Girls Generation’s Taeyeon is on the cover of Vogue Korea’s September 2021 issue. In the story that accompanied the stunning fashion spread, she opened up about a lot of things. First, she revealed what she’s been up to since she released her most recent single “Weekend.”
“Since then, I’ve been filming a lot of commercials, and I’ve also appeared on Amazing Saturday every week without fail. When an album promotion ends, I start worrying about the next album. So I’ve had meetings about setting the next one up already. Because ‘Weekend’ was a single, it feels like promotions wrapped up rather quickly,” she said.
Taeyeon, a self-confessed homebody, also revealed what she gets up to in the comfort, privacy, and safety of her home. According to the chart-topping singer, she usually wakes up early but doesn’t actually get out of bed until an hour after she opens her eyes. Once she does, she becomes a really active person. Taeyeon isn’t the type to lounge around the house, owing to her love of exercise.
“If I wake up late, it’s around ten or eleven in the morning. I don’t sleep in the morning. I’m usually awake by six o’clock and I got to sleep at one o’clock. When I wake up, I spend about one hour lying around in bed while I loosen up my body by stretching. After that, I pick up the devices that have been charged, then I get changed before I start my home exercise routine. I believe exercising every day is important. If I skip one day, it pricks my conscience. I can’t do it every day, but I try to exercise more than five times a week,” she said.
As much as she loves a good workout, she’s not always on the go. Despite her busy schedule, she also makes sure to stop and smell the roses. She does that by writing in her journal whenever the mood strikes.
“I do it every day. I wrote in it yesterday and again this afternoon,” she said of her journal. “I write what I feel moment to moment. Sometimes I’ll write three times in one day. I did that yesterday. If it’s small, I do about four lines; if it’s long, ten lines. There are times when I have a lot of thoughts. I like to organize my relationships, my work, and reflect on what I feel and think about the other person.”
Taeyeon has probably written a lot about Girls Generation recently, since the seminal girl group formed by SM Entertainment in 2007 celebrated the 14th anniversary of their debut last August 5. Although she’s on her own now and her solo career has definitely been successful, she admitted that Girls’ Generation will always have a special place in her heart.
“Even though I’m promoting as a soloist now, I don’t want to change the fact that I’m ‘Girls’ Generation’s Taeyeon.’ I’m where I am today because I was in Girls’ Generation.”
She and her members usually get together every year in honor of their anniversary, but they couldn’t do so this year due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Instead of meeting up in person like they would if the circumstances were different, they relied on modern technology instead.
“August has always been like a party time for us, so we felt some regrets this year. Because of the times, we had a Zoom meeting instead. We had no makeup, we tied our hair back, and we wore pajamas. It was different, but it was still a meaningful experience to meet like that and talk without having to get all dolled up,” she said.
Taeyeon also looked back on some of the group’s most memorable songs, such as the single “Gee.” Released in 2009, it catapulted the group right into the upper echelons of the K-Pop industry. It went on to become the most popular song of the 2000s according to the music streaming service MelOn, thanks largely in part to the record-breaking nine weeks it claimed the No. 1 spot on KBS’s Music Bank.
“I had a rebellious period during ‘Gee.’ I wanted to do a strong concept then. Maybe I felt like I wanted to go crazy, but I thought ‘Gee’ was an embarrassing concept. I said that in interviews multiple times, so people said that I hated ‘Gee.’ But now that I think about it, that concept was appropriate for my age then. We were still fresh, naive, and young. That was its own kind of beauty, but I didn’t know that then.”
She also talked about “I Got a Boy,” the second single from their fourth Korean studio album of the same name. When it was released in 2013, its sound—described as a hybrid of bubblegum pop, dance, and electropop—caught the attention of international media outlets.
“I’ve been listening to it often lately, and I thought to myself, ‘Was this song always this strange?’ Even when I’m hearing it now, it feels unique. I think that the song was ahead of its time. Nowadays there are a lot of songs that don’t follow the so-called rules. At the time, it must have felt like a refreshing shock.”
If, like Taeyeon, you still have a soft spot for Girls’ Generation after all these years, you shouldn’t miss their long-awaited reunion on an upcoming episode of You Quiz on the Block.
