MOMOLAND’s six members (Nancy, Hyebin, Jane, Nayun, JooE, and Ahin) have been together for over five years, hitting unimaginable highs after hard work and humble beginnings. Originally formed by MLD Entertainment on the 2016 series Finding Momoland, they seemingly acquired over-night success – habitually maintaining that forcefulness, going on to earn a billion cumulative views, and ranking as one of three K-pop girl groups to garner over 500 million views for a single video (alongside industry peers Blackpink and Twice). 

Having seized the moment on several tracks with a profound pop music liveliness time and time again, the group is starting to show curiosity in collaborations that expand their growing interests and musical textures. The first sonic contrast came just months ago in mid-2021 as an electro-pop production titled “Wrap Me in Plastic” featuring Chromance, and now, a glorious alliance with the Latin pop superstar Natti Natasha for another stylistic first. The joint effort on the new song, “Yummy Yummy Love” has the enduring hypnotic draw of the unmatched MOMOLAND tenor, but simultaneously satisfies the group’s yearning for growth – converging in between two stunning worlds that celebrate something fresh for all participants. 

The blissfully harmonious opening of the track revives the compelling presence of MOMOLAND that the music scene has dearly missed, and despite the blended Latin-pop/K-pop marriage from the artists’ respective backgrounds, actually serves as MOMOLAND’s first English release. The demonstration of the song’s unconventionally rebellious attitude now helps posture the group as an even more versatile and evolutionary act after five years – where some might comfortably sit back and release safer production choices. 

Getting to witness the longstanding prosperous results of their gutsy and organic work ethic with the knowledge that MOMOLAND is one of the most resilient, idiosyncratic talents of their generation only validates our complete faith that the group remains thoroughly invested in materializing classics. With MOMOLAND dropping a genre distortion that fundamentally dominates K-pop constructs so early into 2022 and earning an additional 26 million views for the newest video alone, we had the pure satisfaction of speaking with each member of MOMOLAND to break down their immaculate career (so far). 

Fans (myself included) have been so eager for a MOMOLAND comeback, and this song sure is definitely worth the wait! Can you tell me about some of the early ideas behind this track’s conception? 

MOMOLAND: We wanted to try showing more of our charismatic side through our new release but keep our energetic side at the same time! And so, we thought that the Western cowgirl concept would best portray that for this particular single! So when we first heard the song, it immediately gave off cute and retro vibes, which we thought was perfect for MOMOLAND. Since the song is a pop dance track, we also wanted to show a different side to us in terms of makeup and styling. JOOE actually prepared a mood board for our outfits, and we discussed it together! And because we were involved in the process, we feel that we were able to put together a stage and performance that could highlight our mature side musically and aesthetically, so please check out the song!

You also were able to collaborate with Natti Natasha, which is such an epic genre blend with a lot of talent amongst the seven of you! What was that process like, and did you get to do anything together – or was it strictly work when you were able to finally meet? 

HYEBIN, NAYUN, AHIN: It was our first time traveling to Miami and it was an honor for us to work on this collaboration with such a top musician. We were so thankful because Natti helped us while we were there. And she made us feel so comfortable, so it was a joy interacting and talking with her. Because she had approached us with warmth, we were able to spend a great time in Miami! We were so happy that we were given the opportunity to spend this time together. And she did everything with passion and Natti is such an energetic person, we felt that there are many things to learn from her. 

You also shot a music video for the song and the visuals are already serving a classic, colorful Momoland vibe just from concept photos alone! If you were each going to switch places with someone in the group for this track and video, who would you choose? 

HYEBIN: I would like to try switching with NAYUN’s scene in the music video! I wanted to try using different props, especially the lariat rope that NAYUN was using in her scene.

JANE: There’s a scene where AHIN is riding a motorcycle. And it was such a memorable scene for me, so I want to try switching scenes with AHIN!

NAYUN: I want to try HYEBIN’s part in the bridge of the song because it feels like it’s the turning point where the song starts to intensify!

JOOE: I want to try switching with AHIN’s part in the verse! Especially the part in the beginning because I love when our melody kicks in and her scene in the music video looked extremely cool. 

AHIN: I was extremely happy with my part and the music video scene because it was my first-time filming on a motorcycle! So, if I were to choose to switch parts, then I would also like to try Nancy’s rap because it sounded really good and blended seamlessly with the song. 

NANCY: I want to try JOOE’s part! When she raps, the gestures she does really stands out so it’s one of the scenes that would make you want to re-watch multiple times!

Your previous release “Ready or Not” is one of my personal favorite tracks and it’s easily top-tier, but was also such a vibrant concept as well! Looking back, what would you say was your favorite aspect of that comeback era? 

MOMOLAND: There are so many aspects of the comeback that we loved! To name a couple, we felt that the overall pink color scheme made ‘Ready or Not’ visually perfect for our teen pop vibes at the time. The music video was also super vibrant and so it made the song feel even more energetic and fun! We can’t forget about the lyrics too. PSY had worked on the lyrics of the song, so it was such an honor and meaningful project for us. Especially, for the part where NANCY and JOOE sing in English at the intro just opened the song so well! It gave us such a bright energy and confidence within the lyrics and so it was a song that we would also listen to while we’re driving. 

You’re often praised for your precision and synchronicity as a group which is such an important factor to consider as performers! Has having that reputation ever changed the way you approach new choreography? 

JANE, JOOE, and NANCY: We practice and practice until we’re in sync! When you start learning the choreo, naturally it takes time for everyone to be in sync. We don’t think we necessarily changed the way we approach our new choreography after we’ve been noticed for our synchronicity. It’s more like we have learned over time how to practice and which aspects of the choreography we need to focus on to make sure the delivery is impactful and memorable!

You recently become one of three girl groups to reach over 500 million views for a music video, and your total views for music videos are close to a billion cumulatively which seems like something that must feel mind-blowing to think about! Looking at all your impressive achievements so far, what would you say has felt like something you’d currently consider to be one of the most gratifying moments of your career? 

MOMOLAND: You said it all in your question! There are only three K-pop girl groups that have accomplished this and we’re so proud that we’re one of them. We didn’t realize that our views add up to a billion! We feel really proud of ourselves when we see how much we have grown as singers and feel proud whenever we see that we’re getting passionate on stage! This is really evident especially when we meet our fans during a tour since we’re able to give our fans happiness through our stages! We felt so much happiness when we won our first No.1 on a Korean TV Program and when we see our songs climbing up the charts! And we feel proud and immense gratitude that we have a great fandom cheering and supporting us even after 5 years!

Speaking of your fans, you’re very vocal about your love for Merries, and you’ve even released a song specifically dedicated to them! Based on your conversations with fans and experiences over the years, what do you believe is something that Merries enjoy most about a Momoland song? 

MOMOLAND: We believe that our Merries enjoy it the most when they see that our charms have been well delivered through the songs. There are a lot of songs where we can interact with our fans on stage, and we believe that it’s the excitement and energy that fans like the most about us! And we also know that fans also enjoy our ballad B-side tracks that show a different style from our main title tracks! Due to the pandemic, we’re unable to see our Merries up close, so it gets us really nostalgic thinking about the chants, the energy and passion that we have emitted together, and how we had so much fun performing “Bboom Bboom” and all of our other songs together with the fans. 

You’ve explored a lot of different styles through your expansive discography and collaborations – but if you were going to try a concept that’s something you haven’t tried yet, what kind of sound or vibe would you hope to see MOMOLAND tackle next? 

MOMOLAND: There are many different styles of music that we want to try! But most recently, when we visited Miami to meet Natti Natasha, we were able to listen to so many different styles of Latin music. So Latin genre music is something that we definitely want to try next as well as mellower songs. If possible, we also want to try exploring a bit darker, edgier paired with a mysterious concept. Or even revisit our more youthful concepts from our debut days… do you think that’ll be possible? Hip-hop is definitely trendy these days and there’s the dreamy concept that we haven’t tried yet! We also haven’t worked on seasonal songs before, so we do want to try putting out a summer or winter season songs!

With MOMOLAND, quite literally anything is possible! Check out the music video for “Yummy Yummy Love” included above, and stream the MOMOLAND x Natti Natasha collaboration here!