INTERVIEW: The Artistry of SUNMI
For the past fifteen years, SUNMI has been a supernova in K-Pop. She’s a shapeshifter; someone who can play a variety of genres, from jazz to alt rock to power pop, and add her own unique style to the music. Yet what makes SUNMI so powerful is that she has transformed from a central figure in the legendary girl group Wonder Girls to a soloist unafraid of making an artistic statement.
This month, SUNMI is embarking on the GOOD GIRL GONE MAD tour. The show is an insanely thrilling thing to witness live and it allows the singer to express, as she told me, “different sides of myself to fans”
“This has been three years since I’ve been able to meet my fans,” she said as we sat backstage at Chicago’s Riviera Theater on the first night of her North American tour. She looked stunning in a sparkly pink mini-dress accented by glittery silver ribbons that adorned her hair. “Although we’ve had concerts during the pandemic,” she explained, “there’s never been an audience and there’s this exchange of emotion that’s been extremely lacking for me.”
This dialogue between audience and artist, what I would describe as an exchange of our stories, is crucial for SUNMI. “It’s extremely important to my performance because that’s where I get my energy,” she added. “I’ve really missed that.” GOOD GIRL GONE MAD is an opportunity for fans to learn more about the singer. As she would tell them later that night onstage, “If you’re curious about who I am, please listen to my songs.” This story is important to her.
The concept of GOOD GIRL GONE MAD is something that SUNMI hopes others can relate to. “I think everyone has multiple sides or versions of themselves. GOOD GIRL GONE MAD came to me because I wanted to express these different sides of myself to fans,” she explained. “I think it’s something that many people can relate to. The idea that even though you appear very nice, you can suddenly turn mad.” SUNMI told me she was inspired by Rihanna’s classic album Good Girl Gone Bad when she envisioned the tour, but she decided to put her own spin on the concept. What she devised is akin to one of her most compelling singles “Borderline” which explores her experience with Borderline Personality Disorder.
“The feeling behind ‘going bad’ didn’t fit with my personality,” she said in reference to Rihanna’s album. “I thought about what would fit me and someone who’;s gone mad or gone crazy fits my style a little bit more.”
SUNMI wants her work to be read as fine art. She’s intentional about this piece of her music. “I take the emotions that a lot of people are feeling and I turn them into performance art,” she told me as she considered how she would describe her artistry. “I try to portray these emotions so that they will touch whoever is listening.”
SUNMI’s work is interactive and her fanbase Miyanes’ participation allows for the concepts to come full circle. “The final part of my performance is filled by the audience, their interpretation and how they feel after watching it,” she expressed. “That’s what makes it complete.”
SUNMI is radical, too, about how she views herself in relation to art. While preparing for this story, I was struck by something BoA, a contemporary of SUNMI’s and a legend in K-Pop, said in her 2020 documentary Nobody Talks To BoA which references how ephemeral performances are.
“What we are doing,” BoA told her creative director, “is leaving art on the floor.”
When I told SUNMI this, she nodded. “BoA is my idol,” she said warmly. She considered what is left behind from her performances.
“When people come out of my concert, rather than them feeling like they’ve watched a concert, I’d like them to feel like they’ve just seen an art exhibition,” she said. “The emotion that I think I would leave on stage is the coexistence of sadness and emptiness.”
SUNMI’s show deftly holds both of these emotions. She prowls like a cat on the ground in “Tail” as she declares, “I’m not much of a drinker, but I am a dream girl.” In “Heart Burn” she portrays an enchanting woman who dances dangerously to lure men in with her charm. Throughout it all, SUNMI’s personas and archetypes reveal new sides of the singer: women who can’t be boxed in by stereotypes; complicated women who drive themselves close to the edge for love. That’s where the madness comes in.
Seeing these songs live as well as witnessing SUNMI’s commitment to becoming a living art exhibition is unlike anything I’ve watched. Often I watched her performance on the edge of my seat. She never once made me take my eyes off her.
As she’s grown older, SUNMI has tried to understand herself through her art, and in effect, hold a mirror to Miyanes and ask if they see themselves too. She’s learned how to use her own experiences to craft a compelling narrative, one that Miyanes can look to create their own stories. This sort of meaning-making is what pushes her to go deeper, to be reborn as the queen of the dance floor or a woman who asks for your understanding because she feels a little mad.
Near the end of her dazzling two hour set, SUNMI reflected with fans on her resilience. “It’s been sixteen years [in Korean years] since I debuted,” she said to a roar of applause and yells. “And ten years since I became a solo artist. I wanna tell myself you’ve done a good job,” she said softly, “and every moment was sincere.”
Backstage with SUNMI before the show, I thought about the massive eras and career highs she’s cultivated since her debut. She’s right: She’s done an amazing job. I wanted to know if there was any period of time she would like to revisit again, just once.
“I don’t like to live in the past very much,” she said as her eyes met mine, “but if I had to pick one memory to revisit, and this is not necessarily because it’s a perfectly happy memory, I would definitely go back to when I toured with Wonder Girls and Jonas Brothers on the US bus tour.” This 2009 tour was the last project SUNMI participated in with Wonder Girls until she returned in 2015 for their album REBOOT. She smiled and her voice grew understated. “Just to relive those moments again...”
“That would actually be an amazing story to hear,” I replied. Maybe one day we will.
But for now SUNMi is pushing forward. “I’m hoping [on this tour] that we can experience all of the bottled up feelings that we’ve missed out on because of the pandemic,” she said as she thought of her fans.
Release your fears and find your freedom at the GOOD GIRL GONE MAD tour. SUNMI will lead you onto the dance floor of empowerment.
Special thanks to Official KEvents & Root Company for inviting me to this show.
