South Korean singer-songwriter and BIGBANG member Taeyang has officially made a comeback after an almost six-year hiatus with his new single “Vibe,” which features Jimin of BTS.
“Vibe,” which was released on Friday, is Taeyang’s first musical release following his transfer from YG Entertainment to its affiliate The Black Label at the end of 2022. It is also reportedly the first collaboration for the 34-year-old singer-songwriter with an artist outside of YG and its affiliates.
Prior to “Vibe,” Taeyang’s last release was his third studio album “White Night” in 2017, led by the two singles “Darling” and “Wake Me Up.”
His latest project was reportedly two years in the making and came about thanks to YG producer Teddy Park, who initially pitched the idea for Taeyang to work with Jimin.
During an interview with NME, Taeyang shared that he didn’t believe working with the BTS member would be possible since they didn’t know each other at the time.
“Starting from last year, there were some events and private gatherings where I got to meet the BTS members and got to know Jimin naturally,” he said. “From there, we just started to talk about music and we both agreed that we wanted to collaborate and it became very seamless after that.”
He also revealed that the initial song pitched to Jimin was not “Vibe,” but Park had a feeling that “Vibe” would be a better fit. Taeyang and Park eventually composed and wrote the track in about a week.
Taeyang also recently teased that a new album is in the works.
While speaking with Rolling Stone, the artist, whose name means “sun” in Korean, said, “Whenever I put out an album, I assign a theme that fits with meaning of my name. With this album too, I thought of the sunset quite a bit and looked to the sunset for inspiration — like a beautiful sunset that has many colors.”
“The four years that I’ve worked on making this album were a time for me to return to my roots and original mindset when I first started,” he added. “I hope this album conveys the original intention I first had.”
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