Tag: Heize

Happening is nominated for Best R&B Song in the 2021 KPOPREVIEWED Awards. Support Happening by clicking here to vote today!

Next up from the Best R&B Song category is Heize’s Happen, which was released back in September this year. Heize’s nomination in the category comes as no surprise, given that she has is one of the females soloists at the very forefront of the genre. Despite that, it has been a while since I have have reviewed a track from Heize, with the last one being First Sight from the end of 2018.

As mentioned in the above paragraph, Heize is one of the biggest names in the Korean R&B industry, which is thanks to her unique voice that is so made for the genre. And I feel that Happen is such a good introduction to Heize, if you haven’t really paid attention to her before or are listening to one of her songs for the first time. One of the drawing points to this song is Heize’s nasally voice. It gave Happen such an interesting colour, texture, tone and maturity. To assist with all of that, Happen has such strong melodies that make the song so memorable and stand out. I found myself repeating the song a few times thanks to the combination of both her voice and Happen‘s melodies. It actually got Happen onto the review list for a brief period, but it ended up getting sidelined for other reviews when it was first released. What I also really liked about Happen was the groovy instrumentation. The instrumental draws upon mellow acoustic sounds for the verses, and a combination of funky electric guitar and house beats to create that groovy chorus instrumental. It definitely helped Happen standout a lot had the producers went with something more typical or jazzy. I also enjoyed the upbeatness it provided the song, which isn’t something I tend to think of when I think of R&B or Heize. Overall, Happen is a great piece that utlislise and presents Heize extremely well.

Happen poses the question of ‘what if’ two people are destined to be lovers, but because they don’t pay attention or miss each other by mere second, they are unable to act upon that fate. That is exactly what we get in this music video. The music video features both Heize and Song Joong Ki as the two people who brush past each other on the daily without much thought or just miss each other by a second in some circumstances. There is definitely potential for them, as we see at the end of the video when the ‘what if’ scenarios resulted in the pair interacting with one another. But unfortunately, it doesn’t eventuate as both don’t really notice each other or talk to one another. I find the concept quite thought-provoking and interesting. I also like the style of the video and the sets. I also find it to be quite aesthetics. The colour palette chosen for this video seems to be influenced by one of the shots, which resembles the Edward Hopper’s Nighthawks painting. Both Heize and Song Joong Ki’s acting was quite good as well.

Song – 9/10
Music Video – 8.5/10
Overall Rating – 8.8/10

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It is sometimes amazing to see how far I manage to get by without reviewing an artist’s song. And in the past few years, I tried to reduce the number of artists whom I missed by including a broader spectrum of artists into the reviewing mix. Well, one artist still managed to slip through the gaps. Heize is a renowned female R&B soloist who has multiple top hits under her belt. She has also been recognised for her songs and vocals at multiple award ceremonies. Yet, I am only getting around to reviewing her for the first time.

First Sight is the title for her more recent release, which was revealed to the public last Friday. She also had the opportunity to perform it for the first time at the MAMA Awards held on Friday. And like her other comebacks in the past, Heize brings her unique vocals to the song, creating a very dreamy sound for the song. I thought the melody was quite nice and definitely a really powerful tool to really appeal to the listeners. I liked how the song changed to a mid-tempo track during the chorus rather staying ballad-like. The electronic details in the instrumental gave off a nice effect. I did think the thumping bass was a little too strong, often covering up Heize’s vocals when she goes into falsetto. I also liked the jazzy piano during the bridge. It is a real pity that I took so long to review a song from the soloist because given the way this song sound, I would have easily enjoyed the others.

Heize goes with a fairytale concept for her video. She acts as the Red Riding Hood at the start of the video, who wants to attract the attention of the male in white. She longs for that attention as she is very much in love with him but he gives no interest towards her. And this essentially the lyrics in a nutshell. She even goes to extreme lengths, where she eats a poison apple, causing her to fall asleep for eternity until she receives true love kiss, which probably won’t happen because the male in white has no interest in her. There is a second male character, the male in black. He brings her in after the male in white rejects her and he is also peering into her eternal bed at the end of the video. My guess is that he love’s Heize’s character, but like the primary storyline, she has no interest in him. I thought that was an interesting twist to the story.

Song – 8.5/10
Music Video – 9/10
Overall Rating – 8.7/10