SHINee performs during its “SHINee World III” Seoul concert at the Olympic Park’s Gymnastics Stadium on Sunday. SM Entertainment

Nearly two years since the group’s previous world tour, the five members of SHINee are in full swing once again and will be taking their music and performances across borders on their new tour, “SHINee World III.”

“We are about to embark on our next world tour and we are very excited to be performing outside of Korea once again,” said Min-ho during a press conference held in Gymnastics Stadium at the Seoul Olympic Park on Sunday. “The performanc for this tour is very upbeat and a lot more engaging compared to our previous ones ... it’s been a long time since we performed a solo concert so we prepared a lot for it.”

“We have a lot of new songs that we are performing ... you can think of this show as a SHINee upgrade,” Taemin added.

The idol stars kicked off this leg of their third world tour with two live concerts in Olympic Gymnastics Stadium over the weekend. At the concerts, the members performed in front of a combined audience of approximately 20,000 local and international fans. Tickets to SHINee’s Seoul performances went on sale last month and sold out in less than 15 minutes.

“We were very thankful to our fans after hearing that tickets to the shows were sold out,” said Jong-hyun.

“Hearing the news of our shows being sold out really affected the atmosphere while we were practicing for the concert,” said Min-ho. “Knowing this just motivated us to work even harder and to put on a great show to thank our fans.”

Starting next month SHINee will be venturing across the globe, performing in the Latin American nations of Mexico, Chile and Argentina for the first time. The members will also be making a number of stops in Asia, from Taiwan and China to a finale concert in Jakarta, Indonesia, on June 22.

“We have chosen the term ‘popcorn’ to describe our new concert,” said Jong-hyun. “The reason for this is because, just like the movement of popping corn, we will be energetic and jumping around the stage and enjoying the time with our fans.”

During the final Seoul show on Sunday the members of SHINee electrified the group’s largely teenaged female fans with 29 songs and more than two hours of onstage choreography and playful antics. The night included throwback performances of hits such as “Juliet” and “Ring Ding Dong,” as well as the group’s latest singles from its third studio album, the two-disc “The Misconceptions of Us,” and its fifth EP, “Everybody,” both released late last year.

By Julie Jackson (juliejackson@heraldcorp.com)