Sweetener is Naya’s first album under her own company management, SIRIUS Entertainment, with guests collaborations by Eric Nam, Jessi and Moonbyul (MAMAMOO).
Released on August 17, 2020, it debuted at number one on the GAON Music Chart, topping all the four most important charts — Album (physical sales), Digital, Streaming and Download. It also appeared as first place on Billboard’s Independent Album Chart and it was on Billboard 200. The Korea Music Content Association awarded the album as a 3x Platinum, selling over 750,000 copies, receiving the crown of being the first female soloist to reach the triple award, passing Baekhyun and Kang Daniel. Sweetener topped several international charts and she was nominated in four different categories of the Grammy Awards.
Kwon promoted three singles from the album: “no tears left to cry”, “God is a woman” and “breathin'”. The track “the light is coming” was released as a promotional single along with the pre-order of the album.
She realized a series of small concerts called “The Sweetener Sessions” in support of her new release and an art exhibition happened in Seoul: “The Sweetener Experience”.
|released| August 17, 2020
|recorded| November 2019 — July 2020
|genre| K-Pop, R&B, Trap
|lenght| 47:25
|label| SIRIUS Entertainment,
|producer| Naya Kwon, Pharrell Williams, Hit-Boy, Max Martin, Ilya, Tommy Brown, Michael Foster, Brian Malik Baptiste and Charles Anderson
“After Manchester, my life changed completely. I was afraid to leave my house and the idea of not being around people that I trust freaked me out. Even the whole thing about making music hurt me because lives were lost in my show, even though I know it wasn’t my fault. Because I knew that if I went back to the studio, it would mean that a tour would be coming soon and I was just terrified with the idea of going on stage”. — Naya Kwon, talking about how her life changed after The Dangerous Woman World Tour.
Inspired again by another chapter in her life, the 24-year-old artist told herself that she would only release a new album when she had mourned her fans and when her mental health was more stabilized. She was already writing songs after releasing her project “XVII” with her long term boyfriend Kim Yugyeom, however, she didn’t felt ready to return to the industry yet.
“I had a dream about my grandpa and he kept saying to me: ‘do it for them’. I woke up crying because I knew what he meant. The next day, I went to my studio and put the photos of all the Manchester victims on the wall. ‘Do it for them, go ahead because they got your back’, my fans gave me strength by taking care of me from paradise”.
Kwon on Sweetener’s initial recording process.
This time, Naya presents us her new character, Calliope, based on the nymph of Greek mythology, a symbol of epic poetry, science and eloquence, the oldest and wisest of muses, sometimes considered the queen of them all, often represented with a majestic air and crowned with laurels. Naya explains that during her break and the therapy sessions, she was able to find herself and reflect a lot about what it’s to be a woman. “Yes, I’m a feminist, I believe in gender equality. But being a strong woman doesn’t prevent me from having moments of fragility, from feeling emotional. That’s being human”.
TEASERS
May 4 — May 8, 2020: On her social media, she posted one picture per day (the photos actually belong to her upcoming single “no tears left to cry”):
May 12, 2020: She releases a 30-second audio teaser of her new song (still not confirmed but fans really do believe she’s releasing something, maybe a single as Naya said she didn’t saw an album in a near future because of Scream Queens filming).
May 20, 2020: On a Wednesday morning, Naya posts a teaser of her new video. Nobody expected that at the end of it, the word “tonight” would appear, starting a countdown on her YouTube channel for the music video release.
June 15 — June 18, 2020: Naya shares photos of her new single “the light is coming” and on June 18, she posts the song’s cover and confirms that’s a featuring with Jessi.
June 25, 2020: Naya and Jessi posts pictures of both of them together with the captions: “we got a surprise for y’all”. They’re known for their epic collaborations and fans were able to understand the message.
June 27, 2020: The “Bed” video teaser is released. The track belongs to rapper Jessi and it counts with Naya as the guest appearance.
July 13 — July 17, 2020: Sweetener photoshoot release after confirming that a new album is coming.
July 18, 2020: As requested by her fans, she finally posts the official tracklist to her new album. The missing songs are her next singles and the song called “yugyeom” was a reason for a controversy. She still didn’t announce a date for her comeback.
THE ALBUM
- raindrops
- blazed feat. eric nam
- the light is coming feat. jessi
- R.E.M
- God is a woman
- sweetener
- successful
- everytime
- breathin
- no tears left to cry
- borderline feat. moonbyul
- better off
- goodnight n go
- kim yugyeom
- get well soon
Musically, Sweetener is a pop, R&B and trap record that includes elements of house, funk, neo soul and hip hop music on its beats and productions. The melodies and harmonies on the album are diverse and include uptempo songs and many different downtempo, sentimental ballads. It explores a diversity of other music genres, including tropical house, EDM, synthpop and minimalist urban influences. The album also received a lot of positive comments from music critics.
Available in different forms: CD, streaming, digital download, cassette and vinyl, Sweetener won 16 certifications, going Gold in Brazil, France, Italy, Mexico, Sweden and Poland and Platinum in South Korea, Japan, Australia, Thailand, Canada, Denmark, New Zealand, Norway, United Kingdom and United States.
THE SINGLES
no tears left to cry (May 20, 2020)
For the cover art, Naya looks to the right as a rainbow rests across her eyes. Rainbows are a natural phenomenon that appear after rain, as the sun refracts through the water droplets. Symbolically, a rainbow tends to represent the idea of hope and optimism. The image illustrates the idea that Naya’s teardrops have faded, resulting in the rainbow, and she is ready to move on. The song title, “no tears left to cry” is 180º turned around, and the name of the singer is not found anywhere on the cover, being her first main single cover art without her name featured on it.
“Right now, I’m ready to be happy. I still have to fight my own mind every day, but I’m recovering and now I know that I can get out of bed every morning. You know, I also had to rise through all the grief that I had to go through in my life and say that hate will not win over love, this song is also dedicated to people of other ethnicity and sexual options, I see everyone’s color and I like it. I also wanted to be specific about the title track of the album because it marks my return to the music industry after Manchester, after a year and a half, you get what I mean?” — The singer’s comment about her comeback.
“The worker bee is shown in the video because it was adopted as a symbol of Manchester during the Industrial Revolution and after what happened at my show, people adopted it as a symbol against terrorism. I also wanted to explore life’s disorientation. We built our own ground and decided what it will be, and if I suddenly want to change course, that’s fine. And again, I got involved in the choreography. I had this fixed idea of umbrellas and then my choreographers came up with a beautiful sequence of movements, involving stairs and is my favorite so far”. — Naya about “no tears left to cry” music video.
God is a woman (August 17, 2020)
“I decided that GIAW would be a single the minute I wrote it. The song talks about encouraging female sexual liberation. I was always a feminist, but I confess that during my time at JYP Entertainment, I followed rules and I couldn’t be talking about political issues because of the consequences of my public image, we know about the sexist society that we live in. But now, there’s no one to tell me what to do. I debuted on Women’s Day and I was always proud to be a woman. I will not hide anymore. — Naya on why she doesn’t care about the controversy of her single.
“One of my favorite writers is Dan Brown. After I read The Da Vinci Code, I went after The Holy Grail and the Sacred Lineage. I like the theory that Mary Magdalene and Jesus Christ were involved. Jesus, besides being God’s son, was also human. Adam and Eve did the same thing, right? Perhaps patriarchal society speaks too loudly and doesn’t want Jesus to be involved with a woman. And I know that there’s no gender in the Holy Trinity, I like Theology. I find it fascinating and I’m not even a Christian. There was a lot I wanted to do in this video, so I monitored the whole process. The woman as Creator of the Universe, as Mother of All Men, as the Sacred Flame of the World, Mother Nature, Creation, the Cult of Women, I am representing them, because I know that many of us are afraid to speak up. It’s my way of saying #MeToo.” — Kwon at the DIVE Studios interview with Eric Nam.
“I was also very involved in the creation of the choreography. I wanted all the visual elements to represent The Last Supper, except that all the apostles are women and Jesus is represented by a dancer from my team who is black, to end the European image that people have of him. Christ paid for our sins and was resurrected and I want to symbolize that. I will fight for my sisters and we will continue to rise stronger and stronger “. — The singer about “God is a woman” choreography.
breathin (September 2, 2020)
“A lot of people have anxiety, especially now. I always have been a very anxious person, but after the tour (Dangerous Woman Tour) I was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder and my anxiety was at its worst. Many people said I should take medication, but I was afraid — I still am — of becoming addicted to medicine, you know, a drug addict. So I didn’t know what else to try until I started therapy. Therapy saved my life, literally. My boyfriend took me to as many sessions as he could and when he couldn’t go because of his working schedule, he always asked about it later and he helped me to control many of my crises”. — About how she got her life back.
“‘breathin’ became the third single and I wanted to represent certain things with the video. My head in the clouds, you know, because I had experiences outside my body and I knew that things I saw weren’t real. The bar because that’s how many people solve their problems, sinking into drinks, but I always knew that it wouldn’t help and that it would only make the situation worse. The world continues and I stop in time, because it was like this every single day “. — Kwon explains the new track.
TRACK BY TRACK
raindrops | “It’s a cover of a part of a 50’s song called ‘An Angel Cried’. I woke up one morning – we were close to finishing the album and that verse was still in my head. So I spoke to my producer, ‘ you know what, let me record that acapella part, I’m going in (in the cabin) and that’s what we’re going to do, we can cut and use a sample or make a beat of it, whatever. ” My team suggested that we should leave it that way, and that’s how the album starts. I was curious and went to check who had written the song, everyone will think I’m lying now, Charlie Calello, who was my grandfather’s best friend, wrote together with Bob Gaudio, from The Four Seasons. I got goosebumps, because my grandpa had already inspired me once at the beginning of the recordings and at the end he was there again “.
blazed | “‘blazed’ is a pop-funk and I was really happy to finally be able to work with Eric oppa. I love everything he does, whether on television, on music… He was always someone who helped me a lot backstage since the beginning of my career. The lyrics also talk about the personality changes that happened in my music career, including leaving my old company, but I will always remain who I am. I know that people said that my time away was just a drama, but they would understand if they had been through what I went through. And now, once I have my happiness, I will not let her go again. You can “sleep” over my career, but you cannot stop singing my songs, right? My old title tracks were always around”.
the light is coming | “I know I do a lot of collaborations with Jessi unnie, but she really helped me during one of my darkest periods. So it didn’t feel right not to have it on the album. The song talks about being supported by the positivity of the light and that everything will be better. There’s a light at the end of the tunnel for everyone, there’s always a way out. It also makes more references to what people say about me “.
R.E.M | “REM is a period of deep sleep where our muscles and eyes make many small and fast movements, which is called the Rapid Eye Movement, which is the period where we dream. In this song, I talk about not wanting to wake up from a dream where I fall in love with someone. Beyoncé started this song, but now REM is mine. Really, my version and her version sounds like two totally different tracks “.
sweetener | “Basically, this song is about bad situations and how you can bring light and positive vibes to yourself to sweeten your life. It’s like that phrase ‘if life gives you lemons, you make lemonade’. It’s about being with a bad mood and making a cake (laughs). I also wanted to include the day when Yugyeom and I talked about our relationship after everything that happened (Manchester), his mother had sent us our horoscopes and… Yeah, it was fun”.
successful | “I ended up doing a role reversal in the traditional ‘man comes home and tells his wife about work’. I started doing professional musicals in the United States when I was fifteen years old and made my debut as a singer at nineteen. I did two blockbuster world tours, many international collaborations, television shows, I was a protagonist on Broadway, I have a cosmetics line, a partnership with my sisters’s clothing line, I’m ambassador for some brands, I have my own comic books and now I am CEO of my and hey! I’m only 25. Sometimes during my career, I forgot how hard I worked to achieve everything I have. I always want more, I’m a perfectionist. But I’m also successful. And there are many other women out there who are successful too, so I want to celebrate with them through this song. Don’t let anyone undo each of your victories, doesn’t matter how small it may be”.
everytime | “‘everytime’ is about a quick relationship that I had. People kept telling me that this person wasn’t good for me and that I should end everything between us, so for these people I said yes, that it was over, when I hadn’t actually done anything. It was a very, very, very toxic relationship because of other problems, you know? Whenever I said ‘no, I’m going to get out of this now’, something happened and I was pulled back and it wasn’t good for my mental health”.
borderline | “Honestly, I wasn’t myself in the past year, my mind was going crazy and my boyfriend and I went through some difficult times in our relationship. When everything happened, we hadn’t even completed a year of dating and because our first anniversary was in the next moth, we didn’t even get to celebrate it. And he took care of me a lot and told me he would be what I needed him to be: boyfriend, friend, anything, but he never left my side, not even for a second. I showed some improvements and then I felt ready to return to our commitment and all the difficulties made us stronger. Like I said, this is a very honest album. It’s also the first time I work with Moonbyul and she really added something to the track. She is amazing”.
better off | “‘better off’ is like the second part of ‘everytime’, its sequel. When I finally got it in my head that I needed to end my toxic relationship, even before I even put an end to it, I would repeat ‘i’m better off, I’m better off’ to myself. I don’t want to talk too much about this track, I didn’t even want it to be on the album, but you know, I send my tracks for my brothers to listen to and Ethan said to me, ‘Why isn’t this on the album? Listen again, she’s beautiful and so emotional ‘. And really, it’s beautiful and is a very open song about what I was feeling at the time”.
goodnight n go | “This song is a remix and a cover with some new parts, it’s original from Imogen Heap, who’s one of my favorite artists. This song reminds me of Yugyeom, so I adapted it for my own version. The song has the feeling of like, a first date and you want the person to go back home so you can freak out a little bit by yourself because you’re so in love”.
kim yugyeom | “I changed the name of the track because I like it that way. I love him and his name and music lasts forever and goes beyond any tattoo, memory and even myself. ‘Sweetener’ is my most sincere album and I want that my love for him can be part of that. Just like when I announced my relationship in 2018, I will continue to be true to my feelings”.
get well soon | “People who suffer from mental illness generally do not give evidence of this so that the world understands that they’re suffering. This is my way of recognizing these people and I can relate to them because I’m still in this situation. It’s like a musical hug, for me and for whom needs. As I said, I’m being very honest on this album, it’s like an outburst. So this album introduction, ‘raindrops’ starts with crying and ends with these three self-explanatory words: ‘get well soon’ “.
CONTROVERSIES
“YUGYEOM” TRACK CONTROVERSY — When the singer released her official tracklist for Sweetener, many netizens were perplexed by the name of the fourteenth track, which takes the name of her boyfriend, singer and dancer from the male group GOT7, whom she met at her former agency, JYP Entertainment. People couldn’t understand how she could be doing this when the couple said in 2018 that the relationship wouldn’t interfere with anything in their careers and now Kwon had wrote a song about him. Naya then changed the name of the track from “yugyeom” to “kim yugyeom”, using his full name. Some fans demanded the removal of the song from the album, so Naya intervened in the situation through her Twitter:
“GOD IS A WOMAN” CONTROVERSY — When she released the music video, it took the internet by storm in no time. The video has several feminist statements. Halfway through, the music is interrupted and Madonna’s voice appears and recites a gender-flipped version of Samuel L Jackson’s Ezekiel 25:17 speech from Pulp Fiction. Towards the end, the video features a feminist re-imagining of Michelangelo’s Creation of Adam, with Naya as God and some people started to see he song as something offensive.
“BORDERLINE” CONTROVERSY — The “borderline” lyrics made everyone believe that Naya and Yugyeom would be getting married or that they had even been married in secret already. When she posted a photo with a crib behind her, netizens came to believe that the young couple had had a child. Naya soon replied on her Twitter: “I’m not married and I still don’t have a secret baby. This is for my pig. Gee, rlx”.
“EVERYTIME/BETTER OFF” CONTROVERSY — In 2018, her quick relationship with actor Nam Joo Hyuk was revealed to the public by a hacker when Naya was already dating Yugyeom. On her V App channel, she said that both songs are about a toxic relationship that she has been a part of in the past and fans immediately connected to the actor. Naya never confirmed if they really are about him, but Eric Nam came very close to finding out during his interview at DIVE Studios. Joo Hyuk fans didn’t like the lyrics and comments made by the singer, but she never confirmed if the songs really are about him.
VIDEOGRAPHY
May 20, 2020: NAYA – no tears left to cry
Dave Meyers directed the music video, exploring the disorientation that you go through in life and the quest we all go through to kind of find the ground again and choreography by Brian and Scott Nicholson and Yanis Marshall. The song went Platinum on July 3, 2020.
May 22, 2020: NAYA – this one’s for you feat. David Guetta
Completing a year since the attack on her Manchester concert, Naya reveals two days after the release of her single “no tears left to cry” her first partnership with French DJ David Guetta. “this one’s for you” is a tribute to her fans who have been through the worst with her. With recordings from The Dangerous Woman World Tour and moments and photos with her Kitty Kats, the video ends with Naya placing 23 white roses in front of the memorial for the people who died during her show, an image captured before the JYP Nation One Love Manchester.
May 28, 2020: NAYA – no tears left to cry (performance version)
The performance version includes Naya and her dancers doing the choreography on a building’s rooftop with umbrellas.
June 4, 2020: NAYA – no tears left to cry (vertical version)
Less than a week later, Kwon releases the vertical version for “no tears left to cry”, result of a partnership with Spotify for Premium subscribers.
June 19, 2020: NAYA – the light is coming feat. jessi
It was premiered exclusively on Reebok‘s website because Naya is an ambassador for the brand. Dave Meyers also was the responsible for directing this video with choreography by Soi Jang and Hamilton Evans. The video shows her dancing in a very dark wood with lights surrounding her and her dancers.
July 3, 2020: JESSI – Bed feat. Naya
Two different directors were involved in this video and Kyle Hanagami is the choreographer. The song belongs to Jessi and Naya’s the feat.
August 1, 2020: NAYA – raindrops
Opening a new month, the singer releases the music video for “raindrops”, which serves as the introduction to the album. The video was directed by Dave Meyers.
August 17, 2020: NAYA – God is a woman
It was directed by Dave Meyers, who also directed the music video for “no tears left to cry” and “the light is coming”. Sweetener came out on the same day.
August 18, 2020: NAYA – God is a woman lyrics
A lyric video for the song was premiered on Kwon’s YouTube channel, featuring a cloud-filled background that transitions to a cosmic scene, ending with a still shot of the singer
September 2, 2020: NAYA – breathin
The official music video of “breathin” was directed by Hannah Lux Davis. She also shared a video of almost four minutes of her pet pig with the music as a background on her social media. Although the choreography for the song doesn’t appear on video, it was made by Kyle Hanagami and Mina Myoung.
CHOREOGRAPHY
June 9, 2020: NAYA – no tears left to cry dance practice
— –, —-: NAYA – the light is coming feat. jessi (doesn’t have a dance practice video, but here’s the choreography)
July 5, 2020: JESSI – Bed feat. Naya Dance Practice
September 5, 2020: NAYA – breathin dance practice
BEHIND THE SCENES
June 11 — June 13: NAYA – insight: no tears left to cry
In a three days sequence, Kwon revealed the behind-the-scenes footage for the video for her new single, showing images that were divided into three parts.
August 21, 2020: NAYA – insight: God is a woman
PROMOTIONS
COSTUMES
BACKSTAGE 