Chung Ha is ready for her next chapter: “I’m here to try new things”
“I mean, I never thought I’d be a soloist after my group I.O.I went their own ways,” Chung Ha explains, eyes widening slightly at the idea. It’s early one Seoul morning, one week before the singer makes her big return, a year and a half after her 2022 album ‘Bare & Rare’. During that extended break, the singer used her time out of the spotlight to take stock of all she’s achieved, that unexpected foray into the spotlight alone included. “I thought I’d just be a dancer!” she continues, a glimmer of disbelief still dancing in her eyes. “But becoming a soloist and being brave enough to continue that – I think that’s one of my proudest moments.”
As she notes, Chung Ha got her start in I.O.I after making it into the line-up via the Mnet survival show Produce 101. When they disbanded less than a year later, she kickstarted a solo career that has seen her become one of K-pop’s most exciting and reliable solo stars, building an eclectic catalogue that covers revving dance songs to Latin-fused pop. Her 2021 album ‘Querencia’ remains a phenomenal, flawless record, while follow-up ‘Bare & Rare’ added a new personal edge to her pop hooks.
After becoming a free agent, Chung Ha could easily have joined another agency instantly but instead decided to take her time. Up until then, she’d spent her career “constantly releasing music, being very diligent all the time [and] just 24/7 working”, and she was craving a better work-life balance. After eight years of continuously running forward, she also wanted to hit pause and really question what she wanted to do next.
“I needed…” she begins before trailing off, momentarily distracted. Her dog Bambi is with her today, adding an element of unpredictability to the interview – at times, she jumps up in her owner’s lap, surprising her as she’s talking or, like right now, gets into mischief on the other side of the room.
“Sorry, sorry,” Chung Ha apologises after spotting her pet doing something she shouldn’t be and regains her train of thought. “I needed to figure out what I want – if I want to keep on changing myself or hop into a whole new genre? Do I want to act? Do I want to just study?” As she pondered all those big questions, though, she realised something – her thoughts always came back to music. “What I learned is, ‘Annie, you can never let this go, so why don’t you just give it one last try?’” she says, referring to herself by her English name.
And so the time came to find a new home to go all in on music with once again. Among the suitors vying for Chung Ha’s attention were Jay Park’s More Vision, with Park and the label’s CEO taking turns to keep texting the star, trying to persuade her to sign with them. “Of course, I wanted someone who really, really, really wants me,” she laughs, but the crucial convincer lay in the company’s name: “More than that, I think More Vision had more visions than I had.” Among them were “new, different music”, global touring and Korean concerts, and proper promotions in the US.
Chung Ha’s first release with More Vision more than matches up to those grand plans. “Anyone test me / Whenever, chase me / I have no fear […] I’m ready to get this / Ready to get this stage,” she warns on the pulsating, club-ready track ‘I’m Ready’, her vocals infused with supreme confidence and steely determination. “I think it really explains my state of mind right now,” she says of the song. “And really fearlessly not caring, just wanting to be on stage. I guess it feels like my new anthem – and it can become anyone’s anthem who’s ready to go.”
The title track, ‘Eenie Meenie’, is similarly powerful, albeit delivered in a different way. “Trust your heart and make your move,” Chung Ha commands over a slinky, low-slung hip-hop rhythm that’s instantly addictive. It’s an instruction she herself had to follow over the last year and a half. “I had to make some crucial, difficult decisions along the way, [like] whether I should really study and try to embrace something really new or to scope back and face some challenges more,” she nods.
She’s aware she’s not the only person who has choices to make in life and wanted to share what she’d learnt with her fans. “There might be some predetermined answers that people want to hear from you […], but I’m here to try new things. I don’t know where this is going, but I’m going with this.”
To help her share that message, Chung Ha enlisted the help of ATEEZ leader Hongjoong, who drops a dynamic rap verse into the song. “ATEEZ’s songs are so empowering and they’re so fearless – they have that special energy and I needed that taste,” she explains the thought behind the choice. “And, of course, Hongjoong is the captain there,” she adds, laughing softly as she refers to the rapper’s pirate-aligned nickname. “I’ve seen a lot of comments that he’s the captain, and I just needed a captain and myself.”
‘Eenie Meenie’ is a bold first step on Chung Ha’s path to try new things, sounding fresh even among her eclectic back catalogue. When she first heard it, though, she was concerned it might be a swing too far. “It was too new for me – whenever I heard ‘Eenie Meenie’ I was like…” she explains, recreating her uncertain expression with darting eyes and a pondering pout. “I want to slowly shift, [so I was like,] ‘Skip, next!’” The song had other ideas, though. “It was stuck in my head. It was too attractive, I guess – or too shocking for me, like, ‘Oh my god, More Vision wants me to be in this new era trying a hip-hop song’.”
Although she can’t share too much about her plans yet, Chung Ha notes more new music is in the works, which may or may not include the new songs she premiered at festivals in Mexico City and Paris last year. Her face lights up when NME mentions those songs, and she describes them as “my favourite tracks that have stacked up”.
“But since that’s the chapter that’s kind of left in the past, that I haven’t released… I’m focusing on the new era of myself right now,” she reasons of their uncertain fate. “We’re trying to make an album at the end of the year, and we don’t know yet if they’re gonna be included in the album, or gonna be separate, or might not come out.”
Whenever those decisions are made, and Chung Ha’s next album is ready and released, she’ll be back on stage. This time, she won’t just be appearing at festivals but holding her long overdue first solo concert and world tour. “The more you delay things, the more it feels like it needs to be perfect,” she says, but instantly does a 180 on that thought. “I can’t be perfect! I’m a human! I just want to make it very fun.”
Whatever comes next for the star, she’ll consider it a success based on how she feels – not how her music does on the charts. “I used to be obsessed with that,” she says, a little sadly. “But at the end of the day, I feel like every job I do is like writing my diary down. In my diary, I don’t want my days to be the same – I want them to be very different, and I want to feel the new version of me.”
When that new version is complete – and if she gets to experience “fun, fulfilling and happy moments” along the way – she’ll consider it a triumph. As she reaches her conclusion, that tinge of sadness from earlier is gone, replaced by the same confidence that courses through her comeback. “I’m not really afraid of how I get ranked anymore,” she says, sounding thoroughly ready to take on the world once again.
Chung Ha’s new songs ‘Eenie Meenie’ and ‘I’m Ready’ are out now on Spotify, Apple Music and more.
The post Chung Ha is ready for her next chapter: “I’m here to try new things” appeared first on NME.
Rhian Daly
NME
