TWICE leader Jihyo to lend her voice for the OST of the ongoing Netflix drama, Twenty One Twenty Five.
Debuted in October 2015 as the leader and main vocalist of the girl group TWICE, Jihyo is well known for her warm personality and heavenly vocals. Jihyo was scouted by JYP Entertainment after she came second in a Junior Naver event. At the age of eight, she joined JYP Entertainment as a trainee and trained for ten years before making her debut. Jihyo was the face of Innisfree’s adolescent line with the boy band Boyfriend throughout her trainee years. She trained alongside idols like Sunmi and Hyerim of Wonder Girls, Bae Suzy, Jo Kwon, and Nichkhun. Jihyo was supposed to debut with Nayeon, Jeongyeon, and Sana in a girl group, however, the project was canceled. Instead, they all competed in the reality television show Sixteen, which was created to find Twice’s founding members.
Along with amazing vocals, she is also an exceptional lyricist who has often confessed to writing songs from her personal experiences. Up No More from TWICE’s second full album Eyes Wide Open is based on the time when the star was dealing with insomnia and couldn’t find a way out. Cactus from the group’s latest album, Formula of Love: O+T=<3, is a heart-wrenching ballad, from the perspective of Jihyo’s dying cactus as revealed by the singer herself. To this fellow member, Nayeon replied, “I sang it with such sad feelings. But in retrospect it’s funny how emotional I was,” in an interview with Bollywood Hungama, leading all the other members to agree with it and bursting into laughter.
On March 4, 2022, Studio MaumC, the production company in charge of the Twenty Five Twenty One soundtrack revealed that TWICE’s main vocalist will be releasing a new ballad track, Stardust Love Song, as a part of the series’ OST on March 6.
This will be Jihyo’s first solo soundtrack, as well Previously she has only released song covers as a part of solo music or written songs for TWICE. Previously she has sung an OST for the second installment of the Netflix original Hospital Playlist along with her fellow members.
During the most recent episode of Twenty Five Twenty One, which aired on both South Korean cable network tvN and Netflix on February 27, 2022, a snippet of Stardust Love Song was teased.
Other singers who will be participating in different OSTs of the drama include NCT’s Taeil, SEVENTEEN’s DK, and BIBI.
Twenty Five Twenty One, which airs every Saturday and Sunday, follows five characters from 1998 to 2021 as they navigate adulthood, romance, and their goals. The series is led by Nam Joo-hyuk and Kim Tae-ri, whose characters meet when they are 21 and 18 years old and fall in love when they reunite at 25 and 21 years old.
Moon Ji-woong, a former online sensation, is played by Lee Joo-myung, and Ji Seung-Wan, Hee-do’s class leader, is played by the famous Racket boys actor Choi Hyun-wook.
The K-drama’s filming was recently postponed because lead actress Kim Tae-ri tested positive for COVID-19, prompting her to stop all immediate, scheduled activities as a precaution. Despite the scenario, cable network tvN stated that “there have been no changes to the broadcast schedule”.