Following the buzz over their track “HWAA” from their fourth mini-album I Burn, the South Korean band (G)I-DLE has released for their international fans an English and a Chinese version of the song on Wednesday.
This isn’t the first time that the sextet are re-recording their music in English. They did it, for example, with two of their popular tracks from their discography: “LATATA” and “Oh My God”. However, this time was different because “HWAA” was especially demanding to adapt due to the richness and complexity of its lyrics.
This is the reason why they collaborated with British singer-songwriter Phidel to maintain the sense behind the original song in order to offer the best experience they can to their international fans.
The original song includes metaphors such as a blazing fire and a beautiful flower in order to represent someone’s journey after a painful heartbreak. The title itself is a play on the Korean word “화 (hwa)”, which translates to “flame”, and the Chinese words “火 (huo)” and “花 (hua)”, which translate to “fire” and “flower” respectively.
Like the original, the new renditions spread the same emotion by using the same metaphors. “Get up, build a fire that is gonna dry the tears I’ve cried […] My fire’s shining through […] Reddest rеd, all these flowers bloom” “With my burning flame”, the group sings in the English version.
(G)I-DLE’s leader Soyeon who wrote the original track told Bandwagon about the new versions, “Lyrics are a very important part of the song, so we tried very hard to translate it to English to deliver the exact same feelings that the Korean version had”.
However, this did not preclude the K-pop girl group from introducing a bit of innovation to their track and make it, as Soojin described it, unique in its own way, while keeping the original story and messages from the song.
She said, “I think that the original (Korean) version seems to have captivated the hearts of the fans with just its atmosphere. After reading the translated (English) version, I feel that fans will like it because every word will touch their hearts. This English version of ‘HWAA’ has a different charm from the original version. I’m very excited too!”
These two new translated versions reinforce their dedication to ensuring that fans from all around the world feel included in the Neverland (the name of (G)I-DLE’s fanbase).
Listen to the English version of “HWAA” below:
#Peace.Love.HWAA
