Gu9udan fails to make go of second EP

Jellyfish Entertainment’s first girl band gu9udan performs at a press showcase at the YES24 LIVE HALL in Gwangjin-gu, eastern Seoul, Thursday. / Courtesy of Jellyfish Entertainment

By Kim Jae-heun

Cover of gu9udan's second EP "Act.2 Narcissus" / Courtesy of Jellyfish Entertainment

K-pop girl band “gu9udan” of Jellyfish Entertainment returned with second mini-album “Act.2 Narcissus,” Thursday, hoping to grab people’s attention this time. However, it doesn’t look very favorable for the band as their title track “A girl like me” has already been pushed out of the top 50 on online music charts in a day.

The girl group debuted as the company’s first girl group last June, however their first mini-album didn’t achieve much as its title song “Wonderland” only ranked 35th on the Gaon Music Chart.

Gu9udan first came into the spotlight for its two group members Kim Se-jeong and Kang Mi-na, who rose to stardom through the Mnet survival show Produce 101. They competed among 101 female trainees from various talent agencies and debuted in an 11-member act I.O.I.

I.O.I was contracted to work together only for less than a year under YMC Entertainment and Jellyfish Entertainment decided to take advantage of Se-jeong and Mi-na’s growing popularity by debuting them in gu9udan while still being a part I.O.I concurrently.

Gu9udan received considerable attention in the beginning, thanks to the two high-profile members of former I.O.I, but the rest of the seven girls are still not very well-known.

“It took us a while to return with the second mini-album,” said Nayoung at the press showcase at YES2 4 LIVE HALL in Gwangjin-gu, eastern Seoul. “The hiatus was so long; our goal with the second album is to promote our group better to the people. We tried hard to develop our performance.”

If the girl band took their first mini-album concept from the “mermaid” of Andersen’s fairy tale “The Little Mermaid,” their new concept “Narcissus” is inspired by the painting of the same name by Italian Baroque master Caravaggio.

As the painting itself takes inspiration from the Greek mythological character – who falls in love with himself from gazing at his own reflection – gu9udan’s title song delivers the message to “love yourself the way you are.”

The album track list is composed of five songs including “A girl like me,” produced by popular music producer Jowul, who wrote songs for K-pop bands like TWICE and GOT7. The title track is a energetic pop-dance genre music mixed with synth sound. According to the members, the whole song is full of fast and exciting beats from the start to the end.

Gu9udan’s label-mate rapper Ravi of Vixx also participated in the album by contributing to the third track “About to hate you,” by mixing a trap beat with sophisticated synths on an addictive melody. The song expresses a girl’s resentment toward her inattentive boyfriend.

“What we concentrated on the most while taking a break was practicing. All members focused on practicing our singing skills to improve our vocals generally. We will try to show various sides of ourselves and I hope you enjoy our songs,” said Sohee, a member of gu9udan.