The colorful world of K-pop is a brand new playground for the rookie girl group bugAboo, and the six-member A team Entertainment collective opted for a bold introduction to listeners.

In their 1st Single Album, the self-titled track “bugAboo” associates their memorably quirky name with a fast-paced pop song layered with promise and experience. The group repetitively sings their name in the song’s immaculate chorus with brassy instrumentals blaring throughout, a catchy bassline, and the ability to dazzle. As far as introductions go, bugAboo embraces the challenge that modern rookie groups are now facing to raise the bar, and in doing so, displays that they’ve been hardworking artists for an extended period of time. 

This addictive style presented in the title track “bugAboo” embodies the liveliness of pop music superstars TWICE, or ITZY, for their choice of juggling a bubbly persona – adding their own unique touch to dance music. The group’s debut music video advances that image, with prominent visuals and memorable highlight choreography, completing the first official presentation of bugAboo’s promise. As of today, the group has earned over 10 million views in less than a month for their “bugAboo” music video, setting up a successful first era for the group’s six members.

In an effort to build a member-centric perspective for the group, bugAboo is also divided into two units (‘bug’ and ‘boo’) to offer two clearer, distinct looks at their individual strengths. The B-side track “All Night Play” brings this into play by focusing more heavily on the prospects of a lighter pop presence with catchy clap beats in the background and cheers to channel cheerier energy.

Forging two tracks that deliberately introduced their cumulative training, bugAboo understands the rookie assignment with irresistible potential for playlist repetition. With bugAboo’s first single out now, we spoke to the six members about their concept, music, and what they want people to know about their rookie group.

You’re a group that has been in training for two years now – and that definitely gives you an edge as performers! What has been something you’ve been the most eager to experience when it comes to debuting? 

ZIN: I hope our name ‘bugAboo’ gets presented in many places so that people recognize us and remember us. 

EUNCHAE: I wish our music gets played on the streets. Walking around the streets you can listen to many songs being played from the stores. Every time I heard a song while walking somewhere, I thought it would be amazing to hear our song on the streets.

CYAN: I always wanted to have a fan meeting or a signing event! I wanted to say thank you to the fans who rooted for us since we were trainees.

RAINIE: I want to have a bugAboo concert. Once, I was so happy to spend time at a concert which was performed by an artist I liked. The artist looked amazing on stage, and the fans were so happy. I also want to show my amazing charm on stage and spend a good time with our fans.

CHOYEON: Receiving the rookie award is what I want to experience because you can only get it once in your career. During my training period, I’ve always questioned myself if I would be able to get the rookies award. Because all of us worked hard, I want us to have it and celebrate together. 

YOONA: Going on a tour overseas. I know how it feels when an artist who’s from the same country as yours visits where you are. I want to visit our fans as they are waiting for us.

In regards to your training period, that extra time must have been helpful to cement some real bonds with each other too. Now that you’re more connected to one another, would you say that this is a group that is built on similarities, or that it’s a collection of different personalities?

CHOYEON: My opinion is that the members have various personalities. From the six of us, some are spontaneous, while others like to plan ahead. Some are a bit clumsy, while some are meticulous. Such a variety of personalities came together and formed bugAboo, showing many charms.

EUNCHAE: I also believe that all the six members are so much different. It is actually surprising how we go along as a team. 

YOONA: Sometimes when we need to make decisions on something, it feels difficult as we present different opinions. I think that is because we all think differently. But also, having a lot of ideas could be a positive thing. With those many ideas, we generate interesting teamwork as a group. 

RAINIE: All the members have different charms and personalities. In the early stage, we had many different opinions presented. However, communicating with each other a lot made us feel like we are a family.

You also have two units that together complete ‘bugAboo’ – what would the members of the ‘bug’ unit say is the biggest strength of the ‘boo’ unit?

CHOYEON: ‘boo’ unit’s biggest strength is the lively, fresh energy they have. All of them have such charming smiles and personalities. They are capable of delivering positive, bright energy to people and that is also one of their strengths. 

EUNCHAE: I think it’s how lovely they are. Us ‘bug’ units always try to show something powerful or funny, while ‘boo’ unit members are just lovely. The lovely aura they have is their biggest strength.

ZIN: The cute, pure looks they have, and also being capable of speaking in many languages seems to be the strength of the ‘boo’ unit.

Conversely, What would the ‘boo’ unit say is the best asset of the ‘bug’ unit?

YOONA: The flaming powerfulness and passion they have is their best asset.

CYAN: More than anything, I believe their skills are their biggest asset. Their dances are very powerful, and the singing and rapping they do brings a girl-crush vibe to the unit. 

RAINIE: Bug unit members are all funny and full of energy. We will always try to show various sides of ourselves, and send positive energy to our fans. Please love bugAboo more.

Your debut single “bugAboo” is such a catchy pop track with really fun brassy sounds added as well! What would you say served as the starting point for this song?

CYAN: The addictive, lively melody of the song ‘bugAboo’ is the point. The melody stayed in my head after I listened to it for the first time. Also, the song’s title is the same as our group name, so I think that is another point to mention.

CHOYEON: The whip sound that appears on the song is one thing to point out. According to the whip sound I dance, which happens on my part of the song. It comes to my head that the whip sound announces the start of bugAboo, so it makes me feel thrilled.

RAINIE: I think the horse sound at the beginning of the song is the point to focus on. I thought it would remind people of bugAboo whenever they hear the sound of a horse.

ZIN: The bass sound from the insert makes people feel tense, and also curious about how the song will go. It is also addictive, and I thought that could be the point of the song. 

EUNCHAE: Our performance. You can see the neutral, charming dance moves and skills in our choreography, which is bugAboo’s identity.

I also found myself singing the self-titled chorus moment for the rest of the day – so you certainly succeeded in making an impression as well! What aspect of the song gets stuck in your head most frequently? 

CHOYEON: The chorus part, which repeats ‘bugAboo’ multiple times. It is very addictive. The dance move is called ‘pat pat’ dance, it actually looks like I’m using a shampoo to wash my hair. 

CYAN: I also think the chorus part where our team name goes on and on is stuck in my head. Because it’s our name that is repeated in the song, I feel proud listening to it. Also as Choyeon said, the choreography is very addictive. You will end up singing and dancing ‘bugAboo’ with us.

RAINIE: It’s starting bugAboo, the miracle I will make’ is the part stuck in my head. Every time I listen to this part, I can feel the meaning of it, which is ‘bugAboo is here! bugAboo’s world is coming’, and I like it.

YOONA: One part of the lyrics is ‘It’s like we are in a different world, but it is not a dream’, which seems to be the most impressive part to me. It feels like leading the girls from the ‘bug’ world, which are in the ‘boo’ world. 

EUNCHAE: The bridge part, where it goes ‘bug to the A to the boo’. I like how the song emphasizes our name. It gives me energy!

How would you each personally describe the b-side song, “All Night  Play”? 

CHOYEON: ‘All Night Play’ is another song produced by Ryan Jhun, same as our title song ‘bugAboo’. The meaning of the song is the same as the title, where the members of bugAboo, which have defeated their own ‘bugAboo’, enjoying an overnight party and having fun.

EUNCHAE: ‘All Night Play’ is a song that feels like a Friday night party. I’ve seen in the movies that in other countries there are homecoming parties. Similar to that, the song tells everybody to ‘stop worrying about other things and just play with us’.

YOONA: It’s like having fun together under a mirror ball. If the song ‘bugAboo’  was an introduction for us, ‘All night play’ is us greeting the listeners.

RAINIE: We’ve tried to convey some lovely feelings by showing us playing in our own world, expressing our unique personalities. 

CYAN: ‘All night play’ is like a song that will come out in a high-teen tv show from the states. It has jumpy choreography with a bright, lively melody. The dreamlike atmosphere, like a queen presenting herself, is shown in the bridge part with the lyrics ‘She is beauty, She is grace.’ Also it asks the listeners to come and play with us. Are you guys ready to have fun with us?

ZIN: ‘All Night Play’ pictures an exciting party that is also punky. While the melody is exciting, the lyrics talk about showing confidence and encouraging others – which is impressive. The bridge part always made me feel encouraged!

In the time you’ve spent training, what other groups have played a role in motivating your individual pursuit of making music? 

EUNCHAE: TVXQ. After looking at their performance of the song ‘MIROTIC’, which was very powerful, made me dream about becoming a Kpop artist.

YOONA: Blackpink. They always seem to be confident and know how to express their own unique personalities, which is cool. 

RAINIE: I have always liked Girls’ Generation, even before I came to Korea, and they inspired me to become a Kpop singer. As they excel in many fields, such as singing, hosting, DJing, acting, I also want to become an artist like them. 

CYAN: BTS motivated me. Whenever I was blaming myself, or wanted to give up during training, or was nervous if I wouldn’t be able to make it to debuting, I always listened to their music. Their message ‘love yourself’, was exactly the message I needed at the time. I am happy that I was able to learn how to love and respect myself and overcome the difficult times I had and finally make the debut happen. I want to become an artist that can give hope to others. 

ZIN: IU was my biggest motivation. From every single word she spoke I felt touched and encouraged, which helped me to train harder.

CHOYEON: In my case, watching some of my peers from the tv show Produce 48 debuting as Kpop artists has motivated me. As we shared the same dream before and went through many things together, looking at their dreams coming true which they sought with all their hearts, gave me the energy to train with passion.

For your first official music video, “bugAboo”, were there any behind-the-scenes moments that you wish fans were able to witness? 

CHOYEON: The video shoot for our debut trailer and music video happened on the same day, and there was a scene where we were all running together through the woods. And because all the members like to exercise, regardless of how many times we had to run, we were so happy and excited for our debut. We yelled a lot saying ‘we are finally debuting!’. It really felt like we were running towards our debut, and that feeling touched my heart.

EUNCHAE: There is a scene in our music video where we run in the subways. And that scene was filmed on the last day of our production. All the staff and members were tired at the time, but we kept reminding ourselves that this was the last shooting for the music video. We ran mindlessly.

YOONA: There was a scene where we had to fight ghosts. We had to improvise with the actions of the scene as there was no written script for it. And actually, the ghost actor led us like a professional, making us feel confident. We had fun.

RAINIE: Lots of Ferraris come out in our music video. There were so many versions of it, from the classic ones to the most recent models. I thought it would have been great if we were able to share the moment with our fans.

CYAN: We filmed our music video for two days, exactly on August 29th and 30th. The 30th was ZIN’s birthday. So we gave her a surprise party. It would have made us happier if our fans were present. 

ZIN: All the members run together a lot in the music video. To film those scenes, we had to run for a long time. However, nobody got tired and we kept laughing during the production. I hope our fans and other people can laugh with us by watching our music video. 

Finally, now that you’ve debuted, what’s one thing you want people to know about bugAboo? 

YOONA: I hope people get to know that we are more fun and interesting than what we appear to be. 

RAINIE: The unique style, or music of bugAboo. We will show more sides of ourselves in the future!

EUNCHAE: Our persistence. All members have trained for at least two to three years, some of them have trained up to six years. Often we had moments that were so challenging that we wanted to give up. But we did not, and made it happen. So I hope people know how persistent we are.

ZIN: All of our members went through hard times to finally make the debut happen. Knowing that hardship made us firm and stronger so that we can step on the stage and perform. We will do our best to refine our performance and satisfy our fans, so please love us bugAboo and me, ZIN! 

CYAN: Our name ‘bugAboo’ carries a message which is that everyone has endless potential, and is capable of overcoming fear in our own minds. I hope everyone sees this hopeful message we are sending out. Like how I was feeling nervous and worried before the debut, I know there are a lot of people out there feeling the same emotion. And I hope they can overcome those emotions with us, bugAboo. 

CHOYEON: We want to deliver hope to the people out there, as they have endless potential within them also. Please keep watching us fighting our own fear, bugAboo, and love us more. 

Stream bugAboo on Spotify, Apple Music, and make sure to check out the music video for “bugAboo” included above!