On EBS‘s ‘Space Sympathy’, Park Ji-yoon appeared and talked about her efforts to break the stereotype of a ‘sexy pop singer’ and be reborn as a singer-songwriter, as well as the story behind her sincere album ‘Flower, Again the First’.

Park Ji-yoon debuted in 1997 with ‘Sky Blue Dream’ and became a hot topic with ‘Coming-of-Age Ceremony’, emerging as a sex icon representing South Korea.

Regarding that, she said, “At that time, it seemed like people kept looking at me negatively because of the image created by the producers”, and “I think I had a lot of regrets about becoming a singer”, revealing her honest feelings about the hardships she had.

Park Ji-yoon revealed that she put down music at that time and took a six-year hiatus to find herself. At the time, I took a lot of pictures alone, and while taking pictures of ‘Flowers’, I thought, “They were so beautiful, but they also looked so sad”, “Beauty seems to fade away easily, and it also felt like myself”, she said in an interview, sharing her feelings at the time.

She also shared a story about how she had to overcome prejudice in order to capture her true self, who loves acoustic sounds.



Park Ji-yoon revealed the reason she produced her 7th album herself, saying, “It was so hard to receive songs I wanted to sing, so I learned guitar and started writing songs”. She then completed the masterpiece ‘Flowers, Again the First’ with songs she received from Kim Yong-rin, Lucid Fall, Tablo, and NELL’s Kim Jong-wan. Park Ji-yoon said, “I think the people who included songs in my 7th album were people who gave me songs without any prejudice,” and expressed her gratitude to those who saw her as she was.

She chose the recording session for ‘Sleep Talk’ as a memorable moment out of all the difficult times she had while working on the album because she didn‘t know anything. “I enjoyed working on it because it was an experience where I focused solely on my own voice and emotions and created it while breathing together with my colleagues, rather than singing the same part over and over again under someone’s instructions,“ she recalled.

She also left a message of gratitude to fans who supported the album that contained her true self.

”It feels like the real human Park Ji-yoon‘s songs“, ”It has the power to make you focus solely on music, it’s such a waste to listen to it while doing other things“, etc. Seeing all the support for her masterpiece album ‘Flower, First Again’, Park Ji-yoon said, ”For the first time, I thought to myself, ‘I made the right decision to do music up until now’“. In addition, she said, ”It really gave me strength to see you express your heart with such sincere voices, and I thought, ‘You came to the right place!’“ and expressed her gratitude.

Regarding her masterpiece, ‘Flower, First Again,’ Park Ji-yoon said, ”It‘s the album that made me start music again and made me who I am today,“ conveying the meaning of the album. Also, she emphasized the importance by saying, “If I hadn’t made the 7th album like that, I probably wouldn’t have been able to make the 10th album.”

Along with Park Ji-yoon’s honest story, who has not done many interviews so far, her clear and deep voice live performance captivated the eyes and ears of viewers.

Not only did she perform songs from her famous albums such as ‘Faded Memories’, ‘You Are Like a Tree’, ‘April 16th’, ‘Sleep Talk’, ‘It’s Okay’, but she also performed live performances that were deeply imbued with her colors, including ‘O (Oh)’ from her 9th album ’parkjiyoon9‘ released in 2017, and ‘Until My Whole Body Hurts’ from her 10th album ’Breathe’.

Encounter the musicians’ music stories and special live performances that you can’t hear anywhere else. The ‘Space Sympathy’ ’Masterpiece Documentary Series‘, which you can watch, airs every Wednesday at 10:45 PM on EBS 1TV.

Choi Yun-na, Donga.com Reporter yyynnn@donga.com

This article is automatically translated using Google AI. If you notice any inaccuracies, please let us know at allkstar@donga.com.