Twice’s Nayeon Wants to Show You a New Side of Herself

Nayeon has been on a whirlwind journey for the previous few years.

In 2021, her Ok-Pop woman group, Twice, reached a brand new degree of worldwide success. Touchdown their first entries on the Billboard 200 High 10 (Style of Love) and Billboard Sizzling 100 (“The Feels”), the nine-piece act cemented their spot as world superstars. The next 12 months noticed back-to-back releases of their fourth Japanese album, Rejoice, in July and their eleventh Korean EP, Between 1&2, in August. However Nayeon, the group’s oldest member, kicked off that summer season with Twice’s very first solo album, Im Nayeon (Im is the singer’s surname).

“The primary album… I believe I felt a number of stress as a result of it was the primary solo work to come back out of Twice,” Nayeon tells The Hollywood Reporter by a translator.

The EP and its lead single “Pop!” – a textbook instance of the elevated bubblegum pop that feels distinctive to Nayeon and Twice – have been an immediate hit in Korea and globally, with the album debuting at No. 7 on the Billboard 200 chart.

Now, on a noon Zoom name from her company, JYP Leisure, in Seoul, the 28-year-old singer is all smiles. In between sold-out world excursions and chart-topping albums as a member of Twice, Nayeon has been laborious at work getting ready for her extremely anticipated sophomore EP, Na, which dropped at present.

In a slight departure from her debut solo work, Na, very similar to Twice’s current releases, explores a sound befitting an artist who’s now not {the teenager} she was on the time of her debut. Whereas “Pop!” was a music for followers to hearken to on a shiny summer season day with the home windows down, Na’s lead single, “ABCD,” feels higher suited to pregaming an evening out with buddies.

“I needed to point out the aspect of me that I didn’t get to as a member of Twice and in my first album,” Nayeon explains, noting that she needed to reveal a extra “mature” sound that was “stronger and bolder.”

Na, which is each a play on the singer’s title and the Korean phrase for “me,” consists of seven tracks — 4 in Korean and three in English. The brand new launch additionally consists of a number of collaborations, much like Nayeon’s first album.

The album’s third monitor, “Heaven,” options Sam Kim, the Korea-based American singer who helped write and compose the music. Lee Chan-hyuk, one half of the beloved Korean brother-sister duo AkMu, produced the music “HalliGalli.” The Y2K-esque “Magic,” that includes Julie from up-and-coming Ok-Pop woman group Kiss of Life, is a excessive level of the album.

“I cherished working with different artists,” says Nayeon, who notes that Twice hasn’t executed many outdoors collaborations as a bunch. “It was each unusual, however on the identical time, it was very thrilling.”

Nayeon has been touring with Twice persistently from 2022 till now. The group most lately carried out an encore of their fifth world tour at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas in March and has extra reveals scheduled for Japan in July. Nayeon says she’s no stranger to the balancing act of touring and creating new music.

“I’m fairly used to it by now, engaged on an album whereas touring, so I simply had a number of enjoyable,” she grins, including that her group mates have heard and preferred Na. “I regard my solo work as an extension of being a member of Twice.”

In October, Twice will have a good time its ninth anniversary, one among a choose group of acts to succeed in this milestone in Ok-Pop, a style the place it’s frequent for an artist to launch a couple of album a 12 months, with promotion schedules usually together with a number of weekly music reveals per launch.

“I’ve realized loads about be thoughtful of others, and voice my opinions, and on the identical time, hearken to different folks’s opinions and stability these two issues out,” Nayeon says of the data she’s gained by a close to decade on the job. “With many members in our group, I additionally realized a substantial amount of duty.”

When requested what recommendation she had for youthful performers within the trade, Nayeon humbly disregarded the thought. “There are such a lot of nice new artists as of late, and I study loads from them as effectively,” she says. “There are such a lot of totally different ideas of idols… so I don’t know if I’m ready to present them recommendation.”

Nayeon did, nevertheless, supply some recommendation to these working in the direction of careers in Ok-Pop: “Actually take into consideration how a lot you need to commit to this occupation and the way a lot you like it and the way a lot ardour you may have for this.”

Wanting forward, Nayeon appears constructive and optimistic for the second half of the 12 months, breaking down her objectives into distinct buckets: doing effectively on her solo album, the upcoming Twice tour and the group’s ninth anniversary festivities. She’s particularly enthusiastic about performing stay in entrance of Twice’s cleverly named fanbase: “I actually need to construct extra nice recollections with our fandom, As soon as.”