IU Announces Collab With NewJeans Member Hyein For Sixth Mini Album, Releases Tracklist

South Korean K-pop idol IU has decided to collaborate with girl group NewJeans member Hyein. Both the music sensations enjoy global popularity and the two coming together has thrilled the masses. On February 4, IU dropped the tracklist for her sixth mini album titled The Winning on her social media handles. The unique video announcement presentation featured a mimic of a shopping haul. Under the “Shopping List" category, IU shared the names of the songs that are to be included in her album. The visual presentation also gave away Hyein’s name in one of the tracks, indicating her collaboration with IU.

The video revealed the name of five songs under IU’s The Winning album. They are double title songs — Shopper and Holecene, alongside Shh, Love Wins All, and I Stan U. Each of the tracks came with its distinct representative pictures, sparking intrigue among fans. The revelation came with IU singing in her melodious voice, “Oh I want all I must have all, all" by the closing few seconds of the video. Upon closer inspection, it is seen that the third track aka Shh features Hyein and Rollercoaster singer Jo Won-sun. A question mark at the edge of the write-up generated an extra dose of curiosity.

IU put a lot of work into the mini-album, contributing extensively to both songwriting and production. She united with composer Lee Jong-hoon, her longtime musical partner, on the album’s title song Shopper. To further improve the album’s quality, the singer also assembled skilled musicians like Hong So-jin, Seo Dong-hwan, Zee, and Kim Hee-won under one roof. IU has even composed and penned down the lyrics of her other title track Holecene. At the end of the imaginative song list, curated like an online shopping cart website, the date of the album release was mentioned. The Winning is scheduled to premiere on February 20.

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Earlier, IU collaborated with boyband BTS member V for the latest track Love Wins All. Although V did not lend his voice to the number, only featuring in the music video, the tragic romantic song whipped up a positive response from fans. Within four days of the song’s release, Love Wins All was crowned with a perfect All-Kill rank by Instiz’s iChart, making it the first song of 2024 to accomplish this remarkable feat.