There’s something truly magical about the debut period for an artist, and in K-pop, there’s an even greater respect for that introductory chapter. 

The process of forming a group can be something that takes time, with a company recruiting trainees, coming up with a concept, number of members, and so much more. Once the details are determined, a group is able to begin the rigorous training that comes with the industry standards, and the Cube Entertainment group LIGHTSUM is among immensely respected peers. 

The group consists of eight young women, following the tracks of other Cube artists like (G)I-DLE, CLC, and Pentagon, being the next big launch for the company. LIGHTSUM’s debut trailer was met with overwhelming love and support from K-pop aficionados, and the dazzling visuals down to the instrumental-based backing was only the beginning. Now, the group has launched their debut single album titled Vanilla with an essential, sweetly crafted preview of where LIGHTSUM is looking to take newfound status as musicians. 

The group’s sole focus on the single “Vanilla” was a necessary choice to set the tone, resulting in LIGHTSUM’s debut at No. 12 on Gaon, with a pure pop, summer-treat anthem. By leading us into this fresh, Candyland-esque world that LIGHTSUM has cooked up, they also create an addictive quality through the sugary chorus, singing “Vanilla-nilla-nilla” with a surge of electronic beats. Due to the number of members and recent debut, the song demonstrates the potential talents of each member, yet leaves room to watch their assured artistic evolution with future comebacks. 

Because of the notion that the group consists of eight gifted singers and dancers, this debut is really just a launchpad for the group that is guaranteed to connect with the world in the coming months. Prior to the release of their music, I had the chance to talk to the voices of LIGHTSUM to give each member an opportunity to introduce themselves, their music, and most importantly, their newly formed identity as a promising group. 

I’m so excited for people to get to know LIGHTSUM this year, so I can’t even imagine how you must be feeling! Can you give us a little backstory on where the name comes from and its meaning to you? 

JUHYEON: There were many options before our group name was decided. It was finalized as LIGHTSUM because it fits well with our positive and bright image. Also, the meaning ‘a group of bright LIGHTs coming together as one SUM to illuminate everyone in this world and bring more positive energy to people through our message of hope’ made us think that this is what we want to become not only to our fans but to many people. 

NAYOUNG: Since our group members are all passionate and persistent, the idea of  ‘bringing positive energy to people’ fits well with our group name LIGHTSUM.  

How long have you all together as a group at this point when it comes to training, dorm life, etc.?  

JUHYEON: It’s been about 2-3 months since we became a team and started living together. 

CHOWON: I joined Cube when I was 15 (my Korean age) and it’s been 5 years already. I trained for the longest time after JUHYEON. We started living together about 2-3 months ago. 

SANGAH: I started training a year and a month ago, and it’s been more than 2 months since we started living together. 

HINA: I started my trainee life in Korea about a year and a half ago. It’s been about 2 months since we started living together.

What has been the best (or your favorite) part of being in a group so far? 

JUHYEON: I’ve always been used to practicing alone, but now I’m with my members when practicing, eating, and going somewhere, which makes me laugh more and share positive energy with each other without boredom. So the biggest advantage is that we can create good synergy whenever we practice together.  

HINA: Since we LIGHTSUM have 8 members in the team, it’s great that I don’t feel lonely and I can always have fun while shooting and going through our schedule.  

HUIYEON: The thing I like the most is making something together with all our efforts. I think it’s so cool. 

JIAN: We have a lot to learn from each other, so we are able to fill in the gaps, and share our worries freely. 

What do you each hope to bring to LIGHTSUM – or in other words, what is something that you feel you would like to contribute to this collective group of talent? 

JUHYEON: As a leader, I want to be the pillar of the team. I want to be a member who leads team practices with an objective perspective and at the same time be the one members can lean on whenever they go through hardships.  

CHOWON: As one of the older sisters of the team, I want to be a member who other members can rely on, and I hope I can help the team using my talents as much as I can.  

SANGAH: Although it may be hard and tiring after debuting and starting to promote as LIGHTSUM, I want to be a person who can bring bright energy. Also, I want to support my team with my skills and potential.  

NAYOUNG: I want to be a reliable sister who can cheer other members up with my tireless energy and positive mindset whenever they feel tired and distressed.

HINA: I hope our members, fans, and other people will think that ‘LIGHTSUM definitely needs HINA!’. It is one of my long-time goals to be that kind of person. Each of our members has different charms but I want to show my own charms and become a crucial member of LIGHTSUM. 

YUJEONG: As I’m in charge of ‘aegyo’ in the team, I want to be a member who can lift up the mood with my bright energy whenever our members feel tired. 

HUIYEON: My motto is ‘You gotta do better. Whenever we face hardships, I would like to give our team this message and make them feel better. Actually, I wanna make them happy every single moment, because we are one and I will do my best to communicate with our fans and to show great performances including singing and dancing. 

JIAN: I want to be a member who can relieve the sadness and worries of our members and double the joy by sharing happy moments. I want to benefit our group LIGHTSUM in many ways.  

Can you tell us a little bit about the inspiration behind your first single? What was your goal considering this is your first opportunity to present yourselves to the world? 

JUHYEON: When we think of ‘Vanilla’, it reminds us of ice cream with a very plain color and simple taste. We were inspired by how ice cream’s flavor is determined based on the toppings added to it. Through our song, we LIGHTSUM hope to be the ‘toppings’ that are added to people’s daily lives, and we are preparing for the stage to show the excitement of the moment when toppings are added.  

CHOWON: Our first goal is to promote our group to the people. Furthermore, I hope many people will listen to our debut single ‘Vanilla’ and that our song will enter the charts. 

SANGAH: As we LIGHTSUM have worked hard, we hope to show each of our 8 member’s charms through our promotions.  

HINA: Our first single ‘Vanilla’ is a cute and upbeat song that fits very well with our group. I hope many people will get to know about LIGHTSUM through this song. We will do our best to showcase great performances. I want people to think ‘Wow! I love  LIGHTSUM. I will keep supporting them!’ whenever they see our stages. 

HUIYEON: Since we are still experiencing COVID-19, I thought this song must help everyone feel much better. Also, we hope people will get more energy by listening to our music and watching our performances because we were so happy when practicing and dancing to the song. Please look forward to our first single! 

You also released a fun trailer that had some incredible visuals and beautiful production elements! When you saw your first piece of content, did it make this debut process feel more tangible? 

CHOWON: When our debut trailer was released, I saw the scene where the eight of us are standing under the light and smiling while looking at each other. That’s the time I actually felt like, ‘I’m finally debuting!’

HINA: When our debut trailer was first released, I was really excited and I got a lot of congratulatory texts from my friends which made me feel a bit strange. Seeing our content being uploaded online, I feel like our debut is getting more real. 

JIAN: When it was first released, it didn’t feel real. But after reading each of our fan’s messages and comments on our trailer video, it started to feel real. 

Once you debut, I’m sure life will feel a lot different! With that being said, what does a typical ‘day in the life’ of LIGHTSUM currently look like? 

JUHYEON: These days when we have schedules, they’re usually for filming content or doing interviews. Aside from those, we spend most of our time in the practice room at our company. 

SANGAH: Since we don’t have much time left until our debut, we’ve been spending every day practicing the choreography of our single and complete schedules. 

NAYOUNG: We’re a minute away from our debut, so we’re practicing until past midnight everyday to show you the best of our performances. Please look forward to them! 

HINA: We’ve been keeping ourselves busy with practices and schedules! We did lots of shootings and filmings altogether already. Every day is very productive and enjoyable because there are so many new things happening and so much to learn from them. 

YUJEONG: We want our debut to be perfect and we also want to show people our progress, so we are practicing every day to improve ourselves little by little. 

HUIYEON: Every part of the path to our debut as LIGHTSUM is definitely new and is very meaningful to me. Every day, I just try to learn everything, and with one thought in mind – you gotta do better. Just one more. 

JIAN: We are giving our best efforts to practicing as we look forward to the day we will get to show you our performance. 

I know that when it comes to training, a lot of artists will get to practice other songs and choreography as well – are there any artists or songs that you’re currently finding creative inspiration from? 

JUHYEON: When I practiced, I often covered OH MY GIRL and TWICE’s songs. I watched their performance videos to learn from their facial expressions and gestures.

CHOWON: I always practice and learn from BLACKPINK. Every time I look at them I  always think they are amazing. 

SANGAH: Lately I’ve been trying to learn from many different artists and their music. 

NAYOUNG: I can’t even count how many songs and dances by how many seniors I  practiced as a trainee, but as our debut is approaching we are focusing more on practicing our own choreography and music. As we started preparing for ‘Vanilla’, each of us has been trying to find our own gestures and facial expressions. I personally studied the facial expressions and auras of NAYEON of TWICE and ARIN of OH MY GIRL. 

HINA: I agree with NAYOUNG, we have covered countless songs by many different artists until now. Recently we covered a song by TXT, and it was the first time we practiced and presented a boy group cover. I hope we can consistently practice boy group choreographies too so we can showcase a wide variety of dances. 

YUJEONG: I really like TAEYEON’s voice, so I listen to her music a lot and try to sound like her too. 

HUIYEON: I’m a Netflix lover. I saw a concert video on Netflix one day. It was so huge,  powerful, and amazing. It’s Taylor Swift: Reputation Stadium Tour (I watched the  Chicago concert, the last concert of the tour). I also watched Ariana Grande: excuse me, i  love you (the London concert). As I saw them being both on stage and backstage, it made me dream of a life as a singer. I respect them and admire their passion, and I love both of them. Their performances and all elements of their concerts were really amazing.  I want to thank Netflix for letting me find out about these concerts. Plus, lately, I covered  OH MY GIRL’s songs, so I watched many of their stage videos and learned how to enjoy the stage and give energy to people. 

JIAN: JENNIE is my role model so I see her videos frequently. When I watch her fancams,  I learn from not only her dance and rap but also stage presence.

What has been the best piece of advice you’ve received from a fellow artist(s) so far?  

CHOWON: Many of our seniors gave us advice. The most memorable one is that we should always keep our initial mindset in our hearts, never loosen up, and keep practicing. We also heard that it’s important to enjoy this moment of our lives, and try not to leave any regrets behind. 

SANGAH: Director SEO EUNKWANG visited us when we were filming for the music video of ‘Vanilla’ to cheer for us and gave us lots of great advice. He was very helpful, and his help was particularly memorable. 

NAYOUNG: We received advice from a lot of the seniors at CUBE. Many of them told us not to be content and settle with what we are right now but instead continuously try to develop ourselves, so that’s the most memorable advice. 

HINA: ‘You will face many struggles from now on but don’t be afraid and challenge yourself! And start with giving your best effort!’ are the words that relieved me from the anxiety I had with our debut approaching shortly. 

YUJEONG: We were told that we should have pride in what we do and devote ourselves to it because we started it out of our own will. 

Finally, what can we expect Lightsum to show fans in the coming year? (style, personality, plans for more content, etc.) 

JUHYEON: First of all, we want to let you know more about our group LIGHTSUM. We want to show our fans what kind of group we are and what colors we have.  

CHOWON: We want to show our fans the new and unknown sides of LIGHTSUM. If given the chance, we would like to show our talents through various content. Please look forward to them!

SANGAH: We aim to show you our talents and charms one by one. We’re preparing a variety of content that you will like, so please look forward to them, and wait for us just a little bit more and we will come to you with great music and performance very soon! 

NAYOUNG: I want to try ‘mukbang’ with the eight of us, and I also want to do a LIGHTSUM vlog. My parents really love the TV show King of Mask Singer, so I want to be on the show too. 

HINA: LIGHTSUM is a very bright team full of energy. We are ready to share this brightness and energy very often. Please look forward to it! 

YUJEONG: You will fall for LIGHTSUM when you see all the content we have prepared for you. I’ll stop being shy and try to approach you with friendliness, so count on it! 

HUIYEON: We will show you awesome and amazing performances that have different colors for each stage with the most positive and the brightest vibes. Also, lots of programs are waiting for you! Please look forward to it!  

JIAN: We want to show every piece of charms LIGHTSUM has, and also the consistent progress we will make through upcoming opportunities. Moreover, we hope to try a  range of concepts so we can present our versatility to our fans and general audience.  Thank you! 

LIGHTSUM’s debut single “Vanilla” is now available now!