Jihyo from TWICE flies solo:
We tell you everything about this K-pop trend
The South Korean singer from K-pop group TWICE announced a few weeks ago that she would be making her solo debut with her mini-album "ZONE", releasing her single "Killin' Me Good" on 18 August.
She is the second member of TWICE to go solo, after Nayeon, and her debut EP 'Im Na-yeon' released last year, let’s talk a bit more about this trend as we celebrate international K-pop day !
The beginning of solos, the end of groups?
Hoshi from SEVENTEEN in 2021 with the single "Spider", RM from BTS in 2022 with the album "Indigo" or Jisoo from BLACKPINK in 2023 with the album "ME"
Don’t worry, these solo career debuts do not mean the end of a group. On the contrary, it's a widespread practice in K-POP to let a group member perform alone for a period, and allow him or her to shine solo. This solo period takes place in parallel with the group's activities.
The success of solos
To take the example of BLACKPINK, whose four members have already embarked on individual careers, the results have been impressive.
In addition to their astronomical stream numbers, the members of BLACKPINK are followed more individually than as a group. Lisa has 95 million followers on Instagram, Jennie 80 million, Jisoo 74 million and Rosé 72 million, while BLACKPINK’s insta account now has 56 million followers.
Protecting solos with lockdowns
During these solo periods, devoted fans sometimes even choose to prioritise and value only that artist in order to allow him or her to be as visible as possible. This is the 'lockdown' phenomenon, inviting all fans on the networks to focus solely on the artist and ignore the comments of haters.
Earlier this year, Jungkook from BTS also released his own single SEVEN. Some ARMYs wanted to lockdown the South Korean singer, but not everyone agrees. It sometimes creates conflicts within fan communities, who want each artist to be represented in the same way without favouring one over another.
A lockdown for Jihyo?
It seems that a fan account has already planned a lockdown for the launch of the solo career of Jihyo, nicknamed Zyozyo or Zyo, called Road To Zyo Zone Project :
https://twitter.com/ONCEEforTWICE/status/1681609630374412288
Have you ever taken part in a Lockdown and what do you think of the concept?
Tell us all about it!
We can't wait to discover Jihyo's new track on 18 August, and in the meantime you can find out all about her kawaii universe on Deezer’s K-Pop Channel
