F4 Brings the F Forever Tour to Manila With the Songs That Raised a Generation
The fans who first met F4 through Meteor Garden in the early 2000s are grown now, and on Saturday they packed the Philippine Arena to hear three of the four sing the songs again. Some of them were barely teenagers when the Taiwanese drama aired. A few probably learned their first Mandarin from the lyrics. On Saturday night in Bulacan, they were in their thirties, holding light sticks and singing those same lines back at Jerry Yan, Vanness Wu, and Vic Chou, who are in their forties and still filling the largest indoor arena in the world.
Before a note was played, the group put five million pesos toward earthquake relief in Mindanao, split between the ABS-CBN Foundation and the GMA Kapuso Foundation. Then the lights went down, and F4 came back to the Philippines for the first time in over two decades. One original member was not there. The crowd showed up anyway.
F4 formed in 2001 out of Meteor Garden, the hit Taiwanese drama adapted from the Japanese manga Boys Over Flowers, and the four actors carried their following into music, releasing albums that spread across Asia through the early part of the decade. The group came together on screen alongside the late actress Barbie Hsu. The reunion traces back to a smaller moment: the four appeared together at a Mayday concert in 2025, and that surprise appearance restarted serious talk of a proper comeback. By December of that year, three of them had a tour, a new single, and a publicized split with the fourth.
The Setlist Fans Waited Two Decades to Hear
The night opened with Promise Me You’ll Be My Bro, Waiting for You, and First Time. Vanness Wu performed a solo set that included Piece by Piece, with photos of his family projected behind him. The crowd got Can’t Help Falling in Love, Meteor Rain, and Ni Yao De Ai, the Penny Tai ballad that became one of the group’s most recognized covers. They also performed Forever Forever live for the first time in the Philippines, the single composed by Jay Chou with lyrics written by Ashin, released in December 2025 ahead of the tour. Ashin had approached Jay Chou about writing the track during the preparation period for Mayday’s own world tour, and Jay Chou finished composing the melody within three days of receiving the completed lyrics.
The stage used a center diamond design that let the performers face multiple sections of the arena at once. The Manila stop followed three consecutive sold out nights in Jakarta, where the promoter put the crowd at 45,000 per show, and 19 performances across Chinese cities including Shanghai, Chengdu, and Shenzhen. Live Nation Philippines and Ovation Productions brought the show to Bulacan.
Ken Chu’s Absence and What Ashin Said
The fourth seat in F4 belongs to Ken Chu, and his absence from the tour has its own timeline. In a video posted to Instagram in December, Chu said he was never under contract for the concerts and that his earlier public comments about a reunion were only him expressing intentions. He said he had formally rejected three demands tied to the project, which he did not specify, after which the organizer cut off contact. Chu told fans he found out he had been removed the same way they did, through reports online. He wished the remaining members well and said he hoped that someday all four could align and do something together again.
Ashin did not pretend to be a replacement. In a Facebook post ahead of the tour, he said plainly that he is not F4, that he grew up watching the group, and that Jerry, Vanness, and Vic personally invited him to join. “I want to give them, and you, the best concert,” he wrote. Ashin fronts Mayday, one of the most established acts in Taiwanese rock, and his presence gave the show a different weight than a straight nostalgia circuit would carry.
The F Forever tour has more Southeast Asia dates ahead. The project was always described as limited, tied to the 25th anniversary of a group that formed from a television drama and ran further than anyone had reason to expect. Whether the four original members ever share a stage again is the question Chu left open. What the Philippine Arena confirmed on Saturday is that the three who did show up can still fill the room, and the people who grew up on Meteor Garden still know every word.
