The 12 months is 2020. Particularly, March 13, 2020. EVERGLOW simply wrapped up the penultimate cease of their Eternal Tour in Newark, New Jersey. The day earlier than, they introduced that the ultimate present in Los Angeles was to be canceled in mild of…. nicely, you understand. Quick ahead to now. As our interview begins and I am sitting in entrance of the six-member lady group, I am taken again to 4 years prior and the remorse I felt about not with the ability to attend their Newark live performance (which I inform them as an icebreaker of kinds).

When EVERGLOW debuted in March 2019, they took the Ok-pop world by storm. The teaser for “Bon Bon Chocolat,” their debut single, racked up 5 million views in simply two days and the official music video surpassed three million views in simply at some point. Their sophomore single “Adios” reached over seven-and-a-half million in the identical interval and “Dun Dun,” which was launched simply earlier than the tour, skyrocketed to over 16 million views on the finish of day one. For context, while you’re not signed to a “huge 4” company, these numbers (and trajectory) are particularly spectacular.

Figuring out that, and making an allowance for that they had been within the midst of their first-ever worldwide tour, makes the truth that EVERGLOW’s pandemic-free profession has been shorter than the time spent, nicely, residing by way of a pandemic, slightly poignant. (Each the US and South Korea marked the finish of COVID-19 categorized as a public well being emergency on Might 11, 2023, following the World Well being Group’s announcement).

“The pandemic was a tragic and miserable time for everybody however I feel it was alternative to look again in your family members and spend extra time with your loved ones, buddies, and pets,” Sihyeon, the chief of the group, displays. Ok-pop idols (“아이돌” or “aidol” in Korean, a time period largely referring to somebody who has debuted within the Korean pop business) spend an excessive amount of time coaching earlier than their debut; coupled with their usually demanding schedules, the pandemic gave the EVERGLOW members some much-needed restorative time away from the limelight.