“Like Water” by Wendy, Tuesday, June 4, 2024

On Christmas 2019, Shon Seung-wan (손승완), better known by her stage name Wendy, fell off the stage when rehearsing for a solo performance on SBS Gayo Daejeon. Faulty stage design and alleged lack of safety measures were blamed, causing the Red Velvet singer to fall over 8 feet, sustaining injuries on her right side--a pelvic fracture, a broken wrist, and a broken cheekbone.

Not only did this fall cancel the upcoming event, but it left her in the hospital for two months. Fortunately, the accident didn’t end Wendy’s career but forced her to take a hiatus for most of 2020 from her role as singer and dancer in SM Entertainment’s one-time fifth-most steamed K-pop group on Spotify.

I WANT YOU TO LOVE ME. Wendy debuted with the group Red Velvet in 2014. The girl group is known for a dualistic sound signified by their name, Red implies the group’s frenetic energy they apply as dancers and singers to musically complex song structures. Velvet refers to the smooth sound of the group’s ballads. Much of Wendy’s solo work falls into the velvet side of the group. Coming from a wealthy family in Seoul, Seung-wan received a middle and high school education in the United States and Canada, where she adopted the name, Wendy Shon and became fluent in English. She played sports, learned several instruments, and participated in choir. After high school, she returned to Korea to try out for SM Entertainment. Although she was talented and came from a music-loving family, her parents didn’t want her to pursue music professionally at first. Wendy started releasing solo singles and collaborating with other artists in 2015. Most of the singles were soundtracks for dramas. In 2018, she sang an English duet with American singer-songwriter John Legend. Wendy released her first EP or “mini album” Like Water in April 2021. In the title track, Wendy sings in English “I just wanna thank you for believing in me.” In this line, she shows gratitude to her fans who remembered her as she was recovering from the frightening, potentially career-ending accident.

I NEED YOU TO HOLD ME. Red Velvet had plans to tour their 2019 record, ‘The ReVe Festival’ in 2020 without Wendy. The tour started in Japan but was postponed due to the start of the Covid-19 pandemic. Following the tour postponement, the group decided to go on hiatus and would return with Wendy in January 2021 as a full-time member. She contributed vocals for drama soundtracks with the group when she could. But before Red Velvet came back with their August 2021 EP Queendom, Wendy released her debut solo EP, Like Water. The EP wasn’t a huge hit; an album of ballads usually isn’t a huge commercial success in Korea compared to an idol’s electropop. Still, the short record reintroduced Wendy and left listeners with a sentimental feeling for the singer who was back in K-pop. And pop music wasn’t the only venture she came back to pursue. She was a cast member of Saturday Night Live Korea in 2021 and hosted a radio show from 2021 to 2023. Last year, she was also cast as the wife in the musical Rebecca, a German music translated into Korean based on English novelist Daphne du Maurier’s novel of the same name. Today’s song is for Wendy’s fans. The fans sustained her “like water” during a career drought. What’s next for Wendy? A talent like hers certainly is bound to give the fans something incredible.