Korean band TWICE member Jihyo releases debut solo album ‘Zone’

Jihyo, a member of the south korean girl group TWICE made her solo debut on Friday, releasing her album ‘Zone.'

Jihyo of Twice made her solo debut on Friday, when she released her album “Zone” with EP, venturing on a new journey nine years post her debut with the band.

The 26-year-old began working on the album last year.

Jihyo, is the second member of the group to release a solo, following Nayeon who released the album “Im Nayeon” in June 2022.

The album is titled "Zone", as a composition of “z”, which refers to Jihyo, and "one," meaning jihyo's one complete artwork.

The album has seven tracks, named “Killin' Me Good,” “Closer,” “Wishing On You,” “Room,” and “Nightmare." The other two songs, “Talkin' About It,” features American rapper and singer 24kGoldn while “Don't Wanna Go Back” includes a duet with South Korean singer and rapper Heize.

Spanning different genres from R&B to Latin, it highlights Jihyo's colorful sonic palette along with new attempts like rapping.

The 26-year-old began working on the album last year and held a press conference in Seoul on Friday prior to the album's release at 1 p.m. the same day.

The singer explained the motivation and the process behind the album in the press conference, "When the company told me that I'd be making a solo album last year, rather than giving me a direction, they told me to decide what I wanted to do."

"It was difficult to choose at first, but working on the songs, I eventually thought I wanted to make an album that could show new sides of myself as a vocalist. All the songs are of different genres and I tried to make my voice sound as different as I could for each of them."

Jihyo's fans and lovers have been enjoying and appreciating the album since it's release.

While a solo career remains a dream for many K-pop ideals, it took Jihyo nine years to accomplish the same after joining the band. She first joined JYP Entertainment as a trainee in third grade, nineteen years ago.