Park Bom Opens Up About How Controversy, Insomnia & âA New Familyâ Led to Her Triumphant 'Springâ Comeback
The powerhouse vocalist has re-shifted a harsh K-pop spotlight to reclaim her career with an ambitious-yet-grateful attitude: âI feel even more thankful.â
The first thing Park Bom wants you to know is that she is OK. The next thing she wants you to know is that sheâs excited about releasing music again for the first time after years away from the scene. But first: The person behind the music.
Walking into a conference room inside the quiet, private Seoul apartment village where Bom has been living now recalls the poignant power of her newly released comeback single, âSpring.â In the gospel-tinged balladâs moving visual â which scored a reported two million views in its first 10 hours â Bom is the glowing sun in a solar system of backup dancers, commanding viewersâ attention not with over-the-top diva antics, but an aura of confidence. She delivers lyrics wondering if, after depression and pain, âspring will come to heart again,â lines that mirror an all-too-real story about whether a cultural gaffe would end her decade-long singing career.
After seven record-breaking years as the powerhouse vocalist of internationally beloved K-pop girl group 2NE1 â the outfit that held a two-and-a-half-year-long record as the highest-charting K-pop album on the Billboard 200 chart, became Koreaâs first female act to play U.S. stadiums as well as the first Korean group to hit No. 1 on the World Digital Songs chart â Bom relinquished the spotlight after a controversy rose over alleged âdrug smuggling.â The star and her former record label YG Entertainment shared that the singer was diagnosed ADHD and taking a prescription that was legal in America, where she studied throughout her middle and high school years, though itâs not legal in South Korea. While she was never charged, the issue put the starâs career on a sudden halt, seeing her depart a reality show she was filming, and seemingly playing a factor in 2NE1 ultimately disbanding in late 2016.
The 34-year-old doesnât enjoy looking back on the time, but she remembers it vividly. Bom says she was recording a cover of BIGBANG member Taeyangâs hit single âEyes, Nose, Lips,â like a slew of other YG artists were as part of a marketing campaign. When the news hit, she and 2NE1âs longtime producer Teddy were confused, but felt it was typical tabloid fodder and another jab by an invasive media scene.
âBefore all the news happened, I didnât think about it,â she says hesitantly but calmly, a crack in her voice only coming when she talks about the media comments about her looks. âBefore, whatever was on the news, it was just things that werenât that bad â things about my appearances â I thought, 'OK, theyâre doing it again.â I thought it was just about me being famous and I thought, 'I didnât do anything wrong.â You know what Iâm saying? But it became bigger and I was really sad. I had a hard timeâŚbut I shouldnât feel guilty about it because I didnât do anything. But here [in Korea], if they say no, they say no.â
Adderall, an amphetamine, had roughly 16 million prescriptions written for adults between ages 20 and 39 in the U.S. in 2012, per health-care data company QuintilesIMS. But in 2014, Adderall was not and still is not legal in South Korea, a country where conversations about mental health are evolvingbut still in its infant stages.
âItâs the culture,â Bom says. âSomething like 'going to the mental hospitalâ is a big thing, theyâd think Iâm in a straightjacket or something. Itâs not commonly spoken about yet. Everybody has difficulties and we need to have those conversations about mental health, donât you think so? It should be common and I think itâs getting better and becoming more normalizedâŚeverybody that I knew was laughing [at the controversy]. My American friends were laughing, they think itâs stupid. Itâs a shame.â
But despite her strong beliefs, the following years were tough for the singer, her mental health, and even her ability to sleep. âOnce I looked into and watched Britney Spears [and what she went through in 2007],â she says of her time hiding from the spotlight. âBut Iâm not even Britney Spears and Iâm having those kind of feelings! Iâm feeling like I want to shave my head, I really felt like that. I was hiding, but they would still try to take pictures.â All the more reason why having the right support system was crucial before she could even consider reclaiming her career.
In July 2018, it was announced that Bom had signed an exclusive contract with the newly established Korean management agency D-Nation Entertainment as its sole artist. Led by Korean-Americans Scotty Kim and Ray Yeom, Bom refers to the company employees as âfamilyâ and âfriends.â
Inside the apartment conference room, Bom sits regally at the head of the long table, with four members of her company seated to her right and this reporter to her left. Itâs a powerful image not only for the starlet many had thought would be forever ousted from the industry, but as a woman acting as the centerpiece for a company essentially created to serve her.
âTheyâre really helpful, like a real family,â she says to her team, who occasionally help her find the English words sheâs looking to say but donât offer advice on what topics she should or should not talk about â which can be rare in the formal K-pop industry. âI feel like Iâm taken care of nicely because the music is great. Weâre working on concepts, songwriting. I have great writers and managers and, of course, great Bom.â
So far, taking care of Park Bom includes not only writing and producing the right songs (sheâs not interested in songwriting saying, âI think I should focus on the performing side so that I can concentrate on singingâ), future collaborations (sheâs eyeing working with U.S. musicians and producers thanks to her âconnectedâ team, but decides, âIâm going to keep my mouth shut right nowâ on that subject) and having at least one member of the team with her at all times (as of fall 2018 Bom said someone was with her â24/7â citing, âMy sleeping patterns have been really tough, but they were really helpful, theyâre with me 24 hours, in rotationsâŚI can see theyâre having a hard time, but theyâre very helpfulâ).
While an original plan to release the music in early January was pushed back to this March release week, it all seems to be paying off as âSpringâ has risen to the top of the real-time music charts in her domestic South Korea as well as selling competitively on U.S. iTunes and should make a splash on at least one Billboard chart next week.
Even months ahead of the eventual release of âSpringâ and the two new accompanying songs âMy Loverâ and âShameful,â Bom speaks with a lightness about her. She wishes well of her former label (âI still have a father feeling when it comes to [YG CEO] Yang Hyun-Sukâ), takes comparisons between fellow YG girl group BLACKPINK and 2NE1 with grace (âI donât know if I should be honest or not, but at first I was thinking, 'What is going on?!?â but they are differentâŚand if theyâre trying to make them be like 2NE1, well, 2NE1âs foreverâ) and has lots of love for her former band mates CL, Minzy and Dara, the latter of whom features on âSpringâ (âWe donât all talk every day, but almost every day. Dara is awesome, sheâs going back and forth all the time, but then is always getting in touch to give me presents fans give her. Sheâll call me saying, 'Well, I got this from your fan! I want to give it to you!â).
Bom says that sheâs OK, but she sounds more than OK â she sounds empowered, confident and most of all grateful to those who have stuck with her. "My singing is getting better, I can say my voice is stronger than beforeâ she reflects. âFirst of all, I am OK. Iâm getting better and thatâs because I have a new family. Because of my incident, I grew up and I feel even more thankful. I appreciate all the things that fans are doing, what they write on Instagram. Every day, I sit down and I read through it and read the comments. Iâm really thankful and think about how I can get back to them â whether itâs music or whatever I can do.â
No matter what she does, having the right people around her seems to be a key factor in making sure her spring comes again and again â those physically there with her and the fans connected with her around the world.
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