All-Japanese girl group Unicode debuts with hope of promoting K-city pop genre

All-Japanese K-pop girl group Unicode / Courtesy of XX Entertainment

All-Japanese K-pop girl group Unicode has arrived on the music scene with the ambition of promoting the K-city pop genre.

Unicode consists of the five winners from the Japanese online audition, “Project K” — Erin, Hana, Sooah, Yura and Mio.

The quintet put out its debut album, “Hello World: Code J Ep.1,” Wednesday, which is fronted by the lead single, “Let Me Love.”

The album was supported by prominent figures in the K-pop industry.

Jinyoung of the boy band B1A4 — who was behind the success of numerous hits such as “When the Cherry Blossom Fades” by I.O.I — produced the song, and the boy band Super Junior’s Shindong directed its music video.

“‘Let me Love’ is a tune about unrequited love, which encapsulates Unicode’s musical identity,” Erin said during a press event in Seoul marking its debut Wednesday.

During the event, all Unicode members showed their deep love and commitment to K-pop, with Hana picking Sana, a Japanese member of the popular K-pop act TWICE, as her role model.

“We are serious about K-pop, and we gathered here just to play K-pop,” Erin said.

“K-city pop,” the genre that Unicode seeks to promote, is the music that makes listeners reminisce about the past, the group said.

“City pop in J-pop is mostly calm and emotional, but in K-pop, it seems to have a brighter and more energetic vibe,” Erin said. “Since we are Japanese, we can add our own allure to K-city pop while presenting the charms of both K-pop and J-pop.”