Yuju Talks About Her Viral "Me Gustas Tu" Fancam, Why She Doesn't Dwell On Praise, Hopes For The Summer, And More

Jul 29, 2022

W Korea’s new issue features former GFRIEND member Yuju!

In a recent broadcast, Yuju introduced herself as a rookie singer who’s been active for eight years. She explained this saying, “I released my first album as a solo musician this year, but that doesn’t mean I can ignore all the years I spent promoting as GFRIEND. It was originally a nickname my fans gave me but I think it best describes my current situation so I wherever I go now, I say ‘I’m rookie singer Yuju in my eighth year [of promoting].'”

This past January, Yuju made her solo debut with “REC.” and the title track “Play.” When asked how the song came to be, Yuju shared, “This is something I always think about but music is ultimately emotion. That’s why my greatest concern was picking which emotion to express.”

Yuju continued, “However, at the time, I wasn’t in a place where I could easily pull out bright and cheerful emotions. Even so, if I didn’t go all the way to sadness, [I thought about] what emotions lie on the border? As I thought about where I was at, within myself I saw a bit of anger, a bit of sadness, and on the other hand, confidence. To put it simply, I had a lot of mixed emotions. That’s how ‘Play’ was created after I thought about capturing and showcasing disillusionment and freedom in one song.”

Earlier this week, Yuju made her comeback with the single “Evening” featuring BIG Naughty. Yuju described the song as one that reminds you of a cool summer evening that captures the feelings of young, blossoming love.

She elaborated to say that it’s a dreamy song that makes your heart flutter and added, “It’s also overflowing with the feeling of summer. Honestly, when you think of summer, many people think of songs with refreshing moods, such as songs by SISTAR. However, I think there are other [summer] songs that are nice to listen to when you’re coming home after a hot vacation. The song I worked on while thinking of that exact timing is ‘Evening.'”

Regarding her collaboration with BIG Naughty, Yuju commented, “Due to our schedules, we mainly worked by emailing back and forth. Usually when I’m working with other artists, there are several revisions. But this time, the first time I heard [BIG Naughty’s feature] I thought, ‘This is it, the exact vibe I was thinking of for the feature,’ so we barely revised it.”

Yuju was asked what kind of feedback she wants to receive for “Evening” and she responded, “That ‘Yuju is heart-fluttering excitement.’ If I just hear this, I think it’ll be a success.”

The singer continued, “But I honestly am not the type to focus much on feedback. Especially when it’s praise. This is because of my personality but I don’t easily get excited. Even when I get praise, I don’t bask in it and think, ‘Yes, as expected of me,’ and instead I become calm. I’m the type to think rationally, like “True, that was good but in my opinion, I have to do something [different] like this for my next album.'”

Yuju further explained, “From a long time ago, I practiced not getting too excited by myself. To be honest, a career as a celebrity is perfect to change one’s personality. It’s impossible not to get excited when suddenly, you gain fans and tens of thousands of people are calling you cool. That’s why I always tried not to get lost in praise and popularity. I guess I could say I tried to think of praise as a repayment of my hard work.”

In 2015, Yuju infamously went viral for her “Me Gustas Tu” fancam where she fell numerous times while the group was performing in heavy rain. The interviewer correlated this to Yuju’s love for her role model figure skating champion Kim Yuna, to which Yuju shyly replied with a laugh, “Ah, you cannot compare Kim Yuna to myself from then. Because Kim Yuna’s competitions were a stage with so many more people watching and a different sense of responsibility.”

Yuju continued, “During that performance, I cried a lot, but rather than crying because I was in pain, I was just sad. Because I really wanted to give a good performance in front of everyone and I wanted to do well, but I kept falling. The pain gets better after a few days but there’s only one performance. Later on, I wondered whether there was an invisible thing that kept pushing me because it hated me.”

Looking towards the future, Yuju was asked what she’s looking forward to. She answered, “I don’t know if it’s because my comeback is coming up but I hope ‘Evening’ is heard a lot on the streets in the summer. It feels really good to hear your song coincidentally when you’re walking down the street. If I’m walking on a summer day with my hat pressed down and I hear my song, then I’d smile. I hope there are many moments like that.”