Fai | K-Pop Soloist

✧ PLAYLIST OF MY LIFE ✧

Hi Teen Vogue, I'm K-Pop Star Fai and this is the playlist of my life.

Umm, I would say that my music taste is pretty ordinary. Pop, K-Pop, Soft Pop, Hip-Hop, Ballads, R&B, that's what I generally listen to. I don't really have the talent of discovering songs or artists, I just listen to my friend's playlists and put it into mine. I'm a boring person.

The first song is You Are my World by Yoon Mirae, it's an old Korean ballad. When I was born, as my dad was going to hold me, he started to sing this song to me. I think it's really nice of my dad to do that, it's really sweet. If you translate the lyrics, they go, "The door has opened to a new world. One step forwards, in front of my eyes is a dazzling world. I want you to be in my arms, you are my world." My mother was really embarrassed though, she was yelling at him to shut up, one of my grandmas thought he was drunk. I think it was a good introduction to the world.

I Need U by BTS. When I got cast by my company, BigHit, I went on to search more about the company. At the time this song was released a couple of months prior. I'd say this song and the whole EP, The Most Beautiful Moment In Life Part 1, are the reason why I joined the company as a trainee and now an idol. It's really good, back then I couldn't understand the lyrics well, but they conveyed their emotions so well that it felt like I didn't need to understand them to feel what they were feeling.

When I Was Your Man by Bruno Mars. The first vocal lesson I had as a trainee, we practised with this song. I wasn't um good at it, I was still a beginner but it was my stepping stone into taking singing seriously. Later on, my final evaluation as a trainee I sang the song again and a couple of days later I was told that I was going to debut. If you see the video of when I was first starting out and compared it to the final evaluation, you can see how much I've improved. So thank you, Bruno Mars, because of you I was able to debut.

Umbrella by Rihanna. First of all, Rihanna is one of my favourite artists, the song is so simple but it hits your heart. It's another song that takes me back to my trainee days, I was in a group with like six other girls and we had to create choreography for our monthly evaluation. My Korean was bad back then so it was hard to express myself to my group-mates, but we pulled through. So I would say that both, Umbrella and When I Was Your Man take me back to that trauma I experienced as a trainee.

MAMA by EXO. My cousin Jongin, also known as Kai, he debuted in a group called EXO and MAMA was their debut song. Back then, people weren't really feeling it but it's actually a really good song, the world was just not ready to experience the cultural reset that is MAMA. I remember seeing their debut stage and my cousin looked so lifeless like he had no facial expressions, very memorable and important song for me and my family.

And because my cousin Kai debuted, I started to look more into K-Pop because I wanted to support him. The first song that I heard was Electric Shock by FX, my favourite girl group of all time. Every time they released music you would be sure that it would be high quality, unpredictable but also really experimental. This is the song and the group that got me into a KPop and made me stay.

If Electric Shock is my personal introduction to KPop, Sherlock by Shinee is the reason why I wanted to become an idol. Shinee are my favourite male group, solid discography. Honestly, Sherlock isn't my favourite song by them, but it is an important song for me. I've said this one million times, but I went to a Shinee concert in 2014. The first song on the setlist was Sherlock, the second they got up the elevator and the whole arena erupted in cheers, I knew that I wanted to do that. Thankfully, I do that now.

Don't Stop Me Now by Queen, I listen to this song every single day. I wake up, go straight to the shower and this is the first song I play. Not only do I use this song and whatever will come up next as my shower alarm, but it's also a good song to start your day off. I've been doing this since I've been living alone so around two years now and it works well. I'd recommend everyone to start their day off with this song.

When We Were Young by Adele. Her entire 25 album is really good, but I'd say that without a doubt this is the best song on the album. The song musically is so simple, like you can pick up the piano chords at first listen without needing the sheet, but at the same time, it's so complex. Adele's voice and lyricism are so good that it makes the song so powerful. In Adele songs, if you listen hard enough you hear her layering her vocals to emphasise parts of the song. And if you listen to my songs, there are a lot of self harmonising and vocal layering, that's because of Adele. So thank you adele.

Save Myself by Ed Sheeran. Honestly, I'd put Ed Sheeran's entire discography in this playlist and that's because Ed Sheeran is my favourite artist of all time. I remember The A-Team blew up in Australia when it first came out, early 2011 I think. Ever since then, I've been an avid listener of Ed Sheeran. I don't really know why it is he's my favourite artist. I don't have the intention of being one of those people who claim they only like a musician because of the originality, because there's more to this than just writing a song. I feel that Ed Sheeran tells stories about his life. I think the songs he's released are so interesting and he sings with such passion because they are all true and real and that's one of the reasons that his music is so special. I think Save Myself stands out to be a lot, there's a lyric that goes, "My dad was wrong, cause I'm not like my mum, cause she'd just smile and I'm complaining in a song." If you look back at all my song credits, it's just me complaining and my dad too thinks I'm similar to my mum when in reality she's so strong and I'm honestly nothing compared to her. I'm not talented when it comes to song-writing, I'm still working really hard on it, but I hope one day I can release songs in the same lyricism as him.

Moonlight Sonata by Beethoven, aside from the fact that I have all three movements memorised from the top of my head, shoutout to my old piano teacher, the song is really important to me. When I used to live in Austalia, I used to dance competitively, the last performance I did before moving to Korea had the First Movement of Moonlight Sonata. I placed first overall with that solo piece, so it means even more to me. I still practice this piece with my dance teacher in Korea, but honestly, neither my form nor flexibility are as good as they used to be. When I was younger, the piano used to relieve my anxiety and it still does. So I listen to a lot of piano pieces while I'm on the plane, in the car and before performances.

The final song on my playlist would be, Tag Me by Fai which is my debut song. It um, wasn't successful at all when it first came out and I think it's because back then the market was oversaturated with these bright songs. I actually really like the song now, I didn't back then. I haven't performed it for like 2 years, to be honest, I don't know if I can perform it as refreshingly as I used to. If we're going to be really honest, I don't think the song was mixed correctly because the instrumental is way a bit loud at some points in the song. Also, not really into the dance break part before the bridge, I feel like the song shouldn't have had that and stayed as a performance exclusive, but it's okay. The song is still good.

This would be the playlist of my life, honestly, there are a lot more songs by other artist's I'd like to add. Beyonce, Rexx Life Raj, Lady Gaga, Taylor Swift, Benjamin Clementine, J Cole, the band Bad Suns, Woodkid, the composer Nicholas Brittel. But I think this playlist does a good job of representing the short life I've lived. Anyways, thank you for having me Teen Vogue,