Lovelyz's Ryu Su-jeong Talks Solo Reinvention, Group Reunion Hurdles

Ryu Su-jeong, former lead vocalist of the K-pop girl group Lovelyz, is stepping into her boldest solo chapter yet. Ahead of her solo comeback, Ryu shared the backstory behind her collaboration with creative director Lee Hae-in, while also reaffirming her commitment to future group activities with Lovelyz.

Ryu held a round-table interview on Tuesday at a cafe in Seoul's Yongsan district to mark the release. She said the wait between projects had felt especially long. "This has been my longest gap between solo activities," she said. "That's why I've been even more excited waiting for the release."

The singer recently signed with a new agency, Allmyanicdots, after running her own one-person label. She spoke openly about the shift. "Last year, I made an album on my own while running an independent label. It was hard, but it was really fun," she said. "My current company respected that process and made an offer that lined up with where I wanted to go, so we decided to work together."

The new EP marks her first project with creative director Lee Hae-in. The two did not know each other before the collaboration. "I posted on social media that I was working alone after my previous label contract ended, and she reached out first," Ryu said. "She told me she wanted to explore another side of me, and I thought it sounded fun. That's how we ended up together."

Lee pushed Ryu toward a fuller reintroduction as a solo artist. "Most people still remember me as Ryu Su-jeong of Lovelyz," she said. "She suggested that I show more of myself as a singer building her own music, and we shaped the direction around that way."

The comeback marks a clear shift in both sound and image. "This is my first hip-hop-based album," Ryu said. "I studied a new way of singing to match it. My voice is naturally husky, but I tried to make it sound a little firmer." On Lee's direction, she added, "She pushed decisions with real conviction. From bold choices like cutting my bangs and going for a short cut, to styling, wardrobe, and matching me with producers, she helped a lot."

Ryu also addressed recent news that fellow Lovelyz member Yoo Ji-ae is getting married. "When we were younger, she used to say half-jokingly in interviews that her dream was to be a devoted wife and mother, and now it's actually happening," she said. "She's such a loving person, and I'm so happy she found a good partner."

She joked about her own plans. "I just don't think about marriage," she said. "Even the members tease me and say, 'Su-jeong probably won't get married.' There's so much I still want to do, and I don't feel ready."

She had a lighthearted message for Yoo's husband. "Congratulations on the wedding," she said, laughing. "But I want to say, 'Please just guarantee her Lovelyz activities.'" She added that the wedding song plan is still coming together. "It felt a little strange for the rest of us to sing a Lovelyz song as a wedding song without her, so for now I decided to sing it alone."

Talking about Lovelyz led to a more serious note about the group's future. A full reunion, Ryu said, faces real obstacles. "If we do another concert, I'm firmly in the decision of releasing new music and performing it," she said. "But the members are all at different agencies now, and no single company is ready to put up the budget. So we'd basically have to produce the music ourselves. We'd need to reach out to collaborators directly, and lining up everyone's schedules isn't easy either. Even when our hearts are in the same place, actually making it happen is difficult. I keep thinking about how we can pull it off."

Reflecting on the risks of this new era, Ryu admitted she was nervous heading in this new chapter. "I think you have to keep trying new things if you want to make music for a long time. So I took on challenges in style and sound, but honestly, I was worried," she said. "I kept thinking, 'What if fans find it too much? What if I look too different?'"

The response caught her off guard in the best way. "Fans who saw the teasers were completely fine with it and really loved it," she said. "There wasn't even any mention of the bangs I worried so hard about cutting, which made me laugh. They accept me as I am, even more than I do myself, and I really want to thank them for that."

"ALL THE COLORS I AM" is Ryu's first release under Allmyanicdots and includes six tracks. The title track, "Diamonds," is about the process of recognizing one's own worth. Ryu plans to release music videos for all six songs in sequence, and then combine them into a single edit that plays like a short film.

Her fourth mini-album, "ALL THE COLORS I AM," drops Sept.11 at 6 p.m. KST across major music platforms.