After the success of Ringo but still, without their beloved member Lia ITZY Japan will drop their 3rd single on May 15
JYP groups are going big in Japan in the upcoming months. With TWICE having announced DIVE coming in July 17. ITZY are coming even sooner with their single Algorhythm, we already have a lot of content and teasers of the upcoming song and music video from all the members.
Fans still wait for Lia to come back from her hiatus, Ringo, the first Japanese full album of the group was the most recent time we could see her. Lia the beloved vocalist of the group was extremely missed by fans in recent launches like Mr.Vampire. However, we might see her coming sooner than we think as Ryujin commented in an interview. Nothing has been confirmed yet by JYP or other official sources. Also, we don’t know the way she could come back, it could be joining completely one day to another with group activities or maybe a more step-by-step catching up.
Ringo was a darker concept for ITZY and Algorhythm looks more naive and bright
Ringo music video was incredibly well received, also gave us the most recent sighting of Lia in the group before her hiatus. The almost dark fantasy concept and the Album were very popular among fans. Algorhythm will be a double single. Another song No Biggie already launched its lyrics video before the main single. Apparently, only the main single will feature a music video. The aesthetic reminds of Olivia Rodrigo‘s SOUR. In the teaser, the girls appear with stickers on their faces similar to the cover of that album.
The information video features the characteristics of the DVD. Including the Jacket Shooting Making Movie and the Jacket Shooting ITZY’s VLOG. Obviously, this album also includes the CD of the single and the Trading Cards. On the contrary, for those not interested in the DVD the normal CD will just include the CD and the Trading Cards. Finally, the specific editions of the CD from each of the members will include the custom cover of Yeji, Ryujin, Chaeryeong or Yuna together with the CD and Trading Cards.
Teasers of every member and the early launch of No Biggie give us a lot of clues about the aesthetic and vibes of the concept
It’s so common to see in social media people wanting Kpop to go back to its fun and colorful roots. This is a Japanese single, not a Korean one. Still, ITZY has done it. The song with fun vibes and lyrics that remind us both of their early launches like ICY or more recent ones like Sneakers. The debate of fun Kpop vs more “adult” and serious songs will surely remain on social media but ITZY proves every day they can do both. Hopefully, this will continue for their next comeback with the OT5 complete.
At the moment the only teasers ITZY has released are from Yeji and Ryujin on their ITZY JAPAN youtube channel. Yuna and Chaeryeong‘s one will drop in the next few days. Each of the members are gaining a lot of popularity recently as ITZY opened their own personal Instagram accounts. The account names have been considered… curious by the fans as it usually happens with personal accounts of Kpop idols. lia_loves___ for Lia, yezyizhere for Yeji, chaerrry0 for Chaeryeong, igotyuandme for Yuna and iamfinethankyouandryu for Ryujin are the creative usernames the girls have chosen for their profiles. All of them except for Lia have updated recently with pictures and videos of the recent ITZY Born to Be tour. This leaves the main Instagram account more for the official group updates and not for the specific ones of each of the members..
Ryujin commented on Lia coming back on a recent interview
“She is always trying hard to come back. Really, really soon. And she is doing great nowadays. We meet each other and hang out. And she seems great and doing her best to come back”. This was the phrase used by Ryujin when asked about Lia. Consequently, the fans have made the video extremely viral. Hopeful of Lia returning to the group as soon as possible. We haven’t got any update on her in a long time and her Instagram account only has one picture from the moment it was created. However, the most optimistic view of this is considering the account as an intention for her to remain in the group and come back as soon as possible.
We already have seen similar cases. Even in other JYP groups like TWICE with Jeongyeon. The TWICE vocalist had a slow comeback as she did not dance and just sang while sitting down in the beginning until she was fully recovered. Even in that case, we saw her in The Feels music video with only 8 members in the dance scenes and Jeongyeon only standing when she was singing. We do not know if Lia will need that time to catch up. Perhaps, we will see it with the group activities and more “quiet” appearances in Inkigayo or Music Bank. Time will tell.
Guillermo Lorenzo Manzano
