Nicole Talks About Pressures of Performing Solo Without KARA Members

Singer Nicole recently sat down to talk to a Japanese news site about her feelings about re-debuting as a solo artist after having been a member of KARA for so long.

Nicole left KARA in January 2014, and debuted as a solo artist in Korea with the song “MAMA” last November. She is slated to be making her solo debut in Japan on June 24 with the track “Something Special.”

“I’m so excited and happy,” she says. “To be honest, before I announced my plans for my debut at ‘KCON 2015 Japan‘ in April, I was really anxious. It was my first time in Japan in a while, so I worried that I might have been forgotten.”

Regarding her debut as a solo artist in Korea last year, she comments, “At my first performance as a solo artist, I was at ease and felt courage thanks to those who were calling out my name.”

“The biggest pressure when I was on stage alone was the fact that the stage felt empty,” she says. “Since I’d been performing as part of a group, taking charge of all the singing and dancing on my own was a lot of pressure.”

Nicole debuted as a member of KARA back in 2007, which means 2015 is her 9th year in the Korean entertainment industry. She says, “Since I’m performing for the first time in a while, I have a lot more hoobaes now. I debuted in Korea when I was 17 years old, so I was always the youngest. But it’s not like that anymore. I feel a sense of responsibility now, and at some point I started feeling like a grown-up.”

As part of her preparation for her debut in Japan, Nicole held a special event last month where she met over 1,400 of her Japanese fans.

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