Chances are you’ve heard a K-Pop song written by a Swedish songwriter. You may not have even realized! Swedish songwriters are becoming more prevalent in the K-Pop industry. But why?
One Swedish songwriter, Cazzi Opeia, has written for K-Pop artists such as TWICE, BTS, and most recently, ENHYPEN. She often works alongside fellow Swede, Ellen Berg under the name Sunshine. They are signed to EKKO Music Rights.
Together they’ve worked on songs such as ITZY‘s “Icy”. They also often work with Ludvig Evers and Jonatan Gusmark, also known as Moonshine. The foursome worked together on Red Velvet‘s “Peek-A-Boo” in 2017.
K-Pop fans are familiar with the non-traditional format of K-Pop music. There are usually multiple sections with different parts for singing and rapping. It’s not uncommon for two sections of a song to sounds completely different. For many fans, that’s the appeal. It was for Cazzi Opeia as well.
There are no rules in K-Pop — you can have three hooks, one after each other, if you feel like it. You can be crazy and colorful, and that’s what appealed the most.
— Cazzi Opeia
Their songs seem exactly that, crazy and colorful.
Korean songwriter Michelle Cho thinks that Swedish songwriters are so good at writing K-Pop songs because of their emotional understanding.
Swedes seem to have an emotional understanding of us Koreans. They write melodies that seem to really hit our emotions.
— Michelle Cho
Whether or not this is true, K-Pop fans seem to love the songs being made by Swedish songwriters. Alex Marshall writes, “Swedes write melodies that are so catchy, fans want to sing them at packed stadium shows and at their local karaoke bars.”
