How HEART OF WOMAN Scored a Huge Debut
The girl group debuted in May in a highly unusual way: with a full album. Now, the members recount their road to debut and why their success still surprises them.
These days, music seems to be the least important aspect of content K-pop companies focus on when debuting a group. Songs rarely exceed the two-minute mark to game the streaming algorithm. Choreography is distilled down to dance trends for TikTok virality. Groups are formed with visuals rather than legitimate vocalists. But in May, HEART OF WOMAN debuted in a refreshingly old-school way: with a full album. Heart Byte: LEGACY has been lauded as one of the best debuts of the year because it puts music first, with smart production curated by their agency BLUEBROWN RECORDS.
Fronted by the lead single “Lost in Proof”, the album features an excellent study – and spin – on the R&B and hip-hop music that was popular in Korea in the 2000s. Even better? The group’s members can sing. No one can touch their harmonies: Take the album’s mood-changer “Skit.exe” as an example. These girls studied how to create a hook.
It’s also the rare record where the B-sides are as strong, if not stronger, than the title track, but Heart Byte: LEGACY has hit after hit. I love the harmonies on “SHOW H.O.W”, the cheekiness of “TEA” (“Spillin’ that tea” is a line that will get stuck in your head) and the absolute high of the album opener “ALIVE”. “Everybody wants it,” the girls say about money on “'달라 ($.$)”, but what they’re worth is more than cash: “Don’t try to compare me; I’m on another level.”
What’s remarkable is that HEART OF WOMAN does not sound like a rookie group. That makes sense because “TEACH ME HOW”, the competition show that formed them, proves that the five girls, Jihyun, Chaei, Ayne, Liri and Liuyin, were so talented that no one was eliminated.
“What we're proudest of is that we got to capture our story and identity across 13 tracks, almost like one complete storyline,” the girls told me in a new interview. “We split the album into ACT. 1 and ACT. 2 — that's our own homage, in our own sensibility, to how albums were structured in 2000s Korean music.”
The lead single “LOST IN PROOF” is also a personal track for the girls. Jihyun explained that the single is “filled with stories from my long trainee years and everything I went through, so I feel a personal attachment to it and tried to pour a lot of sincerity into it.”
That pressure made the debut feel even more important. It would be the first time they’d introduce themselves to audiences, and for many K-pop groups, it could be the only chance to make an impression. “We really wanted to do it well, and that came with a lot of pressure too,” Jihyun continued. “Recording, choreography practice, filming — everything made us nervous, but excited and thrilled at the same time. We got together every single day to talk things through, and the five of us leaned on each other and worked so hard to prepare!”
Chaei, who spent several years training to be an idol, felt that she brought her experiences to the record to “show HEART OF WOMAN's ambitions and message with real pride. I tried to capture both a bold, forward-moving attitude and the sincerity I felt toward my dream.”
The album even features Italian-sung lyrics on “Told U So” because Liuyin, who speaks six languages, grew up in Italy. “That's one way I tried to naturally weave my identity and my own story into the album as a K-pop idol,” she explained.
The biggest goal of their debut, the girls explained, was to show the process of five girls coming together to create an innovative and memorable album. “More than anything,” they told me, “we wanted to carry on the stages and music we've always admired and show them in our own colors, which is why this album means so much to us.”
HEAR OF WOMAN is a five-member girl group consisting of the Italian member Liu-yin and four Korean members, with all members aged between 18 and 21. With the exception of Liuyin, all the girls grew up in Korea. Many of the members have surprising backgrounds: Liri competed in the Youth American Grand Prix (YAP) for ballet. Ayne studied classical music. Jihyun and Chaei both trained at different companies and appeared on competition shows before they were recruited to BLUEBROWN RECORDS.
Jihyun and Liuyin both formed close relationships with their grandmothers. Jihyun’s grandmother lived in the same building as her parents in Ansan, and she would spend almost every day in her apartment growing up. “She'd always make me delicious food and take me out on bike rides,” she said, adding, “That's still my warmest memory.” Jihyun was also obsessed with dance: “Ballet, modern dance, hip-hop, you name it,” she said. “Watching idols perform on TV naturally made me dream of standing on that stage myself. The energy they gave off through performance just looked so cool to me.”
Like Jihyun, Liuyin’s best friend was her grandmother. “On sunny days we'd go for walks together,” she recounted to me. “We lived in the countryside, so everything around us was green. She always made me delicious food, and I spent almost the whole day with her.”
In Italy, Liuyin became an excellent student who ferociously absorbed art and culture. That hunger for culture carried into her view of language: “I've always been really curious about languages, art, and different cultures. To me, being able to speak many languages is like having more doors into people's hearts,” she explained. She began learning different languages at a young age, and as she grew older, she learned to use them as tools. “As I worked toward my dream of becoming an idol, I cared just as much about communicating sincerely with fans around the world as I did about showing myself on stage.”
Like Liuyin’s, Chaei’s family valued international experiences. When she thought about her favorite childhood memories, it was the traveling she did with her parents. “Visiting new places and experiencing different cultures really shaped who I am, and I think it helped me grow into a freer person,” she said.
Chaei grew up listening to jazz and classical music because of her family. “One day I saw a K-pop stage, and it was such a fresh shock,” she said. “I loved the performance and the songs so much that I became certain I wanted to stand on that stage too.”
Ayne was born and raised in Seoul, where her family kept her on a busy schedule. “The time I spent in choir, practicing with my friends and blending our voices into one sound, is such a precious memory to me,” she remembered. “I think that's when I naturally started to love music even more.” Her dreams of becoming an idol began in choir: “I realized that I felt happiest and most joyful singing in front of a camera.”
Liri grew up in Incheon, and and spent a year in the U.S. as a teenage exchange
student to study ballet. As she adjusted to life in America, K-pop stages were a great comfort to her. “That's when I first thought, even outside of ballet, I wanted to become an artist who could move people's hearts. Later, after I hurt my back and came back to Korea to think about my future, that thought came back to me, and I really wanted to try it even though my parents were against it.”
The road to debut was challenging at times. Jihyun remembered how resilient she had to be, especially while competing on survival shows and training at two different companies. “I learned not to give up easily even in exhausting, hard situations, and I gained the strength to get back up even after falling down,” she said. “I also realized how important it is to keep building a stronger inner self.”
Chaei echoed this, explaining that the grind of survival shows and training “made me think hard about what attitude to bring on stage and how to build my own character. Constantly reflecting on myself through different environments helped me find my own strengths and colors, and I think that became a huge foundation for who I am now.”
Likewise, Liri found that competing in the U.S. was a testing ground for training at a K pop company. YAP is a “dream stage” for ballet dancers, and she took full advantage of the opportunity: Liri participated in workshops and classes that helped her grow technically as a dancer. “Most of all, I learned how to express and present myself among so many other competitors in front of an audience and judges, and how to stay confident on stage even in nerve-wracking moments,” she explained. “That experience helped me a lot when it came to K-pop training too.”
Liuyin discovered K-pop after seeing BLACKPINK perform on TV. She was inspired by the energy the BLACKPINK commanded onstage and how gripped the audience seemed by them, and she wondered if she could do it too. By the time she was thirteen, she thought, “‘If I put off this dream, I'll regret it for the rest of my life,' and that's when I became sure.”
The members agree that Liuyin took the biggest risk to debut after moving to Seoul from Italy. Liri feels a special connection with her for this reason, because she knew what it was like to be far from home, desperately hoping to succeed. “I'm really proud of Liuyin for coming to Korea on her own to chase her dream,” Liri said, “and she picked up Korean so fast that all of us are constantly amazed by her language skills.”
Liuyin credits her grandmother with giving her the courage to try. “I was able to start because of my grandmother,” she recalled, “whom I love so much and who cheered me on.”
Like many fifth-generation groups, HEART OF WOMAN was formed on a competition reality show. TEACH ME HOW was smaller in scope than many survival shows, focusing on the five girls instead of a massive group of up to 100 contestants, and because of its tighter frame, it felt more realistic.
Each of the girls felt pressure to prove themselves. The show’s biggest twist comes at the end of the first episode when Jihyun, Ayne, Liri and Liuyin learn that Chaei will join them and that, as a result, one girl might be eliminated.
“Since nobody knew who would actually debut, I was anxious throughout the whole filming,” Liuyin remembered. “I also wasn't sure how to act, what to do, or what to say, so I was nervous every time.”
Liri and Ayne were nervous not only because this was their first time being on camera but also because, as Ayne explained, “our fates were basically on the line.” Liri echoed this, adding, “I was nervous as well as excited. I had to show both my growth as a trainee and my journey toward debut exactly as it was, so I felt a lot of pressure and anxiety.”
For Chaei, who perhaps had the most to prove as a new trainee, everything was on the line. “I wanted to debut so badly,” she said. “It wasn’t an easy process, but looking back now, it’s become a really special experience.”
Once the girls were officially chosen for HEART OF WOMAN, the real hard work began. “We were all stunned, and it didn't really feel real at first,” Jihyun explained. “But as we got into recording, went on a training trip to the U.S., and filmed the music video, it slowly started to sink in — we're really debuting.”
The girls all brought their own color to the group. Ayne felt that her time as a vocal major was especially helpful because “I tried to bring out different tones and details in my expression depending on the mood of each song. Studying classical music taught me how to analyze a song's structure and the emotions woven into it. I think that's become the biggest foundation for how I interpret and express HEART OF WOMAN's songs now.”
Liri found her own inspiration through her years as a young fan. “I thought a lot about how to show the inspiration I got from the K-pop stages and music our seniors built in my own style,” she said.
Looking back at their time as trainees on TEACH ME HOW, Jihyun recalled how she had worried about whether all the girls would be able to cross the finish line. “But in the end we all debuted together,” she said, “which makes the show even more meaningful to me.”
Now, a little less than two months after their debut, the girls feel more confident about what they can accomplish together. “Our strength is that each of our five voices stands out clearly on its own, while still blending together naturally,” they told me. “We don't want to be boxed into just one concept — we want to keep showing new sides of ourselves while staying true to the heart of the genre.”
