Hyoyeon from Girl’s Generation has returned with her latest single. Her previously collaborated with Miss A’s Min and Jo Kwon and released a single titled as Born To Be Wild. She later went on to release Mystery, her first solo single. Both these songs were released for SM Station. This is her second single, with the song titled Wannabe, which also features SanE.

Right from the very start, we hear a constant groaning in the background of the song. It is undeniably a turn-off and quite annoying. She usually raps when she is a part of Girl’s Generation, but there is a different sound in this song, compared to works as part of the 8-member girl group. I actually think this tough sound fits her. Her raspy voice gives it a boost in terms of energy, which goes a long way in this song. But the part I love the most is the chorus. It’s catchy and provided much needed relief from that groaning at the start. The verses delved into a hip-hop centred sound, while the chorus felt like it was more retro pop. Odd combination and it doesn’t work for me. While it didn’t seem that apparent, there really wasn’t a transition that could have tied the two different sounds together. That made it feel like the parts were detached from each other. Likewise, SanE’s featuring in the song felt distant from the rest of the song. It just felt like another part of another song that was added to extend the song. There is definitely potential behind this song just by listening to the chorus. But the rest of the song seems to mask it.

The music video is filmed in a place, which seemed to look like an underground boxing arena and a warehouse where some of the boxers are practising. The cinematography seem to add an extra edgy vibe in conjunction to the song, which I think is quite cool. The way she moves around and starts dancing at some parts also made the video looked smooth. The addition of the guys in the background, where the camera pans to them watching Hyoyeon or ‘resting’, made things feel a little awkward. Furthermore, the amount of jewellery and ‘bling’ (my attempt to sound cool) wouldn’t necessary fly in an area like that. The scenery and surroundings mismatched the accessories she was wearing throughout the video. Overall though, the video was quite pretty good to watch.

The performance is quite cool. The styles matched the certain part of the song she was dancing to. The more edgy feel was also present, something we don’t really see when she is with SNSD, which is nice. It wasn’t impressive, but nonetheless, it was enjoyable to watch.

Song – 5/10
Music Video – 7/10
Performance – 7/10
Overall Rating – 6/10