[CELEB] Joy of Red Velvet juggles two careers this year

K-pop

Published: 20 Mar. 2022, 14:32

[CELEB] Joy of Red Velvet juggles two careers this year

Joy [SM ENTERTAINMENT]

Spring is the time for festivity and celebration, and girl group Red Velvet is full of both with its EP “The ReVe Festival 2022- Feel My Rhythm,” which will be released Monday.

The girl group’s latest EP is a continuation of its 2019 EP series “’The ReVe Festival’ Day 1” and “’The ReVe Festival’ Day 2.”

The EP has six songs including the title track “Feel My Rhythm,” which is a pop dance song that samples German composer Johann Sebastian Bach’s “Air on the G String.”

The group initially planned to hold a concert called “2022 The ReVe Festival: Prologue” over the weekend, which would have been its first live event since “Red Velvet 3rd Concert - La Rouge” in November 2019. The event was canceled after three members — Irene, Joy and Yeri — tested positive for Covid-19. Nevertheless, the group pushed ahead to drop its EP according to the original timetable, which is at 6 p.m. Monday.

Girl group Red Velvet's EP "The ReVe Festival- Feel My Rhythm" drops at 6 p.m. Monday. [SM ENTERTAINMENT]

The group is planning to promote its album one hour ahead at 5 p.m. Monday with a livestream event “Red Velvet The ReVe Festival 2022- Feel My Rhythm Countdown Live” on its official YouTube channel. It will introduce its songs and give behind-the-scene glimpses of the members working on the EP.

Member Joy seems to be having an especially fruitful year as she juggles two careers as an actor and singer. Joy, whose real name is Park Soo-young, wrapped up the JTBC drama series “The One and Only” last month. The series centers around three women diagnosed with terminal illnesses who meet at a hospital. They decide to kill one bad person before they die. Joy portrayed a popular social media influencer, Mi-do, who is dying of lung cancer. The series wrapped up with a low viewership rate of 0.6 percent, but many praised Joy’s performance.

“The role of Mi-do came to me like a present,” Joy said on Feb. 9 through her agency, SM Entertainment after the series ended. “She was so bright and pretty, so it will be even more difficult to let go of her but I think this six-month journey [of portraying Mi-do] will last in my memory for a lifetime because I poured everything into her.

Joy, left, features as a popular social media influencer Mi-do struck with a terminal illness in JTBC drama series "The One and Only" [JTBC]

“The most memorable scene and dialogue [for Mi-do] was when before she died, she asks her friend In-sook, ‘How do I look?’ and she answers, ‘You’re pretty,’” Joy said. “It was a relief that Mi-do, who was always alone, without her family by her side even at the time of her death, got to hear what she always wanted to hear from In-sook.”

Joy debuted as an actor with the lead role of So-rim in the tvN drama series “The Liar and His Lover” in 2017, which centered around two talented young musicians.

Joy (Park Soo-young)

Date of birth: September 3, 1996
Zodiac sign: Virgo
Birthplace: Jeju Island
Debut: August 2014 as a member of girl group Red Velvet
Agency: SM Entertainment

Joy debuted as a member of SM Entertainment’s girl group Red Velvet in August 2014 with the digital single “Happiness.” Joy began solo television activity with the fourth season of MBC's variety show “We Got Married,” which she appeared on with Yook Sung-jae of boy band BTOB. Joy made her acting debut in tvN’s music-based drama series “The Liar and His Lover” in 2017. Her debut as a solo singer came on May 31, 2021 with the EP “Hello,” which consists of six remakes of famous songs from between the 1990s and 2000s.

This information was confirmed by SM Entertainment on March 18, 2022.

BY LEE JAE-LIM [lee.jaelim@joongang.co.kr]