Chungha Reveals How Her Therapist Inspired New Her Album Title

Chungha‘s first full-length album, Querencia, was released just days ago, but it’s already taking the K-Pop world by storm. At her recent press conference for the record’s release, Chungha revealed how her therapist inspired the album name.

After testing positive for COVID-19 last year, Chungha delayed her album release by over a month so she’d have time to focus on her recovery and physical health. Refreshingly, she gives just as much attention to her mental health. While social stigmas discourage many idols from speaking out about mental health issues, Chungha spoke openly about therapy at her press conference.

The star soloist and former I.O.I member revealed that she “had a lot of other personal issues” in 2020 beside her sickness with COVID-19. She explained that her therapist was the first one to explain the word “querencia” to her, using the term in a psychological sense.

Querencia comes from the Spanish word “querer“, meaning “to desire”, and refers to the metaphysical concept of a place where you feel the strongest. “She told me that [querencia] was like a shelter,” says Chungha of her therapist, “like where do you feel the most ‘you’?”

At the time, Chungha shared, she told her therapist that her querencia was her bed. However, she later started to rethink the concept of what her querencia would be, and soon realized it would be her first full-length album.

The most time I spend all day would be on my album. I would be practicing my album, listening to my album.

— Chungha

While dealing with the personal issues she faced last year, Chungha found herself wondering, “What helped me the most?“, and ultimately the answer was her album. As such, she decided to name it Querencia—”It’s perfect“, she says. The album’s title is also particularly fitting with the new sounds and challenges Chungha explores in the album, from Latin pop influences to rapping.

It’s not exciting to stay with one simple concept, I want to jump into other things and that’s what Querencia actually means. That’s all it means, being fun and exciting.

— Chungha