One of the most popular South Korean K-pop girl group Red Velvet of SM Entertainment has finally made their return with their 6th mini album ‘Queendom’ after one year and eight months!
Red Velvet originally debuted on 1 August 2014 with the single ‘Happiness’ with the four-member line-up of Irene, Seulgi, Wendy, and Joy. The following year in March, the fifth member Yeri joined the team when they released their first mini-album ‘Ice Cream Cake’. The group's name represents its concept, defined by two different images, ‘Red’ and ‘Velvet’. ‘Red; signifies their vivid and bold image with electronic, funk, and hip hop songs, whereas ‘velvet’ reflects their classy and toned-down side with ballad and jazz type of songs.
Red Velvet has received numerous accolades, most notably the Golden Disc New Artist Award, the Mnet Asian Music Award for Best Female Group, the Korean Music Award for Best Pop Song, and the Asia Artist Award for Song of the Year.
Recently, on 16 August 2021, Red Velvet released their sixth mini-album ‘Queendom’ and a music video for the title track of the same name. Composed by minGtion, Anne Judith StokkeWik, Moa ‘CazziOpeia’ Carlebecker, and Ellen Berg, ‘Queendom’ is a refreshing pop dance track with an addicting hook that is accentuated further by the members’ bright vocals. Lyrically, the song delivers a message of empowerment, telling listeners that "we are queens and kings" of our lives and that we shine brighter when we come together. On the day of the album’s release, Red Velvet held their online fan meeting ‘“inteRView vol.7: Queendom’ via Naver V LIVE’s Beyond LIVE channel. They enjoyed their time with global fans through fun talk segments, games, and performances.
Following the album’s release, ‘Queendom’ topped iTunes Top Albums charts in 50 regions around the globe including the United States, Canada, Spain, Russia, Saudi Arabia and more. It also ranked high on domestic music charts, reaching No. 5 on Melon’s Top 100 chart and No. 1 on Genie Music’s real-time chart as of Tuesday morning. The five other songs of the mini-album are; ‘Pose’, ‘Knock on Wood’, ‘Better be’, ‘Pushin’ N Pullin’’ and ‘Hello, Sunset’. ‘Pose’ is described as fitting into the Pop genre whereas ‘Knock on Wood’ follows more of an electro-pop sound, which leads on to the R&B song, ‘Better Be’. Similarly, the final two tracks, ‘Pushin’ N Pullin’ and ‘Hello, Sunset’ also have an R&B feel to them.
Even within the long period of time when Red Velvet didn’t release any song, they were packed with different activities despite various incidents and controversies. Such as, the member Seulgi recently made her MC debut with Naver NOW’s show ‘Seulgi.zip’ on 1st June 2021. On this live talk show, Seulgi will invite guests and fans to a comfortable space, and talk about many different topics and have fun with them which releases every Tuesday and Thursday. On the first episode of 'Seulgi.zip', the Aespa members appeared as the first guests. In an interview, Seulgi said that she will show fans the different and honest sides of her throughout the show.
The fifth member Yeri is acting in a K-drama named ‘Blue Birthday’ as the main character. This fantasy thriller-drama follows the story of Oh Ha Rin (Yeri), whose best friend, Ji Seo Jun (PENTAGON’s Hongseok) dies on her 18th birthday. Ten years later, as she mourns his death she discovers the ability to time-travel and becomes determined to save his life. In the drama, Yeri’s character is heroic, strong, open, and vulnerable with the people she loves. She made her debut as an actress in the 2021 special one-episode series, ‘Drama Stage Season 4: Mint Condition’. Besides that, she also appeared in the legendary K-drama ‘Descendants of the Sun’ as a guest role along with Red Velvet.
Like Yeri, the member Joy is also a famous actress. In 2017, Joy made her acting debut as the female lead in tvN's music drama ‘The Liar and His Lover’ and won the Newcomer Award at the OSEN Cable TV Awards that year. After that, she also acted in ‘Tempted’ and will also appear in the new 2021 drama, ‘Only One Person’ as the main role. On August 13, Tod’s creative director Walter Chiapponi expressed his excitement as he announced the news that Joy had been chosen as the Korean ambassador for the luxury Italian brand which produces luxury shoes and other leather goods. This year on 31 March, Joy also made her solo debut with her remake album ‘Hello’.
Around this time, Wendy also returned with her solo mini-album ‘Like Water’ after a long time for her serious injuries. In 2019, Wendy got hurt after falling from a platform during rehearsals for SBS’s Gayo Daejeon on Christmas Day. The singer spent three months in hospital and over a year recovering. She suffered fractures to her face, the right side of her pelvis, and wrist, and she's already received treatment at the hospital. Other members said that she recovered fast as she mentally and physically maintained her health well.
This is also Red Velvet’s first comeback since Irene’s attitude controversy last October. It all started when a stylist and editor posted on social media that she had been trampled and verbally abused by Irene. Just a few days after the controversy broke out, Irene confessed that the individual in the editor's post was indeed her and apologized before going on a hiatus to self-reflect on her actions. Since then, Irene has made minimal public appearances. Though, Irene made her official appearances promoting her first-ever film 'Double Patty' and began preparing for her comeback with Red Velvet through the girl group's comeback teasers. However, there are still some netizens who are not happy to see Irene make her come back with the group.
Despite all of this, Red Velvet celebrated their 7th anniversary of the girl group's debut on August 1st, 2021 altogether with their fans through a live broadcast. The members talked about the albums they have released so far and reminisced back at the years of their music career. And now Red Velvet is topping charts with their comeback ‘Queendom’.
Congratulations to Red Velvet on a successful comeback!
* Rumaiysa M Rahman is a 10th grader at Viqarunnisa Noon School and College, Dhaka