A Heavenly Harmony

For this week’s spotlight, we had you vote for what you thought was the best OST of 2022 - well, it comes as no surprise that you guys picked ‘With You’ by BTS’s Jimin & Ha Sungwoon, and for good reason! With both men being exceptional vocal talents, their voices naturally blend to make a warm and gentle sound that instantly comforts the listener.

‘With You’ was released as part 4 of the OST for the drama ‘Our Blues’, and when the collaboration was initially announced, it was met with a hot response and much anticipation from fans.

Part of why fans were so excited is because it’s long been known that Jimin and Sungwoon have a longstanding personal friendship, with Jimin confirming they have been close friends since before his debut as part of BTS. However, this collaboration was also a unique one, not only was it the first OST BTS had recorded outside their personal products, but it was one of Jimin’s first solo projects, predated by his release of ‘Promise’ on soundcloud.

It’s also somewhat rare to see two male artists collaborating in such a romantic song, but the chemistry between Jimin and Sungwoon’s voices is palatable. Sungwoon has a very leveled and warm sound to his voice, creating a base that is masculine but not aggressive; meanwhile, Jimin is known for his signature soft and crystal-clear vocals, having a more androgynous charm which both compliments and contrasts perfectly with male and female voices alike. The resulting harmony between the two artists almost seems to paint the same comforting image that the story of their friendship makes you feel.

The song went on to be a hit, both domestically and overseas, ranking 13th on the domestic Circle Weekly Chart (fitting as the 13th of October is Jimin’s birthday!) - as well as ranking at No.1 on the Billboard US Digital Song Sales Chart, and spending a combined 7 weeks at the top of the Billboard Weekly Hot Trending Songs Chart.

Veteran Artist

Though Jimin and Sungwoon are both 3rd generation idols, many newer fans did not know too much about Sungwoon before the collaboration was announced, however, Sungwoon is actually Jimin’s senior in the industry, and at a time also had a very explosive rise in his career in his early idol days as a member of a popular idol group.

Sungwoon originally started his journey as an idol as a member of the group, Hotshot, making his debut on October 29th, 2014, however after an uneventful career, he and a fellow bandmate decided to compete in the hot survival reality show, Produce 101 Season 2 in 2017. Though these sorts of shows are fairly standard now, at that time they were still a fresh concept and were extremely popular.

So it comes as no surprise that when Sungwoon made it to the finals and was officially picked to debut as the final member of the group Wanna One, he was already dearly beloved by the entire K-Pop community. Wanna One made their debut on August 7th, 2017, but as they were only a project group, they unfortunately disbanded on Dec 31st, 2018, and Sungwoon decided to pursue activities as a soloist.

Sungwoon made his return to the stage with his self-composed solo song ‘Don’t Forget’ featuring one of the members of Wanna One, and marking the start of a long successful career as a singer-songwriter. Today however, Sungwoon is serving his country as he enrolled in the military to complete his compulsory service on September 5th, 2022.

An Immovable Presence

While his friend is away, Jimin himself is also just starting to get busy. Following BTS’s announcement in June 2022 that they would be focusing more on their individual activities while the members also enlisted, Jimin has been keeping his fans on their feet!

Jimin, though sweet and incredibly endearing to his fans, has also been known for not being the most active of the BTS members when it comes to social media - often taking long stints of silence. (Also giving birth to the amusing phenomenon of his fans trending ‘JIMIN JIMIN’ on the world trends on Twitter at random times, because even when he’s doing nothing, Jimin is always relevant!) However, K-Pop’s generationless it-boy has been giving his fans something to look forward to recently, leaving behind cryptic studio photos of him posing with various artists from all different genres.

Now as a performer, Jimin is known for a number of things - his fluid and entrancing movements, his ability to go from seductive to innocent in a matter of seconds, the way he can switch his style and charisma to match his stage outfits or the vibe of the song - but above all else, Jimin is known for his voice.

Jimin has a voice that is incredibly hard to find anywhere in the music world, androgynous in nature he can hit notes that are extremely high for a male vocalist without them feeling forced, and his voice has a clarity to it that even some of the best vocalists struggle to achieve. As such, it's not just his performance style but also his vocal style that easily switches to match whatever genre he’s tasked with - which made his teasers all the more exciting as fans speculated he was likely working on songs for his first solo album.

However, it was finally revealed just days ago that the first (of possibly many!) project that Jimin will be taking part in is likely going to be a RnB style track, as the poster for ‘Vibe’ by Big Bang’s Taeyang was released, showcasing Jimin as a featuring artist. Not much else is known about the track just yet, but fans are already excited to see Jimin turn on his wilder side after the mouth watering teaser poster - and we know with Jimin, he will never disappoint!

As you can see, both these artists have long and successful careers behind them, amazing talent that will carry them far into the future - and of course, dedicated fans! Thank you to all the amazing fans who participated in this week’s spotlight vote, we hope you enjoyed the article. Be sure to let us know your favorite thing about this pair and their friendship down in the comments on the Kooky app!

—

Writer: Han (O.L)

Editor: Han (O.L)