LE SSERAFIM Gets Candid About Why They Watched Tons Of Videos Featuring American Singer Olivia Rodrigo Before Their Comeback
LE SSERAFIM‘s Yunjin and Sakura were the first members to be interviewed by Weverse Magazine following the release of their comeback album ANTIFRAGILE.
They talked about a variety of topics ranging from their trainee periods to their songwriting. They also delved deeper into the behind the scenes stories of their B-Side performances such as “No Celestial.”
Here, Yunjin wholeheartedly agreed with the impression that the song is a special one for the group. It showed off the chemistry of the five members with their adlibs thanks to its fun rock concept.
The song talks about how grateful we are and also gives a clear sense of who we are, so I think a lot of people will relate to it, and I think it shows exactly the way we are and the chemistry we have together.
— Yunjin
Contrary to what people may think, the choreography is much more difficult than it appears to be. It is not easy to show a carefree attitude on stage that does not look forced.
‘No Celestial’ is a really cool song that manages to say everything we want to say at the same time. The choreography’s really tough, too. We had to practice it a lot since there’s so many parts where we pick our microphones up and put them back again.
— Yunjin
LE SSERAFIM worked on this by looking towards a specific person for inspiration. To help them achieve this effortless vibe on stage, they watched the stages of American singer Olivia Rodrigo.
We watched a lot of videos of other artists like Olivia Rodrigo having lots of fun on stage.
— Yunjin
The performance version of her 2021 hit track “Deja Vu,” for instance, also features a microphone stand as the main prop. Despite the song being a sorrowful ballad, there were still moments when Olivia Rodrigo jammed to the instrumental casually and charismatically.
The members of LE SSERAFIM loved how carefree she looked while performing. They were serious in their attempts to appear just like her during their live “No Celestial” performances.
‘We should be having this much fun, too,’ [we thought] so we made note of that.
— Yunjin
Sakura, for instance, was able to break free from her problem of learning exactly how to “enjoy the performance” with Olivia Rodrigo’s help.
The performance director told me, ‘Don’t try to act pretty—just enjoy the performance.’ But the hardest thing for me is to ignore the camera and have fun. I’ve been an idol so long that, when the camera comes out, I automatically think about which way I should be looking and what to do, so I watched a lot of performances by foreign artists, like Olivia Rodrigo. They don’t pay any attention to the camera; they’re just natural. I tried thinking, ‘This is my room and I’m going to have fun like nobody’s watching.’ And practicing that way, and it was fun. I watched in the mirror and saw expressions on my face that I never saw before. It makes me worry if I’ll come across as unattractive, but it’s also exciting.
— Sakura
In the end, they succeeded in looking like they had a blast on stage!
