It’s official. Red Velvet is preparing for a March comeback.
On February 18, 2022, SM Entertainment confirmed the reports on Red Velvet releasing new music soon. The agency shared, “Red Velvet is preparing a new album with the goal of releasing it in March. We ask for you to please show a lot of interest.”
This will mark the group’s first comeback since their last EP Queendom in August 2021. The EP included six tracks in total – the title track Queendom, followed by b-sides Pose, Knock on Wood, Pushin’ N Pullin, Better Be, and Hello Sunset.
Red Velvet is a five-membered South Korean girl group under SM Entertainment. The group first debuted in August 2014 with four members – Irene, Seulgi, Wendy, and Joy, with the single Happiness. The fifth member, Yeri, joined the group in March 2015 following the release of their first mini-album Ice Cream Cake, making it their unofficial debut according to their fans, ReVeluvs, and the members themselves.
The name of the band has a lot to do with describing their music style. Red Velvet is known to experiment with various genres of music and execute them with perfection. The “red” half portrays a powerful and compelling image, whilst the “velvet” half is more feminine and gentle. Their most recent work incorporates both sides to communicate sensuality, color, and elegance. Musically, the red side focuses on pop, while the velvet side focuses on R&B and ballads, nevertheless, the group also dabbles in other genres. The members’ style is influenced by the dual concept as well. They frequently dress in colorful, traditionally girlish apparel in their red era, such as pastel sweaters and skirts in Ice Cream Cake and red doll ensembles in Dumb Dumb. For their velvet side, they dress more maturely, as evidenced by their outfits in Be Natural and Bad Boy.
Red Velvet has even confused the audience by incorporating both their sides in one song – Peek-A-Boo. The song is a pop dance number, bringing under the red concept, but visually has a dark and sensual concept, indicating a velvet theme.
Red Velvet has been named one of the best K-pop groups by Time magazine because of its musical versatility. Janelle Okwodu from Vogue noted that “the critically acclaimed South Korean girl group has dominated the charts with their innovative pop sound.” Red Velvet has topped the Korean Corporate Reputation Research Institute’s ‘Girl Group Brand Power Ranking’ multiple times. The group was declared “the best idol group alive” by Billboard in November 2019, while their song Red Flavor was named the second-best K-pop song of the decade.
Red Velvet had confirmed their plans to release new music as a group this year at the SM Town online live event ‘SMTOWN 2022: SMCU EXPRESS @KWANGYA’ on January 1. Member Wendy had shared, “I’m looking forward to the moment when I’ll be with the members again this year.” Red Velvet’s leader Irene had added, “We’ll show you a lot of great activities this year, so please be with us.”
Along with the great news of a Red Velvet comeback next month, ReVeluvs have another reason that calls for a celebration. The music video for Red Velvet’s song Bad Boy, which was released in 2018, has just reached a new milestone. As of February 17, the video for the hip-hop-influenced R&B track had surpassed 350 million views on YouTube, becoming the first music video by a female artist under SM Entertainment to do so.