CHOI YENA
YENA has established a solid place in the K-pop female soloist market thanks to her own color.
The bright and kitsch music as well as the bubbly character that she has constantly brought forward since her solo debut have now established themselves as a standalone brand called “Yena Core”. The tenacity of YENA, who refined “what she does best” rather than following trends, became a competitive strength in a fierce market.
On August 22 and 23, YENA organized her encore concert “네모로부터 시작된, 잡힐 듯 말 듯 한 이세계 : 극장판” at the Jangchung Gymnasium in Jung District, Seoul, and completed her Asian tour. Starting in Seoul and continuing to Macao, Taipei, Hong Kong, Tokyo, then back to Seoul, this tour showed YENA’s current position, which she has solidly built as a solo artist.
The most powerful weapon that made today’s YENA is the famous “Yena Core”. After debuting in 2018 as part of IZ*ONE, YENA took her first steps as a solo singer in 2022 with “Smiley” after the end of the project group’s activities. In a situation where a singer separating from her group must ensure her competitiveness solely under her name beyond the existing fandom, the method chosen by YENA was to clearly paint the “character she knows best how to portray”.
The direction taken right from the debut song was clear. She combined a bright and cheerful sound with the positive energy proper to YENA, and by linking not only the music but also performance and styling into a single character, the “Yena Core”, a summary of the concept most faithful to YENA, settled in. Subsequently, the color materialized further through “Smartphone”, “Good morning”, “‘네모네모”, “착하다는 말이 제일 싫어”, etc.
YENA’s strength lies in the fact that she does not limit herself to simply repeating a similar concept, but constantly expands her color. Indeed, while maintaining the central axis of liveliness, kitsch, and comic-book-style sensitivity, she pursued variations by adding different genres and images each time. Thanks to this, starting from a certain moment, the expression “Yena Core”, which encompasses the entirety of YENA’s music and visual and not a particular song or concept, began to follow naturally. She thus succeeded in having her unique concept and image accepted as a genre in its own right.
The title song “Catch catch” from her fifth mini-album “LOVE CATCHER”, released last March, is a representative example of how the accumulated “Yena Core” led to popular success. She revisited with present-day sensitivity an intuitive melody reminiscent of 2nd generation K-pop, key choreography, and a retro atmosphere, to which was added the energy proper to YENA, creating an individuality both familiar and sharp.
Naturally, results followed. “Catch catch” ranked 7th among songs released this year in the first-half evaluation of the Circle Chart Digital Chart, and the number of monthly listeners on Spotify also exceeded approximately 5.78 million people. It is also notable that her presence expanded to the general public beyond the fandom thanks to the spread of short-form challenges. The direction followed since the solo debut song connected once again to a popular hit after constant accumulation.
This holds great significance in the sense that it is an example that created a certain competitiveness in the female soloist market, considered relatively weak in the K-pop market centered on groups. Succeeding in building a brand as a solo artist and driving not only the fandom but also popular results has become a good model for other female solo artists.
In the K-pop market where trends change rapidly, “resembling no one” is in itself a powerful weapon. YENA did not give up on the bright energy and kitsch sensitivity that are most natural to her and developed them into a musical identity, ultimately succeeding in building the realm of “Yena Core”. YENA, who led to a significant success case with what she does best. The victory of being “faithful to Yena” suggests a lot to the K-pop market.
Journalist: Shawn
Translator: Shawn
Source: SNS YENA
