CL Spills The Tea On The Real Reason She Thinks Her US Breakthrough Didn’t Happen

When it comes to powerful women in K-Pop, one artist that can never be counted out is CL! Since debuting as part of 2ne1, she has continued to break down boundaries in the industry and ensure that she creates music personal to her, rather than going along with the machine that is K-Pop.

Yet, in a recent interview with NYLON, CL revealed just how difficult things were after deciding to pursue a solo career, especially when it came to trying to make a career in America.

In 2014, CL enlisted the help of Scooter Braun as her co-manager along with the team at YG Entertainment, who CL didn’t want to name in the interview because she didn’t want to give them more “press.” Yet, things quickly stalled in 2017 after not releasing any material during that year to keep her momentum going.

In a past interview with Billboard, she explained that she didn’t think the issue was that certain people were holding her back, but just a culmination of issues that led to the troubles.

Everyone was excited. But no one knew what to do. … There’s not one person. It’s not one thing. It’s nobody’s ‘fault,’ it’s just whatever happens, happens. And I learned the best way is to just really learn from it.

— CL

However, despite all those setbacks, CL spoke about looking forward. For her, it was more about focusing on all of her experiences and using them in a positive light with her debut album.

I think it’s more about focusing on what’s next and what can I do from this? Like all those challenges. There were many challenges in my life that I had to overcome.

— CL

Yet, despite all of those setbacks, it seems like CL is as strong as ever. After becoming one of the first female K-Pop idols to attend the Met Gala and releasing her new album Alpha.

You can watch her latest video for “Lover Like Me” below.