NewJeans’s Hanni expressed her feelings about performing at IU’s concert and shared her trainee stories.
On March 2nd, the girl group NewJeans appeared on the stage of IU’s “H.E.R” World Tour concert at KPSO DOME in Seoul as special guests and performed “ETA”, “Shh… (Hyein’s part)” and “Ditto”.
A day later, Hanni went on the group’s fan communication app Phoning, and left a long review about her experience of participating in the concert of senior singer IU. Hanni talked about her overwhelming emotions upon knowing the group would perform at IU’s concert, how the group prepared for the stage, and what they learned after performing on such a special stage.
In addition, Hanni mentioned IU’s song “Above The Time” and revealed a story of her trainee days. She said, “When senior IU came out on the stage for the intro of ‘Above The Time’, I felt so emotional as I recalled the time and the memory of when I practiced singing this song in the vocal room when I was a trainee. It kinda felt like a déjà vu. There’s a small TMI here. When I first came to Korea to be a trainee, I didn’t know any Korean words other than ‘hello’. I just came to a new country and lived with people I didn’t know. To be honest, everything was so exciting that I didn’t know that there was a little bit of loneliness inside my heart”.
Hanni shared, “The vocal teacher gave me an English pop song to practice and also chose ‘At The Time’ for me to practice singing in Korean”.
She continued, “Obviously I knew who IU was because… how could you not but I had never heard this song before and I remember hearing it for the first time by myself after the vocal class and it felt like time had stopped for a bit”, adding “There was a strange feeling. I was not really good at Korean back then so I searched for the translation of the lyrics to understand it and listened to the song again, then I cried. I cried a lot in the vocal room. It’s hard to explain but once I realized the meaning of the song, it kind of opened myself to my own feelings at the time and I realized how I was feeling lonely, and missing home and uncertain.”
Lastly, she said, “This song really comforted me a lot during the practice. It feels the same right now. That’s why I felt emotional and heartwarming when listening to it yesterday at the concert…”
