After A Career In K-pop, Tiffany Young Is Finally In Control

Who is Tiffany Young? It's a question I've noticed myself asking a lot over the last six months because the 29-year-old singer has been making a name for herself in the U.S. To be clear, I know who she is — I've known of her since she went by just Tiffany, the cheery American member of the successful K-pop girl categorize Girls' Generation — although I don't really know her. Like you, I know her by means of the bits and pieces she's been ready to share with me.


For example: Tiffany Young was place on Earth Stephanie Young Hwang. She loves musicals. And Christmas music. She is a Slytherin. She inherited her late mother's love of female artists, citing the "divas" — Annie Lennox, Madonna, and Mariah Carey — as her biggest musical influences. Although she also went through a boy musical group phase in the early aughts and had an enormous crush on Justin Timberlake. Her dream to be a performer led to a chance audition with South Korean organization SM Entertainment and ultimately a move to Seoul at age 15, alone, where she trained for two years before debuting with Females Generation in 2007. Despite her decade-long singing career abroad, she determined not to renew her contract and alternatively move back residence to Los Angeles in 2018 to try and make her pop star dreams come true in the U.S. Fresh sound as well as a fitting surname ("Young is the Chinese character for forever in Korean," she informed me last year).


These are all of the familiar beats of Tiffany Young's story, and she usually recounts them warmly, her signature smile routinely present. Nevertheless it's some days hard to be able to see through all that poise and polish to find the woman underneath. It's not Young's fault; she's been contained to the highest common of perfection for more than a decade, and that's not something she can trim overnight. Though, she's getting there.


Right after kicking off her U.S. Solo career last year with bold, sensual songs like "Over My Skin" and "Teach You" — two groovy English-language singles that helped establish the Korean-American artist as a woman not to trifled with, while also relying on glossy K-pop-inspired visuals to convey the message — 2019's "Born Again" was a fresh page for Young. "Never felt this safe, in a foreign place," she croons. "I used to feel so hollow, shallow, vacant."


Co-written by Young, the single was a sweeping confessional that picked at old wounds. At the end of 2018, her father was accused of fraud, and the scenario made national news in Korea, forcing Young to not only apologize on her dad's behalf nevertheless also reveal her own estranged relationship with him. It was a painful, embarrassing experience, yet it inspired her to be able to see things from a new perspective.


"It changed me a lot," she told MTV News. "Finding that self-acceptance throughout that time really let me embrace some of the imperfections of myself [and] to find the strength to mention, 'I want this rebirth. I want this to be the starting. I'd like to ultimately mention I am reborn as a human being, as an artist.'"


She teamed up with prolific producers and songwriters like Fernando Garibay, The Rascals, and Babyface to lay these insecurities bare in the studio, co-writing all five songs on her debut English-language EP, Lips On Lips. For Young, Lips On Lips — released in late February — was a way for her to "open up so that others may open up and connect [with it] the way music made me feel Whenever I was lost." It was also a possibility for Young to supporter for herself and her ideas for the opening time and turn the studio experience into something fun and collaborative. "I used to habitually be nervous [in the studio]," she mentioned. "I thought that I had to get things brilliant in one take. I'm routinely attempting to relax right now. I'm just deprogramming a lot of things that I thought was supposed to be. There really are no rules any time creating, and I'm just reminding myself that daily because it really translates once you're comfortable and you're ready."


(L) Tiffany poses for pictures in Seoul, South Korea in January 2009; (R) Tiffany Young attends the iHeartRadio Music Awards in March 2019


Young is hardly the opening artist to turn personalized tragedy into creative fuel — Ariana Grande's done it twice in the last year alone (Sweetener, Thank U, Next) — nevertheless she's in a unique position, where by rewriting her narrative she's not simply writing it, she's owning it for the very first time.


She debuted with Ladies Generation at the age of 17. The initial time I had interviewed her, last fall while she was promoting "Teach You" in New York, she had described it as "a time as soon as you had to be brilliant K-pop idols not only endure years of training — practicing singing, dancing, rapping, and languages (as a foreigner, it took Young two years before she was comfortable reading, writing, and speaking Korean) — however they also have busy promotional schedules and, in most cases, various restrictions. In the early days of Women Generation, everything was determined for Young, from her clothes to her hairstyles. As soon as the sort released their first single, Young sported a short chop, which would become her signature look over the years. The fashion, she says, was decided by management as a way to give her an identity in the nine-member categorize. The long, loose blond waves she has right now are as much a tangible representation of her rebirth as place on Earth Again."


And while the modern K-pop landscape is embracing new narratives, there's still an expectation to work hard and to routinely strive for more — better music, tighter formations, and better performances. "It was the most grueling work nevertheless [also] educational," she mentioned. "I am thankful."


That unyielding level of work ethic is present in everything Young does, from changing into a new outfit at every press stop throughout a hectic 19-hour media day, to co-writing all five songs on Lips On Lips, and mapping out her first North American tour — a "intimate" showcase in which Young suggested the set list (which includes euphoric covers of *NSYNC's "Gone" and George Michael's "Freedom") and the costumes (she was inspired by Blake Lively's character in A Simple Favor). "I'm just attempting to find that balance of being relaxed and still kicking my ass to work harder and pushing myself to prepare she mentioned. However that hard work is already paying off. The singer recently won the iHeartRadio Music Award for Best Solo Breakout.


According to Young, one of the most personalized songs on the EP isn't Barbie," a R&B song that celebrates human imperfections. "Even if I don't look like what they show me," she sings on the track. "They can't ever judge me 'cause they don't know me." To bring this song to life on tour, Young invites a number of fans at every stop accompany her on stage for the emotional efficiency. "This tour is all about intimacy and closeness for me," she mentioned. "That song's so special. I want every woman and man and boy and girl to know that aesthetics is being positively true to your mind, body, and soul, and nothing else."


especially for Young this idea of being true to yourself is a process. "I'm still learning," she mentioned. Old Tiffany had to be brilliant, however New Tiffany likes perfection also. This time, obviously, it's her choice.


Just like it's her decision to determine what she wants mention why as well as how to mention it. In 2019, we don't want our idols to be brilliant. Case in point, we prefer any time they're not, as soon as they are a little bit messy — however not too messy. Thanks to social media, the connection between an artist and their fans has never felt more intimate; there's an expectation to share the everyday emotions and anxieties you're feeling. That can feel overwhelming for some, however for Young, it's liberating.


"I feel like initial up to this piece of me made things a lot more clear in the sense of how optimistic and persevering I wanted to be while in that time of Women Generation. I've routinely noticed a lot of aesthetics in pain." And that aesthetics can manifest itself in several ways, like, mention, a persistent smile. Because some days the ideal way to really know someone is to pay attention to what they're not saying — like the tone of their voice, or the way their eyes sparkle once they're talking about their preference Broadway musicals.


"You have the ability to see past the pain, and I got to do that. Music has routinely been that for me. I was just so thankful to be doing what I love to do, to be performing. That makes me continue to have this smile on my face."


To hear about Tiffany Young's career journey in her own words, watch her episode of the MTV News series, Homecoming.