WayV's Ten Initially Refused To Perform His New Title Track "Birthday" When It Was First Given To Him, But Some Things Recently Changed

WayV‘s Ten amazed fans with his newest solo release “Birthday.” It was the first individual song of his on SM STATION since “Paint Me Naked” dropped a year ago.

The two songs could not be more different. While the former is sexy and dark in both the music video and choreography, the latter is bright and bubbly.

Ten performed both skillfully, and it was all thanks to their timings. He told Consequence in a recent interview that he was a different person when filming his latest song and it made all the difference.

Contrary to what fans may have expected, the title tracks were actually shown to him at the same time, meaning that he chose one over the other. He listened to both “Paint Me Naked” and “Birthday” some time before August 2021. Ten, however, knew instinctively that they should not be made public at the same time.

Honestly, the first day it was given to me [was around the time they gave me] ‘Paint Me Naked.’ But at that moment, I was not fully into the song. I felt like it shouldn’t be that moment that I performed ‘Birthday.’

— Ten

He liked that “Paint Me Naked” was the perfect fit for the person that he wanted to be at the time—someone independent and free.

When I was working on ‘Paint Me Naked,’ I was purely just…I was so free. Like, ‘If I don’t want to do that, I’m not going to do it. I want to feel free.’ I wanted to open myself up while working on it.

— Ten

It was only a year later when he felt that he was at the stage in his life where he could give “Birthday” justice. Stating, “This year I felt more capable of working on it,” he successfully gave it a shot.

He reached a point where he could confidently own the sensual concept of the title track. It helped that he now watches movies focusing on the theme of love, helping him understand what emotions to pour behind his dancing and singing.

But for ‘Birthday,’ it might be because I’ve been watching a lot of romantic movies lately, or maybe because I’ve had a lot of deep thoughts because of things that have happened to everyone around us. I just felt like I could really express myself with ‘Birthday’ because… I think it’s deeper than other songs that I had worked on.

— Ten