JUNNY Brings Cathartic Intimacy to the BLANC Tour
Photo by Michael, The Bias Wrecker
BLANC, the first album from the multi-talented singer-songwriter, JUNNY is one of my favorite releases of the year. It’s a sturdy, tightly packaged debut that is expertly composed from the dreamlike first song “mercury”, which whimsically fades into “Oblivion”, to the rousing lead single “Not About You”.
Though he might feel like an outsider to K-Pop with sounds that often lean more towards indie rock, JUNNY has actually written some of the genre’s biggest songs and worked with the industry's most magnetic artists, from IU to NCT. In the span of a year, JUNNY’s profile has risen considerably in the K-Pop world, thanks to some of these collaborations, as well as nearly five years worth of solo material. You might just be learning who JUNNY is, but he’s been working since third generation K-Pop was well on it’s way.
To celebrate the release of his long-awaited debut album, JUNNY is currently on his first North American tour. It would be understandable if the Korean-Canadian singer was nervous, but JUNNY’s show Tuesday night at Atlanta’s Center Stage Loft was intimate, at times humurous, and a total delight. The singer’s magic is his ability to create a space for audience members to feel like he is singing directly to them. He makes eye contact, takes fans' phones to film videos himself, and bags a surprisingly large number of gits (including a sick sweater vest with bright red flames).
“I’m a poster stealer,” he said, and laughed as he collected his fifth poster for the night. “I collect ‘em.”
JUNNY performing “Not About You”.
This was JUNNY’s first night in Atlanta as part of a tour that has long been in the making. Just a few years ago, JUNNY was a 21-year-old kid who moved to Korea after selling a song he wrote and produced. He lived in a tight, cramped studio apartment for a year where he made music constantly, until he broke through with his first EP “Monochrome” in 2017.
These difficult experiences, where JUNNY could only rely on a belief in his music, have led to an authenticity that connects him to fans like me. His songs can be restrained and sparse, like you’re peering inside the bedroom of someone who just broke up with their first love. These tracks, usually about an ex who JUNNY talked about in Tuesday’s show, evoke the pathos in his work. “I don’t care, let’s runaway,” he nearly whispers to a lover in “solo”. “Got me dreaming in the dark/ Moving closer/ Getting over/ Reaching for the stars/ But no one’s here to share it with me now”.
“TMI,” he said slyly with a smile at the beginning of the show. “But, uh, this next song is about my ex.” He made a thumbs-down motion and the audience gleefully booed and cheered him on. “Sing this song so loudly that she can hear it all the way back home,” he commanded – and the audience responded by yelling the lyrics of his latest single “Not About You”.
JUNNY performing “nostalgia”.
JUNNY’s music mines material about loss and loneliness, but lately he’s begun to embrace new colors. “Nowadays, when I write a song, I think about the performance part, the visual part,” he told All K-Pop this year. “I want to be a whole package.” That means that sometimes his music can be joyous and full of light.
It was the perfect choice, then, for JUNNY to start the show with “COLOR ME”, an absolute banger of a song that reflects the new moods the singer is embracing. The single is bolder and wilder than anything he’s released before and it takes flight with the addition of CHUNG HA.
“I wouldn’t have been able to sing these songs without you,” JUNNY told the audience halfway through the show. “I hope,” he continued, and then broke into the chorus of “By My Side”, the crooning, blues-tinged song from 2020. His voice, crispy and soaked in passion, had never felt more clear or more powerful.
“Let me teach you how to love,” he sang in high falsetto to a stunned, silent crowd. For this ecstatic moment, it wasn’t just JUNNY’s talent that captivated me; it was also his sincerity.
