[Sportschosun reporter Cho Yoon-sun] Jang Yoon-jeong calmly shared her recent feelings as she unveiled a new song.
On the 20th, a video titled "A gift from Jang Gongjang Jang Yoon-jeong to Jang Yoon-jeong" was posted on the YouTube channel "Jang Gongjang Jang Yoon-jeong."
That day, Jang Yoon-jeong revealed the behind-the-scenes story of her new song "To the Sky," which she is releasing for the first time in three years.
She said, "At some point, I think I started losing the meaning of releasing new songs. To make excuses, I may have become lazy, and the pressure of having to come up with a new song and actually make it happen, along with thoughts like, 'What if it doesn't work out?' kept piling up. So it had been a while since I last released a new song."
She explained why she decided to work on the song, saying, "I write my own lyrics and compose my own music, and usually I think of words that come to mind for singers and make a song around them. But I thought, 'Does it make sense that I know myself best, yet I can't even make a song about myself?'"
Jang Yoon-jeong confessed, "Everyone has difficult moments in life. For me, the hardest times were when I felt lonely. I felt loneliness when I thought that I alone had to know this pain, go through it alone, and endure it by myself."
She also said she once resented the sky, adding, "Still, I felt that the sky was watching over us. Since it couldn't show me anything directly in front of my eyes, it seemed to stay by my side as the cool breeze I like. I also love the moon, and I felt like it was comforting me by shining a bright full moon on me, so I wrote the song with those lyrics."
Regarding the message at the end of the music video, "I hope this song can be an excuse for tears when you want to sit down and cry," she explained, "I made the song with that feeling in mind, and the first person to cry using that song as an excuse was me. I made it with the hope that anyone enduring a difficult situation would listen to it and find strength."
Finally, Jang Yoon-jeong told listeners, "I hope they can enjoy the song without overthinking it, just following where their hearts lead. I would be grateful if it simply comes across as, 'So this is how Jang Yoon-jeong feels these days.' When people are sad, they need to empty their hearts from time to time, and I hope this is a song that can help with that. I want people to feel it with me and, later on, find hope."
Meanwhile, Jang Yoon-jeong debuted in the music industry after winning the grand prize at the 20th Riverside Song Festival in 1999. Her 2004 hit "Oh My" later became hugely popular, establishing her as the queen of trot.
Ahead of her 2013 marriage to broadcaster Do Kyung-wan, a former announcer, she became estranged from her mother after a dispute over money, a painful story that drew public sympathy.
More recently, attention has turned to her again after her mother was arrested on suspicion of investment fraud. She is accused of taking tens of millions of won from acquaintances for investment purposes by invoking her estranged daughter's name, then failing to return the profits.
This article has been translated by GripLabs Mingo AI.
