, member Dae Hwi, revealed that he is working with members Daniel and Jae Hwan on a song together.

When asked to give a preview of the song, Dae Hwi kept mum.

"Later, in the future," he said with a smile.

"Coming soon," chimed in fellow member, Guan Lin.

Hinting at a possible song for their next album launch in November 2017.