Talks With Newtro Pop Singer, YUKIKA In The Eve Of Neon Flashing City | Exclusive Interview

‘City pop’ refers to a music genre that emerged in the late 70s Japan and neon-colored the glory days of the Bubble era(70 – 90s). This music which was heavily influenced by numerous western music at the time such as, funk, disco, R&B, lounge and more, brought joy to the ears of many Japanese people from that generation.

As the bubble deflated, the trend in music changed and have branched out to different types of music and led to the current J-Pop as we know today.

However, the sound was not forgotten and gradually made its comeback to the world as it got adopted by various underground musicians around the world.

This phenomenon was no exception in Korea as well. From indie to the major music scene, people started to seek that nostalgic feeling you get somehow, even though the current generation has never even experienced that era and several renowned artists including Yubin, Baek YeRin, SunMi and more, released ‘City pop’ based singles.

In February 2019, a Japanese singer YUKIKA made her first debut with a song filled with those nostalgic vibes and added another layer of color to the K-Pop industry.

YUKIKA was a voice actor back in Japan, who first came to Korea to be part of ‘Real Girls Project’ and later, participated in the audition program, ‘MIXNINE’. After moving to her current company, ESTIMATE LLC., she became a ‘NEWTRO pop’ singer and currently have released two singles including, “NEON” and “좋아하고 있어요(Cherry Jubiles)”.

Kpopmap sat down with her at the ESTIMATE office located in Gangnam and had the chance to