Ex-Miss A singer Min has opened up about her struggles during her time in the K-pop girl group.
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Last week, former Miss A member Min released her first solo EP ‘Prime Time’, 14 years after initially debuting as part of the girl group. In a new interview with Billboard, the singer opened up about her longtime desire to release solo music, as well as the difficulties she faced in Miss A.
Min shared that she remains on good terms with J.Y. Park, the co-founder of her former agency JYP Entertainment, despite being unable to pursue a solo career under the company. “I have wanted to release solo [music], but it didn’t fit and didn’t happen,” she said.
“It isn’t that my opinion doesn’t matter — we listened to everyone’s opinion to decide anything,” Min said, explaining that ultimately the opinions of those who made more money for the company “would matter more”.
She went on to share that she also struggled with the public’s speculation of discord within the girl group after their last release ‘Colors’ in 2015. Min explained that she “didn’t understand the fans’ desire for [the members] to be best friends” and called it “very unfair”.
“Everything that we were and we did was fully under control, so I feel like a lot of people see me in a certain way,” she said of her ‘strong’ image in the group. “But I wasn’t a strong person, so I would get hurt by comments and online bullying — it just haunted me every day.”
Min explained that while she avoided posts about herself and asked friends to only show her positive comments, she would inevitably encounter negative comments. “I just couldn’t go to sleep. […] I felt my personality become very small and guarded… I still struggle with certain things and certain comments,” she shared, adding that she felt “villainised”.
“It’s very unfair and sad, but I don’t want to dwell in the past and I don’t want to drag anyone down; that’s not me,” Min later said.
Earlier this month, former Miss A member Bae Suzy also reflected on her time in the girl group, sharing that she is “incomparably more content” after leaving her K-pop career for acting.
The post Former Miss A member Min says online bullying “haunted” her every day appeared first on NME.
