Returning with the album “I Never Die” and the title song “Tomboy”, (G)I-DLE received many compliments but member Soyeon was in controversy.
Soyeon is frequently participating in the production of (G)I-DLE‘s music projects as the group’s leader. With the exception of the song “Polaroid,” the female idol contributed in the writing of lyrics for most of the songs on the newly released album. Most notably, the audience is talking about the lyrics of the two songs “Tomboy” and “Never Stop Me,” with some suggesting that some of the lyrics contain satirical undertones of HyunA – a former Cube Entertainment idol.
Specifically, in the song “Tomboy“, Soyeon mentioned the game “ping pong” in a rap sentence: “I don’t wanna play this ping-pong/ I would rather film a TikTok”. Coincidentally, before that, HyunA also collaborated with her boyfriend – Dawn to release a song called “Ping Pong“. Therefore, some fans believe that the (G)I-DLE member used this rap line to imply that she did not like HyunA‘s song. Some even speculated that Soyeon was trying to show that she would rather use TikTok than listen to her senior’s song “Ping Pong“.
(G)I-DLE fans quickly defended Soyeon when pointing out that “Tomboy” is a song that shows the confidence of women with the desire to become cool girls. The next rap line right after the above controversial lyrics said “Your mom raised you as a prince/ But this is queendom, right?”, showing that Soyeon is referring to the “ex-lover” character in the song, not HyunA.
Similar to “Tomboy”, the b-side song on the album – “Never Stop Me” also faced a lot of controversy. At 1:09, Soyeon rapped: “Scolded by daddy, out of company/ looking forward to your wedding”. These lyrics continue to remind the audience of the story of the former 4Minute member. In August 2018, Korean media reported that HyunA was dating Dawn ( a member of Pentagon at that time). After confirming the relationship, the contract between the two with the joint management company, Cube Entertainment, immediately ended. Earlier this year, the couple also announced their engagement. Many people say that this rap line of the (G)I-DLE member is definitely aimed at none other than the HyunA – Dawn couple.
In response to the above allegations, Soyeon‘s fans said that the song “Never Stop Me” describes the painful and angry emotions of a girl after breaking up and being betrayed by her ex. Therefore, the female idol’s rap part is merely sarcastic words of “this girl” for her ex-lover.
Furthermore, (G)I-DLE is said to have started working on this album last year, long before HyunA – Dawn got engaged. Furthermore, the tracks had to be finished ahead of time in order to make the physical Discs on time. As a result, fans say that the “wedding” mentioned in the lyrics has nothing to do with the artist couple.
While the audience is constantly speculating about theories related to (G)I-DLE‘s new songs, both Soyeon and HyunA have yet to respond. Despite the controversy, the new music product of the Cube girl group still receives enthusiastic support from fans. Currently, the MV for the title song “Tomboy” has also gained more than 22 million views after only 2 days of release.
