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On November 30, 2024, BTS' Kim Taehyung's latest digital single, Winter Ahead with Park Hyo-shin, topped the Worldwide iTunes Song chart in over 81 countries. The track simultaneously topped the European iTunes Song charts across 83 countries, including Germany, France, the United Kingdom, Japan, and Canada.
On South Korea's MelOn chart, the song quickly climbed to #45, gaining massive traction for its heartfelt lyrics. Additionally, it secured top spots on Apple Music's Top Songs Chart.
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Kim Taehyung’s collaboration with Park Hyo-shin, a close friend and veteran in the Korean music industry, has been hailed as a masterstroke. The song was penned by Grammy-winning songwriter Jesse Harris, best known for Norah Jones' Don't Know Why.
Winter Ahead highlights the dark sides of Taehyung's loneliness that leaves a deep impact on his reality
The Winter Ahead music video unfolds like a short film, featuring a story of love, companionship, and seasonal nostalgia. The narrative included moments of Taehyung and the female lead, Aida Atarssa, sharing intimate moments filled with laughter at the Château de Saudreville in Villeconin, France.
The plot shows the BTS singer-songwriter waking up to his daily routine of sculpting sculptures and spending his day alone inside the Château. While idling, his imagination comes to life when a woman (Aida Atarssa) walks by his side. He realizes that she looks exactly like the sculpture he recently completed. However, he develops feelings for her after spending an entire day with her.
As he confronts his doppelgänger and discovers that even he was a figment of his own imagination, the narrative becomes more complex. Taehyung feels the scar of an "X" on the side of his neck and recalls how the real Taehyung had sculpted a self-portrait sculpture of himself and affixed a cross mark on its neck.
With tears in his eyes, he accepts his reality and gives a melancholic smile to his creator. The music video's ending addresses how the musician's loneliness and solitude deluded him to the point that he lost his own sense of reality and weaved a fictional story and people around him, losing himself completely.
Directed by renowned filmmaker Lee Hangyeol (HANBAGO), the video combines minimalist aesthetics with rich cinematography, creating an illusory atmosphere. Warm tones, soft lighting, and scenic landscapes evoke the bittersweet essence of winter, perfectly complementing the song's reflective lyrics.
In other news, the BTS idol will release another pre-recorded single, White Christmas with Bing Crosby, on December 6, 2024. The song is a duet rendition of the late Bing Crosby's 1941 hit track with the same moniker.
