Concept, Fashion & Appearance
Joy carries a free-spirited, carefree, and adventurous persona as the concept for “Hello”. With the album being a remake album of older, mostly retro music, Joy too, echoes the same vibe. There’s also a boho/hippie/camping concept that is predominant in some of the teasers.In another set of teasers, Joy takes on a forest sprite theme and she does it beautifully. She’s adorable and mysterious at the same time. With a lovely flowy blue dress topped off with an earthy belt and flower crown, Joy looks nothing short of a fairy. Yet another concept that Joy adorns is that of a picnic on a warm summer day. She’s surrounded by the sweetest daisies and yet, Joy is the one who looks the prettiest.In line with one of the songs on the tracklist, ‘Happy Birthday To You’, Joy also released a set of concept photos with the theme of “birthday”, against the background of shiny streamers and confetti. She’s wearing an Audrey Hepburn-inspired dress, albeit in pink and a tiara.Finally, we have a set of concept photos for the song ‘If Only’ where Joy can be seen on an empty bus, looking out of the window lost in thought. It has a distinctly forlorn and romantic feeling to it, which is not surprising, considering the song that it is supposed to represent: Sung SiKyung’s ‘If Only’.For ‘Day By Day’, we have a more modern yet simple and elegant concept with Joy wearing white against a white background.Two videos were released with respect to Joy’s solo debut: a music video for ‘Hello’ and a live video for ‘Je T’aime’. There’s no choreography per see and the music video rides more on situational acting and personality. It tells a story and does it fluidly, almost as if we’re watching a musical altogether.
Songs
The tracklist for “Hello” includes ‘Hello’, ‘Je T’aime’, ‘Day By Day’, ‘If Only’ ft. Paul Kim, ‘Happy Birthday To You’ and ‘Be There For You’. ‘Hello’ is a rock remake of Park HyeKyung’s song of the same name from 2003; ‘Je T’aime’ is a remake of the jazz original by singer Hey, ‘Day By Day’ was originally a 1999 song by female duo As One; ‘Happy Birthday To You’ is a remake of the 1999 original by singer Kwon JinWon; ‘If Only’ features a blush-worthy collaboration of two of the sweetest vocals, Joy and Paul Kim and is a transformed duet remake of Sung Si Kyung’s song and finally, ‘Be There For You’ is a daring retro-synth-pop reimagining of the original 1996 song by TOY, that is none other than Yoo HeeYeol. 6 mood samplers were released ahead of the album drop, the first one of which you can listen to below:You can listen to and watch the music video of ‘Hello’ here where you’ll be able to spot all the scenes portrayed in the concept photos.Listen to Joy’s live version of ‘Je T’aime’ here: What is your favourite song from Joy’s “Hello”? Share your thoughts with Kpopmap in the comments section down below! 5 K-Pop Girl Group Summer Songs That Can Never Get Old KPOP STORIES|May 20, 2021
