ITZY returns more daring with ‘Guess Who’

Girl group ITZY is returning more powerful and confident with the new album “Guess Who.” Ahead of the album‘s release, the group conducted an online press conference Thursday.

The band’s fourth mini album, “Guess Who” is a six-track set led by “M.A.F.I.A. in the Morning.”

“‘Guess Who’ refers to an unknown person. In this album, we manifest various visuals and emotions according to different times and places, becoming more wild, daring and powerful,” the group‘s leader Yeji said.

“The lead track is based on a party game called Mafia, which is a very popular game within our generation. Just like in the game, the song sings about hiding and showing true intentions and eventually stealing your heart in a confident manner,” Lia explained.

Written and composed by Park Jin-young, the chief producer of the group’s label JYP Entertainment, the lead song will show the group‘s duplicity through two styles of day and night concept.

“While we tend to hide our emotions in the day concept, we put on a strong smokey makeup for the night concept, and showing our double-sidedness was a big challenge for us. It will be fun to watch how we make use of the two concepts on the stage,” Chaeryeong said.

A group known for their powerful performance, ITZY said they have returned even bolder and fiercer with “M.A.F.I.A. in the Morning.”

“We put much effort into our performance. There’s many group dance moves, and for these scenes we had to shoot the music video in 10 different sets,” Ryujin explained.

The album also includes “Sorry Not Sorry,” “Kidding Me,” “Wild Wild West,” “Shoot!” and “Tennis.”

Continuing on the message of self-love and confidence that the group has been voicing since its debut, the band hoped their new album will win the hearts of millennials and Generation Z, to which all the five members also belong.

“I think confidence and honesty are the values that characterize the MZ generation, and as the message that we have been singing goes in line with such values, many listeners in the age group were able to empathize with our songs. I hope that, with this album, we‘ll have chances to engage in more conversations with them,” Ryujin said.

“Preparing for this album was a big challenge for us. I hope that we could prove our potential, that we are a group of limitless possibility,” Yuna said.

In closing the event, Lia added, “I’d like to give to myself and all of the members words of encouragement by saying that ‘you’re doing well and that good things will happen eventually, so don‘t lose confidence.’ Also, to have faith in your fans and keep on making progress.”

“Guess Who” will be released globally at 1 p.m., local time, Friday.

By Choi Ji-won (jwc@heraldcorp.com)