The group ENHYPEN has made a comeback after 7 months. Returning with ‘Bad Desire’, ENHYPEN has begun to captivate the hearts of fans (known as ENGENE) around the world with an even more intense and deadly charm.
On the afternoon of the 7th, an exclusive media presentation was held at SeMA Bunker in Yeongdeungpo-gu, Seoul, to celebrate the release of ENHYPEN's mini album 'DESIRE: UNLEASH'. The members Jungwon, Heeseung, Jay, Jake, Sunghoon, Sunwoo, and Niki attended the event.
ENHYPEN's mini album 'DESIRE: UNLEASH' captures the desire and patience of wanting to become one with the loved one in their own emotional way. “Without desire, we wouldn’t have come this far,” ENHYPEN declared, continuously breaking their own limits since their debut and shining brightly.
The response to ENHYPEN, who made a comeback after 7 months since 'ROMANCE: UNTOLD –daydream-', has been enthusiastic. According to the album sales tracking site Hanteo Chart, ENHYPEN's mini album 'DESIRE: UNLEASH' sold a total of 1,890,677 copies on its first day (5th), immediately ranking first on the daily album chart. This figure surpasses the previous first-day sales record of 1,883,143 copies set by their second full album 'ROMANCE: UNTOLD' released last year. With pre-orders for 'DESIRE: UNLEASH' exceeding 2.18 million copies, ENHYPEN is expected to achieve their second 'double million seller' in the first week.
Regarding this response, Sunghoon expressed, “I feel good that the album, which many people worked hard to create, is doing well. Above all, I am grateful that ENGENE are enjoying it, and I feel proud as we start our activities.”
The title track of 'DESIRE: UNLEASH', ‘Bad Desire (With or Without You)’, is a dance-pop genre song that depicts the dominant desire of wanting to turn someone into a vampire in a chic mood. Sunwoo explained, “We included our desire to be with fans through paradoxical lyrics like ‘Heaven without you is hell’ and ‘Hell holding you is heaven’.”
Heeseung mentioned about the title track, “The recording itself was completed really quickly in a short time. The song is great, and the established lines are so beautiful that the recording didn’t take long, and we enjoyed working on it.” Niki, who took charge of the song's intro, shared, “It took about an hour just to shout ENHYPEN. It was difficult to get the tone right, but it took about an hour to get the whispering feeling just right.”
After successfully completing Coachella, ENHYPEN continues their comeback activities and explained their future goals, saying, “There are still many things that ENHYPEN has not tried. There are many aspects we want to express in various genres on stage that we haven’t shown yet, so we’re not sure if an album will come out this year, but we hope to have time to try new things, and that will become our goal.”
Jake mentioned that one of their goals this year is to successfully carry out the upcoming tour, saying, “We are preparing a tour to meet ENGENE in various places. Personally, I am very excited for this year. Japan will be a stadium tour, and this will be our first European tour. If we can successfully complete those parts, I think we can finish this year well.”
Regarding the global achievements they hope to gain, Niki said, “We achieved good results on Billboard with our second full album, but honestly, we didn’t do it to achieve any specific results. Showing a good album and performance is our priority,” while also adding, “It would be nice to achieve good results. Our ambition is to show a more grown-up ENHYPEN in this album. We will work hard to show better than the last album.”
When asked what he wants to say to fans, Jungwon expressed, “The gap before this comeback was long. I want to say thank you to the fans who waited for us. It’s only been two or three days since we started our activities, but they are cheering us on so enthusiastically. There are more opportunities to meet offline during music broadcasts and activities with ENGENE, so I feel even more grateful this time.”
Jake stated, “Our goal is to reach number one on Billboard,” and elaborated on ‘ENHYPEN’s goals’, saying, “What’s important as a team is having a common goal. We support and motivate each other. We have many things we want to prove musically with our fans, so I think those two are our driving forces.” He confessed, “Right now, we really want to prove ‘ENHYPEN’. Since the goals and motivations of the seven of us are the same, we have been able to come this far. I believe we can continue to do well in the future.”
Regarding the secret to being loved by everyone regardless of age or gender, Jake said, “We have never thought about gender or age when doing anything,” and added, “We actually want to try various things. Even if this album isn’t someone’s style, another style may come next, so please look forward to it.”
Finally, Sunghoon explained why many fans are so enthusiastic about ENHYPEN, saying, “I think it’s because we have a distinct color of our own, and we challenge various genres while performing on stage. I believe there’s something different about us that makes people like us.”
With their comeback, ENHYPEN has also started a special collaboration with Spotify. They have created an immersive pop-up space called ‘Maison ENHYPEN’ near Yeouido, which sensibly embodies the core themes of desire, romance, and change from their mini album. The space features interactive zones inspired by the album's tracks, as well as costumes and props from the Coachella stage, and hidden Easter eggs that allow fans to peek into the members' Spotify playlists. Limited goods, including postcards with handwritten messages from the members, will also be provided on a first-come, first-served basis.
Maison ENHYPEN will be open daily from 11 AM to 7 PM at the Yeouido Bunker (76 underground Yeouidaero, Yeongdeungpo-gu, Seoul) until June 14, and will meet fans in Tokyo from June 7 to 10, and in Jakarta from June 12 to 16.
[Geum Bit-na, MK Sports Reporter]
