“We were really nervous.”: ITZY’s Yeji dishes on her experience, inspirations, and more

ITZY’s heartthrob idol Yeji talked about her inspirations, experience with the group, and more in conversation with the internationally acclaimed lifestyle magazine W Korea. It was the idol’s debut solo pictorial; thus, she relished the new experience and noted the expeditious nature of the work.

As the fag end of the ITZY global tour CHECKMATE nears, the interviewer noted that the group exudes confidence and charisma in all their concert videos.

Responding to that, Yeji explained that it is untrue that they are not nervous. She went on to say that the group's nervousness was a result of excitement rather than a lack of preparation. She stated:

“No, we were really nervous. In my experience, there are two situations when you’re nervous. The nervousness that comes from when you weren’t able to prepare well, or the nervousness from when you’re too excited. But while on this tour, I realized that there’s a different nervousness you can feel even when your preparation was nearly perfect.”

ITZY will be concluding its global tour next month in Bangkok after recently performing in Hong Kong.

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“I believe in myself.”: ITZY’s Yeji on her life’s motto and global K-Pop fans

The twenty-two-year-old leader of the sensational K-Pop girl group ITZY has revealed her life motto, which drives her to excel. Yeji shared that her motto is "I believe in myself."

Explaining why this inspires her, she said that although the phrase is a bit over the top, it is something she deeply resonates with. She believes that her success is entirely due to the hard work and effort she put into achieving it. She explained:

“It sounds a bit grand to say it’s a motto, right? It’s a phrase that came naturally to me. I realized pretty early on that I get in return as much effort as I’ve put in. To be honest, I know best how hard I worked. After learning that I get as much skill, reward, and reaction for the amount of effort I put in, I had to move forward while believing in myself.”

After that, the idol discussed the dedication of K-Pop fans around the world. During ITZY’s international concerts, MIDZYs from across the world knew the lyrics of all the Korean songs by heart and jammed along.

Yeji noted that not only did global K-Pop fans know the lyrics of the songs, but they were also well versed in Korean.

“They’re just good at Korean in general. You could think that they’re singing along to songs from memorization, but when we say something on stage, the audience understands and responds before the translator has translated. No matter what country we go to, we end up saying, ‘Wow, you’re so good at Korean!’ Now, I feel that there are a lot of people who know about Korea well, not just about K-pop.”

The full interview with ITZY's Yeji and the pictorial will appear in the April edition of W Korea.