SHINee’s New Comeback May Be A Song BoA Rejected Last Year

SHINee just released the teaser schedule for their first comeback in two years, and the album title is sparking theories that their new song may have originally been given to BoA.

On BoA’s talk reality show, Nobody Talks to BoA, the veteran singer sat down with SM Entertainment‘s founder and chairman Lee Soo Man to discuss all things music-related. During “Episode 3”, Lee Soo Man playfully called BoA out on rejecting one of the songs he gave her.

Last December, BoA came back with her 10th studio album to commemorate her 20th anniversary. With it, she released the title track “Better”, composed by Yoo Young Jin. However, “Better” wasn’t originally intended to be the title track.

Instead, Lee Soo Man revealed he presented BoA with two potential title tracks—”Better”, and another song Lee composed himself. While he hoped BoA would choose the latter, she ended up opting for Yoo Young Jin’s track.

You didn’t want to use this title track I prepared.

— Lee Soo Man

According to their talk, she turned down Lee Soo Man’s song for two reasons. First, she already had a dance in her mind that she wanted to try out, and “Better” fit her choreography plans better. The other reason was that, in BoA’s mind, Lee Soo Man’s song sounded like it was meant for a group—not a soloist.

I heard you thought, “Does he want me to be in a band?”

— Lee Soo Man

Lee Soo Man then revealed the name of the rejected title track: “Don’t Call Me”. He even sang a snippet of it for viewers.

I have never given a song that I don’t like. But an artist refuses to take the song I like.

— Lee Soo Man

And now, lo and behold, SHINee is releasing an album titled Don’t Call Me too!

https://twitter.com/SHINee/status/1357705545562525696

While the name of the title track hasn’t been revealed yet, SHINee albums often share their name with the lead single, so there’s a good chance the song will also be called “Don’t Call Me”.

Plus, Spoiler King Taemin recently held a live broadcast titled with a telephone emoji where he told fans, “Don’t call me“. Originally, fans thought he was addressing sasaengs who often call idols while they’re broadcasting. However, it seems he was actually teasing the new title track all along.

https://twitter.com/TAEMdoku/status/1335133262956650498

While there’s no confirmation that SHINee’s new comeback song is the same track BoA rejected, the identical names make the theory pretty likely. On top of that, Minho also appeared on “Episode 3” of Nobody Talks to BoA. While there, he joked that SM Entertainment should give SHINee some of the “spare songs” BoA rejected.

Looks like Minho may have gotten his wish! SHINee is set to release Don’t Call Me on February 22, 2021.