At the start of 2026, social media blew up with users becoming nostalgic over the year 2016 with people sharing photos and videos on their accounts. I even hopped on the bandwagon via Instagram. Of all the photos I picked for my post, the one that made me go, “Wow, it’s been ten years already?” was the screenshot of the album, She Is by Jonghyun of Shinee.
In 2019, a fellow Shawol, who I knew through Instagram, wanted to create a zine about Jonghyun’s work. I was asked to write an essay for any one of his albums or songs of my choice. I chose She Is. Unfortunately, the zine project didn’t prevail, and I lost touch with my friend. But with the ten-year anniversary of She Is approaching, I opened the essay and re-read it. Proud of my original work, I decided to revise it and bring it back to life.
So, why did I choose She Is? Honestly, it’s my favorite album of all time – not just as a Shawol, but as a music fan.
She Is is Jonghyun’s first LP, released on May 24, 2016. Prior to this, Jonghyun released his first EP, Base, and the compilation album, The Collection: Story Op. 1. She Is consists of nine songs infused with a remarkable mix of R&B, neo-soul, EDM, hip-hop, neo-jazz, and dance. Jonghyun wrote the lyrics for all nine songs and composed eight of them. Like Base and his 2018 posthumous magnum opus, Poet Artist, Jonghyun produced the album, a rare practice for idols at the time.
She Is is a concept album about a young man who falls in love with a woman. Each song talks about different aspects of their escalating romance, from the first meeting to – spoiler alert – their wedding night.
I imagined a character and that this character was singing these nine songs from the start. Of course, this character might reflect some part of myself: He is an amusing, attractive young man who is sometimes up to mischief which I’ve created in my mind during the album production. And since producing the album was a process of acting out this character, it has a completely different direction compared to The Collection.
“Standing Alone, Kim Jonghyun Is Unlike Any Other K-pop Idol,” Taylor Glasby in i-d
The storyline is what is intriguing! While listening to She Is, listeners don’t hear just an album. Instead, we are transferred to the motherland, in the streets of Seoul, where the story starts in the daytime. He sees the woman going about her day, in her Rolling Stones t-shirt, and is immediately enamored by her. Then night comes, and we follow this man and woman into Seoul’s bustling nightlife – jazz bars, clubs, hotel rooms, even the car. It’s like a gripping novel that is difficult to put down or watching a movie you don’t want to end. Most importantly, you care about these two, and you root for them.
Listeners don’t know much about his dream woman. The songs suggest she comes off as aloof, but she seems to know how to play the same mildang (“push and pull”) game that Jonghyun’s character is playing. I get the impression that she likes him, too, but she’s either too shy or too proud to admit it. Another clue about her is that she’s the object of every man’s desire according to the songs, “Cocktail” and “Orbit”. “There’s so many around” her and “they fight for their lives” to be with her. But fortunately, Jonghyun’s character has nothing to worry about, because she only fancies him.
Then there is the cotton candy pink haired character that Jonghyun embodies. What’s his name? What’s his story before meeting this woman? He is peculiar yet charming, and Jonghyun brings him to life beautifully. The mischievous personality of this character in the songs is clear. There’s a fresh innocence to him, but also, a sensual magnetism that makes him as irresistible as her.
Like many male idols, Jonghyun’s style defies traditional masculinity, but with a twist. The concept of the album is reminiscent of kitsch. Take the video for “She Is.” Jonghyun’s character is at his construction site job. Standing on line at his booth are his dancers holding various items that need to be repaired. When the day is over, he meticulously walks over to his tiny home a few feet away from his workstation. He changes clothes and starts throwing plastic bags in a bin. All the while, there are closeup images of arbitrary props and a dance number with his dancers.
The nod to kitsch is also present in the album packaging. Jonghyun is photographed, posing with a heap of blue hardcover books, pink toy cars, jars of peanut butter, and a Kermit the Frog plush. It is also worth mentioning that in his appearance in The Celebrity magazine from July 2016, the pictorial spread pays homage to Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein, two very famous artists from the 1960’s pop art scene. When he was being interviewed in The Celebrity, Jonghyun acknowledged the pop art elements.
Generally, in the word “pop”, there’s a nuance that “something that can be most widely propagated”, something that many people can watch and enjoy. This is in touch with the pop art and world that Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein created. The movie doesn’t relate to this meaning, but my kind of “pop” that I want to express as art is an action that involves making something that isn’t so necessary in living, so it’s not practical. So, I think the “pop” that I want to express is one of lifestyles that relaxed humans can have. It’s not something that’s necessary but can still be enjoyed.
The Celebrity, translated by fyjjong
She Is, though, isn’t just an album with typical boy-meets-girl love songs. Surprisingly, She Is is a premeditated erotic tour de force. At first glance, you wouldn’t think of it as such. Like pop art and kitsch, there’s more than meets the eye. Jonghyun, himself, confirmed this in an interview in the June 2016 issue of Harper’s Bazaar.
I wanted to create a sexual album. An album that had an overall sexy nuance not only with the title song and something that would inspire imagination rather than something blindly provocative.
Harper’s Bazaar Korea, translated by fyjjong
While watching Jonghyun perform “She Is” and “White T-Shirt” on music shows, he is flirtatious and cute, dressed in bright, stylish clothes with his dancers. However, those are the performances you’ll see on mainstream South Korean television.
Later in 2016, Jonghyun had his Inspiration X concert in Seoul and Busan, where he performed songs from his first Base, Story Op.1, She Is, and his experimental track, “Inspiration”. The performances for the songs, “Cocktail”, “Red”, “Moon”, and a few other songs left little to the imagination with choreography and settings that were unapologetically and consistently suggestive.
The VCRs from the show also showcase a more mature side to Jonghyun. “Suit Up” takes place in a hotel suite and the woman of his dreams slowly undresses him. While the darker yet sensual “Aurora” shows Jonghyun serenading a curious woman watching him at a jazz club late in the evening while sipping a cocktail. Jonghyun said during a live video on VLive, while talking about his “Inspiration X” concert, that his show was meant to be for an audience ages 15 and older.
Although sexuality was present in K-pop back then, it was often coded and less authored by the idol(s) themselves. Most choreography tries to be sexy within the system. What Jonghyun, fellow member, Taemin, and the rest of Shinee have done is use sexuality against the system to create tension between them and the fans. Prior to She Is, Jonghyun wasn’t afraid to be provocative during performances (i.e. the infamous cover of Seo Taiji’s “Internet War” with Taemin) or in his lyrics (“Hallelujah”, “Chocolate”, “Odd Eye”), whether they were for SHINee or somebody else (“Playboy” by Exo). Instead of being downright explicit, he relies on metaphors and symbolism.
However, the album is genuinely romantic: the way he sings about her beauty in “She Is”, her style and silhouette that provokes his imagination in the songs “White T-Shirt” and “Dress Up.” All he asks in return from her is to be honest with her feelings and to love him. So, yes, this guy is the sly little scamp that Jonghyun claimed he is, but he’s in love. He leaves the fate of their relationship to her without pushing, begging, or trying to impress her with anything superficial. The way he seduces her is he sweeps her away in a lucid dream in the song, “Moon”. In it, he tells her to reject her inhibitions; so that she can explore her fantasies, and creates a safe place for her to tell them to him.
Sex in contemporary pop music has become so arbitrarily standard that it feels boring unlike the way Madonna, Janet Jackson, and Prince did before him with thoughtfulness, ingenuity, and articulation. Jonghyun does this exceptionally well without even trying to be sexy. It just is.
She Is is a timeless piece of art that still retains the same joy as it gave on the first listen. It shows Jonghyun’s poignant transformation as a singer, songwriter, and man since his 2008 debut. Kim Jonghyun was more than an idol. He was a gifted and brilliant artist who dared to break the SM Entertainment and K-pop mold. Ten years later, She Is still feels like a moment in Seoul you don’t want to end – playful in the daytime, intimate at night, and still lingering long after the music fades.
Cristina Cho is a writer and playwright born in Gunsan, South Korea, and raised in New Jersey. During the pandemic, she put on her first play, Pink Leather, over Zoom. She is currently working on a novel and a short story. You can follow Cristina on Instagram @cristinacho.
(YouTube: [1] [2] [3]. i-d, Fyjjong: [1] [2] [3]. Images via SM Entertainment.)