And the following year, she released another song ‘CLOSER’, which is the remake version of Young Turks Club’s old K-Pop song ‘훔쳐보기’ in English. When the MV was uploaded to the 1theK YouTube channel, she was thrilled that her music was on the same channel as her favorite K-Pop singers. Hopefully we’ll be able to see her name more often on that channel. She still loves K-Pop and she is ready to sing in Korean and release a song in Korean. Jenny, who is a K-Pop fan and artist at the same time, shared stories about her music and how she fell in love with K-Pop. Briefly tell our Kpopmap readers who you are. Hi All, my name is Jenny Lyric and I am an R&B singer songwriter that also loves to cover and write songs in Korean! I got my initial start on the Hallyu scene with my former group Coco Avenue. We started as K-Pop fans doing K-Pop covers in 2013 and after releasing a couple of songs in Korean, gained a tiny bit of notoriety among the K-Pop fan community. From there I went on to record a track for legendary K-Pop producer Shin InSoo’s global “replay’ project. This was distributed by Warner Music Korea and was later released on 1thek.
What does your stage name Jenny Lyric mean? Why did you choose this name? Jenny lyric is the name I came up with about 12 years ago. It was a play on my name (Jenny short for Jennifer) and “Lyric” was a slight nod to Alicia Keys (my biggest inspiration as I was growing up). I wanted something similar to her stage name and it just kind of stuck since then. How did you become interested in K-Pop and Korea? And I heard your husband is a Korean music producer, how did he influence your music? My first look at K-Pop was in 2009 when I first saw the MV for Nobody by The Wonder Girls. From there, I never looked back. To this day I am still a hardcore 2nd generation K-Pop Fan although I can still appreciate the new artists and groups of course. The most interesting thing about the dynamic between my husband and I is that he had no interest in K-Pop or working in K-Pop. After meeting me and seeing my passion, we began to work on K-Pop writing projects together in addition to him producing most of my original tracks. We also dropped a song together recently.
The song you are going to release is an acoustic version of ‘어때 (Eottae)’. It was released as ‘CoCo Avenue’ a few years ago. Why did you decide to release it again as an acoustic version and as your solo version? And please introduce the song briefly for readers who have not heard it yet. ‘Eottae’ is a Sexy, soulful R&B track. This song holds a really special place in my heart because it was the first Korean song I wrote on my own which was such a huge personal accomplishment for me. It’s gone through so many different unreleased remixes that fell through and I just wanted to finally release the song as a little treat to those who are rooting for me. The song was also recently signed to a publishing company so it’s possible that you may hear it in commercials, movies, or TV! Do you have a favorite K-Pop song recently? What’s in your recently played list on Spotify? Lately ‘Mafia In the Morning’ by ITZY is on repeat for me! It gets me super pumped for the day! I’ve also reverted to one of my other recent favorites, BLACKPINK’s ‘Pretty Savage’. As a non-Asian artist who wants to create music in the K-Pop industry. What kind of sound are you going for? Why K-Pop and not just pop? Do you think K-Pop has a special charm that you want to convey? To be honest, I don’t so much see myself as an artist in the K-Pop industry as much as I just want to create music that I like as well as my supporters. My sound is just the style that comes naturally to me, R&B and Pop. I do believe that K-Pop has a special charm which is why I have been a huge fan for over a decade. I feel that some of that charm is because K-Pop mixes a lot of elements from Black culture musically as well, which is already so natural to me. It always felt familiar. My goal is to continue implementing elements of the music I love to enjoy with the music that I create. Recently, many non-Asians have participated as K-Pop players and producers. What do you think of these changes? What do you think are the differentiated features of your music? I definitely wouldn’t say it’s a recent trend. Legendary producers such as Teddy Riley and Harvey Mason Jr. helped shape what we know as K-Pop today, and there have been other races in the room since the early globalization of K-Pop in the early 2000s. However, it is a game changer that there are so many non-asian artists. WE LOVE TO SEE IT! I just know that it must be extremely difficult to navigate but I feel so proud when I see artists like Fatou in Blackswan as well as independent artist Rakiyah. They are amazing and thriving. It’s amazing to see you confidently perform a style of music that you love. How do you feel about people who may not support you because you are non-Asian? Thank you! Because I’ve been doing this for so long, I’ve become used to the backlash. I’ve learned to turn a blind eye to the race criticism and focus only on the positive feedback. Many foreign K-Pop fans are dreaming of becoming K-Pop artists or producers. As a singer who sings in Korean and a person who loves K-Pop, can you give some advice or words of support to those people? My advice would be to keep going! I tried to create a lane for myself when I first started but now that some K-Pop companies have been more open to signing non-Asian foreigners, I would suggest sending in audition tapes to as many companies you find are having auditions. If that isn’t working, there are so many platforms where your skills can be shown off. If a company doesn’t accept you, it’s possible to do it yourself! So far, you’ve covered and featured a lot. But will we be able to listen to more songs from solo artist Jenny? What is your musical goal in the future? Yes! Please look forward to more singles from me this year as well as collaborations in the future. I have tracks that will be released in both English and Korean. Lastly, please say a few words to Kpopmap readers! Thank you, readers, so much for taking the time to learn more about me! I hope you will support this new release. Korean DJ & Producer AJK Rolls Out Debut Single To Close Out Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage Month NEWS|May 18, 2021
