as a day 1 IZ*ONE stan yena's solo route made so much sense to me. some folks dont vibe with the cutesy aspect but thats the kind of personality and vibe she always gave off outside of IZ*ONE songs. she always just wanted to make people smile. i personally love Smiley and Hate Rodrigo the best of her title tracks, but her B-Side Pretty Boys from her debut project is my absolute fav song from her.
Yena tends to get her besties for her featurings and both Bibi and Yuqi are her close friends! Yena has a very bubbly and fun personality and shes such a variety show queen so her bright concepts are totally meant for her. Whereas as a performer, Yena is a BEAST on stage so shes also AMAZING in concepts like Wicked Love.
she is called allrounder not without reason. she is like ace kpop gen4. she got visual, she can dance, she has a good voice, and she fits both funny and dark concepts
i LOVE Yena's solo work so much. most of her songs are so happy and euphoric, they just make me smile i know some iz*one fans didn't really enjoy the direction she was going for, cause when Yena was in the group she was an INSANE performer and had a lot of "cunty" parts lol (maybe that's why you've seen some people not vibing with Hate Rodrigo)
@@cacacrumbs It fits well with her personallity, but as it was said, she was one of the best dancers in IZONE and the best performing hard songs! You should check IZONE Gangsta cover to see it better!
The only reason I could think of that people didn't like Hate Rodrigo is that knets are reactionary and somehow assumed it was a hate song (???) against Olivia Rodrigo. The intent wasn't obvious enough to overcome shallow initial impressions. If you just, you know, read the lyrics, you can see it's a "you're so cool it makes me mad that I can't be cool like you, but it's not like I'm jealous or anything..." It's a pretty good song that has all of the Yena energy you could want with a catchy hook so I have to assume that was it, just a misinformed first impression.
3:04 that expression was actually a suggestion from her older brother sungmin!! he was previously an idol as well in the group speed. the two of them have the cutest relationship ever 🥺
She originally has a very adorable personality with little bit of attitude she my favorite artist to know her better i watched a verity show called girs high school mystery class it has two seasons
Yena gives me like late 2000s Radio Disney/Avril Lavigne Girlfriend vibes and I love it. Then you get to Wicked Love and its so different but I'm still obsessed with it
RJ, loved your reaction to Yena, she has such a positive bright girl crush concept if that makes sense. If you liked Bibi’s feature in Smiley, please react to her! She’s an amazing soloist who can rap and sing ❤
Smiley literally embodies Yena's personality/role she took on in izone. Always making sure everyone was smiling. I love her so much, her debut song could literally not have been more fitting!
Well, I don't blame you for not recognizing Yuqi 😅 She could also be part of Jo Yuriz if they were in the same group hahahah. Even Gidle members say they look alike!
I'm glad you reacted to Wicked Love because thats prob my fav song I've heard from her and it has been on my "normal rotation" playlist since it came out😭🫶🏻 (also, I only saw the Hate Rodrigo video when it first came out but now I notice that Yena did the Queencard choreo for like 2 secs at 22:29 so that was a cute easter egg)
Choi Yena has a brother called Choi Sungmin, former SPEED (disbanded) member. She is a childhood cancer survivor. She had lymphoma and there was no chance of survival. Her parents had to sell kimbap every morning to be able to pay her hospital bills. Fortunately, she recovered. YENA was a member of IZ*ONE. IZ*ONE was formed through Mnet's competition show called Produce 48. The group was composed of twelve members : Kwon Eun-bi (The leader of IZ*ONE), Jang Won-young (The maknae of IZ*ONE) (IVE member), Sakura Miyawaki (Japanese) (LE SSERAFIM member), Nako Yabuki (Japanese), Hitomi Honda (Japanese), Jo Yu-ri, Choi Ye-na, An Yu-jin (The leader of IVE), Kang Hye-won, Lee Chae-yeon (ITZY Chaeryeong's older sister), Kim Min-ju, and Kim Chae-won (The leader of LE SSERAFIM). The group debuted in 2018 with 'La Vie en Rose' MV. Unfortunately, the group disbanded in 2021.
i love smiley, i think thats the only(?) one i had really heard before this, but immediately added wicked love to the playlist! and for some reason it made me think but , have you ever listened to AKMU?? i would love to see you react to them and i think you would enjoy them!! (theyre a brother sister duo and they have great music!)
I love this reaction, I think Yena and eunbi were my favorite on izone. Also please do a discovery reaction for SOMI, she just had a comeback like 3 days ago, I think you would enjoy her music and videos a lot, she is stunning.
Would have loved to see a more mature Yena, Yuri, and Chaewon subgroup had Iz*One been permanent. Don't feel bad confusing Yena and Yuqi. There are a number of videos comparing how similar the two are.
if you seen yena then u must see her soulmate JOYURI! shes a soloist and she comeback too with taxi she has 4 songs. perfect! its caleld GLASSY, love shhh!, loveable, and taxi! edit! yena, yuri, and chaewon in le sserafim they were iz*one member right, and they're a trios that called joyuriz thats cuz most all of us find out they're look alike!
Me: Oh he doesn’t know who the feature is on Hate Rodrigo! He’s gonna be so surprised! You with no shock what so ever: She looks good blonde. Me: Wut 🤡 I was so happy when you realized eventually that it was Yuqi hahaha
