HUH JI WON Takes Center Stage

For the past year, the idol has been painstakingly working on her debut album. The Calling, she explains in a new interview, is everything she wishes she could have told herself as a teenager. Now, for the first time, she’s ready to share her story — and wisdom — with fans.

Seven years ago, HUH JI WON debuted as a member of CHERRY BULLET. She was 18 and had spent the majority of her life – from childhood through adolescence – training for her debut. But after five years together and a few hits, the group disbanded, leaving JI WON adrift and wondering what to do next.

​In August, JI WON returned to the stage, this time as a soloist. She told me recently in an interview that the debut “brought up so many emotions.” She was excited, of course, but also nervous, and there were moments when she wondered, “Can I really do this well?”

JI WON signed to a new label, b.abe Entertainment, last year, and found a team that rallied behind her. Many decisions had to be made, from styling to music to marketing. When she felt overwhelmed or afraid, JI WON would sometimes doubt herself, wondering, “Am I really making the right choices?”

“But at the same time, that meant I was able to put the things I genuinely wanted to say into the album,” she told me. “Thinking everything through again and again and gradually creating it one piece at a time made me really happy.”

JI WON worked with Gooseul from DEEP N DAP to create a high-energy, refreshing performance to match her title track “Call me up”. She wanted a stage where her fans “would never grow bored” watching her and where “you could really feel the energy from the performance.”

JI WON loves the lyrics of “Call me up”, which she sees as a song that could be a source of comfort or solace to fans. She points to the lyrics because they’re about believing in yourself:

“Shining in your own way

Following your own feeling

We love the chase.”

“It isn’t about chasing after someone else,” she explained. “It means loving the version of yourself that shines and continuing to chase after that so you can protect it.”

She is especially proud of the B-side “Every Moment”, which she co-wrote. “I poured so much sincerity into telling the story of how every moment I lived made me into who I am,” she said about the track.

“I love every moment that brought me here. I feel so happy and grateful simply because I’m finally making the ‘music of my own’ that I’ve dreamed about for so long, using my own voice exactly as I am,” she explained.

As her second debut date approached, JI WON felt the importance of it acutely. For a while, she detailed in this interview, she wondered if she would remain an idol. The Calling changed that.

“So many emotions came rushing over me at once,” she said about her first performance with the new music, “but I think the strongest feelings were overwhelming gratitude and emotion at realizing, ‘I really am going to stand onstage again.’”

HUH JI WON was born and raised in Seoul, “a true Seoul native,” she likes to say. People often tell JI WON that she seems like a chic Seoul girl, but “my personality is surprisingly easy-going and down-to-earth.”

“That probably makes sense because my childhood was a little different from those of other kids my age,” she observed.

When she was 11, JI WON saw an announcement for auditions for K-Pop Star, a reality show that has produced many successful singers. Almost on a whim – and without even telling her parents – JI WON applied to audition. “I think that just shows how unable I was to let go of my dream,” she theorized.

“Ever since I was little, I absolutely loved singing and dancing, and I dreamed of someday becoming someone who sang and danced on television,” she continued. “Whenever I was home alone, my favorite thing to do was stand in front of the mirror and sing and dance.”

JI WON’s parents were initially against her becoming a singer. Shouldn’t she study? Could she be successful? JI WON thought about giving up. But a part of her knew, “I really want to do this.”

K-Pop Star changed things. She received multiple invitations to train and audition at different companies, and eventually JI WON landed at FNC, marking the start of her training path.

Looking back, what made JI WON’s childhood so different was how little time she had to be a kid.

“There were many days when I would leave school early and head straight to the practice room. Instead of going out for tteokbokki with my friends after class, I would go practice with the other trainees,” she recalled. “After practicing all day, going to McDonald’s together for hamburgers was such a huge source of happiness for us back then. Looking back, those were very simple things, but to the person I was at that time, those moments became incredibly happy memories.”

Training was difficult for JI WON. She was still a child, but she had to grow up quickly: Learn how to greet others properly. Learn how to interact with others professionally and respectfully. “I got scolded quite a lot because I was inexperienced, and I had to learn everything from how to treat the older trainees to the proper manners I should use with company staff.”

Still, JI WON was happy, thrilled even, to finally be on the path to becoming a singer. In the past, all she could do was watch and imitate what she saw other idols do on TV. Now, she was on track to become one herself. It felt like a whole new world of possibilities had opened up for her.

JI WON had to work hard to last in training, and nothing felt guaranteed. “The truth is, I wasn’t naturally talented from the beginning. I was really bad at both singing and dancing,” she said with a laugh. “So whenever I saw really good trainees, I would feel envious. There were many times when I felt frustrated and upset, thinking, ‘I want to be able to do that too, so why can’t I?’”

JI WON persevered thanks to a motto she developed for herself: “There is no talent that can defeat hard work.” Thinking about what this motto means to her now, JI WON explained, “I believe everyone is born with their own unique talent.” She paused. “Sometimes it just takes time to discover what it is.”

It took JI WON a while to find her strengths and figure out what made her unique. Instead of being hard on herself, JI WON tried to practice compassion. Often, she’d stop and think to herself, “I really have improved a lot.” Plus, she began to see her hard work paying off, too. Slowly but surely, JI WON was becoming an artist.

JI WON still remembers the first time she heard and saw CHERRY BULLET’s fans at their debut showcase. She could feel a huge rush of nervous energy before stepping onstage. “I remember catching little glimpses of the fans through gaps backstage. I thought, ‘There really are people here who are cheering for us,’” she told me, adding, “It felt surreal.”

She realized, “Something I had only vaguely dreamed about for so long was suddenly happening right in front of me, and I couldn’t believe it.”

CHERRY BULLET went on to become a popular third-generation K-Pop girl group, but the group never achieved the huge stardom they hoped for. As time between comebacks grew longer, JI WON became restless. “I had a strong desire to keep performing,” she told me. “At the same time, I also wanted more people to discover CHERRY BULLET as a group.”

She joined GIRLS PLANET 999, then competed in the QUEENDOM franchise. Competing against so many different idols was challenging. JI WON had to prove herself weekly, and she faced idols who were vastly different from her own members. But the process was fun, too. It reminded her of her trainee days, and how hard she worked to prove herself then.

“After competing on several survival programs, there were definitely moments when I felt more and more pressure with each one,” she said, describing the feeling as, “‘I have to do even better this time.’ But one thing always mattered most to me: I wanted to experience more kinds of performances. I wanted to be onstage.”

JI WON had to be strong to endure the constant judgment and eliminations. She couldn’t doubt herself or second-guess her training for each new performance. Eventually, she found that the collaboration each show brought was the best part of the job. “Working with people who each had different styles and strengths and learning how to bring everything together for one performance taught me a lot,” she said. “I was also able to discover sides of myself and possibilities within myself that I hadn’t recognized before.”

Over time, she saw that the survival programs were an opportunity to challenge herself, to meet new people – to level up. “More than anything, I’m grateful that I was able to experience so much of the thing I truly love most,” she said, “being onstage.”

After CHERRY BULLET disbanded in 2024, JI WON began to wonder whether she could continue as an idol. There were times when she worried, “Will I ever be on stage again? Is that realistically even a possibility for me?”

As she began holding fan meetings across Korea, Japan, and China, JI WON became certain. “I thought, ‘I really do want to make music. I really do want to perform,’” she told me. “I was reminded that I feel most alive when I’m onstage with my fans.”

Around this time, she met executives at b.ambe, the company that signed her as a solo artist. In the year since they connected, JI WON said, “I genuinely feel like my life has changed so much since then. More than anything, they believed in my dream again and supported me in making the music I wanted to make.”

It’s never easy for a member from a disbanded group to debut again. But JI WON explained, “The company believed in me and supported me more actively than anyone. Because of that, I don’t think of this as an album I made by myself. I think of it as an album that I created together with every member of our company team.”

She was involved in every decision of the album-making process, from writing lyrics to working on production. Often, JI WON and her team would stay up late into the night, driven to finish something they were proud of. She admitted, “So much thought, time, and care went into this album that there were moments when I wondered, ‘Will I ever be able to make another album like this?’”

She’s grateful for the support she’s received from b.able and for their belief that she can succeed on her own. The album, she said, “is something I created together with the people who helped me believe in my dream again. So many people poured their hard work and affection into bringing this album into the world, which makes it especially dear to me.”

JI WON points to “Call me up” as a moment when everything began to synchronize. Finally, she had found a message that represents how she sees life. “Ultimately, what this song wants to say is, “Let’s love ourselves,’” she said. “Anyone can be the main character of their own life. The protagonist of this song—and the protagonist of this world—isn’t somebody else. It’s you.”

She continued, “I wanted to say that everyone can be a queen. You don’t have to receive someone else’s approval or become someone extraordinary to be the protagonist. I think simply loving yourself exactly as you are and living confidently makes you the main character of your life.”

When she thinks back to the girl who debuted at 18, JI WON wishes that she had a message like “Call me up” to lean on. If she could go back to that girl, JI WON theorized, she’d sing it to her. “Back then, I think there were many moments when I doubted myself because I wasn’t sure whether I was doing well or whether the path I had chosen was the right one. Whenever I started something new in particular, I worried a lot about whether I would really be able to do it successfully,” she said.

She wishes her younger self – and her fans – could hear the message of the song as simply: “Come back to me. Call me. I’ll always be with you. You aren’t alone. Because we’re together, there’s nothing to be afraid of.”

She paused and considered this. “I’d tell myself, ‘You don’t need to know the right answer at every moment. It’s okay if you’re still lacking in some ways or if you’re inexperienced. Trust the path you chose and keep going. You’re doing better than you think.’”

JI WON knows that the future won’t always be easy. There will be more difficult moments, more times when she worries that she won’t be able to persevere. But she hopes that she can be compassionate. She hopes she can remember the inner strength she’s developed.

Moving forward,” she said resolutely, “rather than living according to someone else’s standards, I want to continue believing in myself and steadily doing the things that I can, one step at a time.”