On November 5, Hyuna came back with her new anticipated single, ‘Flower Shower.’ This is her first solo comeback since December 2017, when she released ‘Lip & Hip.’ During the two-year break, she had major changes in her life. In August 2018, her news made a huge headline when she announced that she had been dating then Pentagon member E’Dawn for over two years. Cube Entertainment, their agency at the time, did not want the dating news revealed, and they subsequently dropped him from his group. She and Dawn left Cube shortly after, and early this year they moved to Psy‘s new agency, P Nation Entertainment. After moving agencies, she continued to communicate with her fans through social media. Hyuna made an unexpected comeback when her teaser for ‘Flower Shower‘ was dropped only a week before the release, surprising both her fans and non-fans. It was expected from the teasers that the song would be bright and optimistic, and that this time she would be coming back with a lovely and classy concept.
‘Flower Shower‘ is a Moombahton Pop dance track that is a fusion of reggae and house music. Psy wrote the lyrics and co-produced the song. Hyuna is a rapper, but unlike her previous releases, there’s no rap here and her signature sultry vocals suit the song well. The beginning of the song is memorable with its ‘du du du du‘, which was an instant hook. I like the whistle sounds during the chorus that accentuate the delightful atmosphere, and the instrumental drop is powerful. The lyrics deserve their own analysis, as the song aims at comparing the glamorous peak of her career to flowers that bloom. At 0:24-0:27, she sings ‘Even as flowers wither, don’t you worry, they will bloom again‘ — comparing flowers to her celebrity life, which has been a cycle of blooming and fading. When she says ‘They’re looking at me now, all this attention. I don’t hate it’ at 0:34-0:37, she is talking about the attention that she receives as a celebrity, both positive and negative. She is nonchalant and standing strong even with the negative press and hate that sometimes surround her. She proclaims ‘I’m paving my own floral path‘ at 0:46, and she speaks with both optimism and ambition. She wants to sparkle as much as possible when she says ‘from head to toe, Hyuna is red‘, referencing herself in her 2014 song ‘Red‘. ‘Take a flower shower… shower yourself with flowers‘ (at 0:53) and ‘Don’t be hasty, just like seasons everything will return‘ (at 1:32-1:34) tell us that she wishes to be the beautiful and showy flower that shines brightly, even when its peak is temporary. Overall, the lyrics are encouraging — both to herself and her audience — and the comparisons that are made throughout the song help Hyuna create a classy yet bright concept.
The music video is visually striking and shows the magnificent beauty of nature. It starts off with the artist waking up in a beautiful forest surrounded by greens and butterflies. The scenery mostly brings spring and summer vibes, but the change in season can be seen at 1:17 when it shows her surrounded by red tree leaves that represent autumn. Her outfits change throughout the song, and she wears variations of floral print dresses. The dancers in the background wear white in contrast to the colorful and whimsical surroundings, while Hyuna alternates between gold and red-orange puffy dresses and twirls around with the flowers surrounding her. Her lively choreography and natural smile show that she is carefree and confident about herself — and she succeeds in proving us that, regardless of the season and no matter what struggles she goes through in her career, she’ll always bounce back like a gorgeous flower.
With this new song and music video, Hyuna expresses herself more freely since leaving her former agency — while there, she did a lot of overly sexy concepts which were met with some scrutiny. The cheerful yet mature concept of ‘Flower Shower” is similar to ‘Babe‘ and shows the perky, bright side of the idol that the general public wanted to see again (e.g. ‘Bubble Pop‘). It is different from many of her other songs such as ‘Lip and Hip‘ and ‘Red‘, which were more flashy than classy.
Overall, I like ‘Flower Shower‘ due to its flamboyant melody, even though it took me several listens to appreciate it fully. It still feels more like a spring song rather than an autumn one, but it is pleasant to listen to. However, if you’re looking for a song with strong beats, hard hitting vocals and/or powerful choreography, this song is not for you.