EXO member Chen's solo album sweeps music charts
From SM TOWN's Instagram, Chen, left, and Xiumin pose at a press conference for Chen's solo album “April, and a Flower.”
By Lee Han-na
Kim Jong-dae, a member of the boy band EXO who performs under the stage name Chen, released his first single album “April, and a Flower,” on Monday.
His album became an instant hit. All six songs made the top 30 on different music charts, including Olleh, Genie and Melon, with the lead song “Beautiful Goodbye” first in rank.
The music video of his title song, which was released hours before the showcase of his solo album, went viral and reached over 1 million views within a day.
For this album, the singer collaborated with 14 artists, including singer-songwriter Paul Kim, composer KingMing, as well as Andreas Stone Johansson and Ricky Hanley in lyrics, composition and arrangement. Famous songwriters like JQ, Seo Ji-eum and Min Yeon-jae also joined Chen's album project.
The artist himself also participated in writing the lyrics of his song “Flower” which is no surprise to fans who know of Chen's previous participation in the creation of several EXO songs.
Debuting in 2012 as a member of EXO, Chen is a talented creator. He contributed his musical talent to sing several original soundtracks for dramas, including the latest song in “Touch Your Heart”.
At the press presentation of the album on Monday, hosted by another EXO member, Xiumin, at SM Town Coex Atrium in southern Seoul, Chen told stories about his preparation for the album. He then shared how he needed courage to “step forward” as a solo singer.
“I know there are many other talented musicians so I needed a little bit of courage to release my solo album,” the singer said. He added that his teammates were thoughtful enough to make him feel free from external worries, such as efforts to maintain working relationships with his teammates, to fully focus on the album project.
The singer said that he was pleased with all the tracks on the album, but he chose “Beautiful Goodye” as the lead song as it described him the best. This made it easy for him to finish recording the song within three hours.
The release of his official album was followed by a surprise street performance “Chen's April Busking”, an event that showed the artist's affection towards music. “I choose busking because I don't want to limit my songs to my fans but hope everyone can enjoy my music,” he stated.
The humble artist who says he still feels like a rookie singer says that his experience matters more than the result.