''True Colors'' is the debut

extended play An extended play (EP) is a Sound recording and reproduction, musical recording that contains more tracks than a Single (music), single but fewer than an album. Contemporary EPs generally contain up to eight tracks and have a playing time of 1 ...

by South Korean singer U-Know Yunho, a member of the pop duo

TVXQ TVXQ (stylized as TVXQ!; , ), known as Tohoshinki in Japan, is a South Korean pop duo formed by SM Entertainment, composed of U-Know Yunho and Max Changmin. Originally a five-member boy band which also consisted of members Kim Jae-joong, Hero ...

. It was released on June 12, 2019 by

SM Entertainment SM Entertainment Co., Ltd. () is a South Korean multinational entertainment agency established in 1995 by Lee Soo-man. It is one of South Korea's largest entertainment companies and has been responsible for fostering and popularizing the car ...

. Produced by

Lee Soo-man Lee Soo-man (, born 18 June 1952) is a South Korean business executive and record producer who is best known for being the founder of SM Entertainment, a multinational entertainment company based in Seoul. He has also been referred to as the "p ...

, the EP was recorded in

Seoul Seoul, officially Seoul Special Metropolitan City, is the capital city, capital and largest city of South Korea. The broader Seoul Metropolitan Area, encompassing Seoul, Gyeonggi Province and Incheon, emerged as the world's List of cities b ...

, South Korea. Musically, the EP is primarily a

dance pop Dance-pop is a genre of electronic dance music that originated in the late 1970s to early 1980s. It is generally uptempo music intended for nightclubs with the intention of being danceable but also suitable for contemporary hit radio. Developi ...

album with R&B and

electropop Electropop is a popular music fusion genre combining elements of the electronic and pop styles. It has been described as a variant of synth-pop with emphasis on a hard electronic sound. The genre was developed in the 1980s and saw a rev ...

influences. BoA and

Giriboy Hong Si-young (; born January 24, 1991), better known by his stage name Giriboy (), is a South Korean rapper and singer signed to the ''Standard Friends'' label. Career Giriboy began his musical career in 2011 with the single "You Look So Go ...

are also featured in the album. The EP was a commercial success. In South Korea, it debuted at number one on the

Circle Chart The Circle Chart (), previously known as the Gaon Music Chart or the Gaon Chart (), tabulates the relative weekly popularity of songs and albums in South Korea. Founded in 2010, it is produced by the Korea Music Content Association and sponsored ...

(then known as the Gaon Albums Chart), selling over 57,000 copies on the first day. It also topped

iTunes iTunes is a media player, media library, and mobile device management (MDM) utility developed by Apple. It is used to purchase, play, download and organize digital multimedia on personal computers running the macOS and Windows operating s ...

music charts in at least fifteen countries across the world on the first day of release. ''True Colors'' sold over 100,000 units after the first week in South Korea, making Yunho the third solo male artist to do so since the chart's inception in 2010. In Japan, ''True Colors'' topped the Oricon Digital Charts with over 4,000 downloads on the first week, and the physical version debuted at number five on the

Oricon Albums Chart The Oricon Albums Chart is the Japanese music industry standard albums popularity chart issued daily, weekly, monthly and yearly by Oricon. Oricon originally published LP, CT, Cartridge and CD charts prior to the establishment of the Oricon A ...

Background and release

After celebrating

's fifteenth anniversary debut with the EP '' New Chapter #2: The Truth of Love'', the duo embarked on their encore concert tour, the Circle #with Tour in early 2019. On May 3, 2019, SM Entertainment announced that Yunho would be releasing his first solo album in June. The EP's

lead single A lead single (or first single) is the first single to be released from a studio album by an artist or a band, usually before the album itself is released and also occasionally on the same day of the album's release date. A similar term, "debut ...

"Follow" is written by

Yoo Young-jin Yoo Young-jin is a South Korean singer-songwriter, record producer and vocal trainer formerly under SM Entertainment. He has produced and written songs for H.O.T., S.E.S, BoA, Shinhwa, TVXQ, CSJH The Grace, Super Junior, Girls' Generatio ...

, a frequent contributor to TVXQ's music catalog. From June 3 through 8, Yunho released teaser images and tracklist highlights from the EP on the platform X, formerly known as

Twitter Twitter, officially known as X since 2023, is an American microblogging and social networking service. It is one of the world's largest social media platforms and one of the most-visited websites. Users can share short text messages, image ...

. A special clip of the b-side "Hit Me Up" featuring

was dropped on June 7. The album cover for ''True Colors'' was revealed on June 9, and the first music video for "Follow" was released on June 10, followed by a second teaser on June 11. A showcase attended by press and selected fans was held on June 12, ahead of the EP's release. There, Yunho performed three tracks from the EP, including "Follow". The full music video of "Follow" was dropped at 6PM KST.

Composition

''True Colors'' features six tracks, with each track representing a different color. "Swing", which features BoA, is associated with the color red, and has lyrics that emphasize the romantic tension between a woman and a man. "Change the World", the EP's final track, is compared to the color white for the positive energy of its lyrics. Each song also features different vocal tones by Yunho, conveying the different colors in life. The song's lead single "Follow" is written by Yoo and

Thomas Troelsen Thomas Troelsen (born 6 October 1981) is a Danish singer, songwriter, and producer from Skive. Troelsen has written and produced songs for Pitbull, Flo Rida, Justin Bieber, David Guetta, Lil Wayne, Drengene fra Angora, Nile Rodgers, Jason De ...

, the writers of TVXQ's hit single " Mirotic" (2008). The song is described as a "dark" dance pop track with sprinkles of "humor" throughout the choreography.

Reception

''True Colors'' was a commercial success. In the week prior to its release, ''True Colors'' ranked first in album pre-orders in both South Korea and Japan, per ''Hottracks'' and ''

Tower Records Tower Records is an international retail franchising, franchise and online music store that was formerly based in Sacramento, California, United States. From 1960 until 2006, Tower operated retail stores in the United States, which closed when ...

'' respectively. On the first day of release, the digital release topped the iTunes Stores of fifteen countries and territories, and debuted at number four on the iTunes Worldwide Album Chart. Meanwhile, the physical release sold over 44,000 physical units per the

Circle Album Chart The Circle Album Chart, previously known as the Gaon Album Chart, is a record chart ranking the 100 most popular albums, extended plays and single albums in South Koreabased on their Record sales, physical sales. It is a part of the Circle Chart, ...

, then known as the Gaon Albums Chart, in South Korea. After three days of release, ''True Colors'' sold over 73,000 physical copies per the Hanteo Chart, one of South Korea's music chart systems. ''True Colors'' debuted at number one on the

in South Korea, with over 104,000 units sold; and number five on the

, with over 10,000 units sold. It topped Oricon's Digital Album Chart and the ''Billboard'' Japan Top Download Albums Chart, with 5,000 downloads. ''True Colors'' sold over 150,000 copies in South Korea, making Yunho the third male solo act to sell over 100,000 copies since the

's inception.

Track listing

Credits

Credits adapted from the EP's liner notes. Studio * SM Booming System –

recording A record, recording or records may refer to: An item or collection of data Computing * Record (computer science), a data structure ** Record, or row (database), a set of fields in a database related to one entity ** Boot sector or boot record, re ...

digital editing In mass communication, digital media is any communication media that operates in conjunction with various encoded machine-readable data formats. can be created, viewed, distributed, modified, listened to, and preserved on a digital electronic d ...

, engineered for mix, mixing * SM Blue Cup Studio – recording , mixing * In Grid Studio – recording * SM LVYIN Studio – recording , engineered for mix , mixing * Doobdoob Studio – recording , digital editing * SM Big Shot Studio – engineered for mix , mixing * SM SSAM Studio – engineered for mix * Sonic Korea – mastering * 821 Sound – mastering ) Personnel *

–

executive producer Executive producer (EP) is one of the top positions in the production of media. Depending on the medium, the executive producer may be concerned with management accounting or associated with legal issues (like copyrights or royalties). In film ...

– producer * Lee Sung-soo – production director * Kim Young-min – executive supervisor * U-Know – vocals ,

background vocals A backing vocalist is a singer who provides vocal harmony with the lead vocalist or other backing vocalists. A backing vocalist may also sing alone as a lead-in to the main vocalist's entry or to sing a counter-melody. Backing vocalists are u ...

* BoA – vocals *

– vocals, lyrics *

– producer,

composition Composition or Compositions may refer to: Arts and literature *Composition (dance), practice and teaching of choreography * Composition (language), in literature and rhetoric, producing a work in spoken tradition and written discourse, to include ...

arrangement In music, an arrangement is a musical adaptation of an existing composition. Differences from the original composition may include reharmonization, melodic paraphrasing, orchestration, or formal development. Arranging differs from orchestr ...

, lyrics , vocal directing, background vocals, recording, digital editing, engineered for mix, mixing , music and sound supervisor *

– producer, composition, arrangement * Hwang Yu-bin – lyrics * Choi Jin-suk Jinbyjin – producer, composition, arrangement, vocal directing, background vocals *

Andrew Choi Andrew Choi (Korean name Korean names are names that place their origin in, or are used in, Korea. A Korean name in the modern era typically consists of a surname followed by a given name, with no middle names. A number of Korean terms for ...

– composition, background vocals * Oh Seung-eun – composition * Andreas Baertels – composition *

Lee Seu-ran Lee may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Lee'' (2007 film), Tamil-language sports action film * ''Lee'' (2017 film), Kannada-language action film * ''Lee'' (2023 film), biographical drama about Lee Miller, American photojournalist * ''L ...

– lyrics * Jay Putty – composition, arrangement * Kyle Lampi – composition, arrangement * Josh Bertram – composition, arrangement * Jacob Plough – composition, arrangement * Greg Haimandos – composition, arrangement * Emily Kim Yeon-seo – composition, arrangement, vocal directing * SQUAR – producer, composition, arrangement * Rick Bridges – lyrics * Kim Moon-suk ( Jam Factory) – lyrics *

LDN Noise LDN Noise (pronounced ''London Noise'') is a British songwriting and record production duo based in London, England. Consisting of songwriter Greg Bonnick and DJ Hayden Chapman, the duo has worked with artists such as Nathan Sykes, Nick Jon ...

– producer, composition, arrangement * Ebenezer – producer, composition, arrangement * Jane – lyrics, composition, background vocals * Kriz – lyrics, composition, background vocals * Dress – producer, composition, arrangement, vocal directing, background vocals,

drums The drum is a member of the percussion instrument, percussion group of musical instruments. In the Hornbostel–Sachs classification system, it is a membranophones, membranophone. Drums consist of at least one Acoustic membrane, membrane, c ...

bass Bass or Basses may refer to: Fish * Bass (fish), various saltwater and freshwater species Wood * Bass or basswood, the wood of the tilia americana tree Music * Bass (sound), describing low-frequency sound or one of several instruments in th ...

piano A piano is a keyboard instrument that produces sound when its keys are depressed, activating an Action (music), action mechanism where hammers strike String (music), strings. Modern pianos have a row of 88 black and white keys, tuned to a c ...

, strings,

brass Brass is an alloy of copper and zinc, in proportions which can be varied to achieve different colours and mechanical, electrical, acoustic and chemical properties, but copper typically has the larger proportion, generally copper and zinc. I ...

* Hwang Chan-hee – composition * Simon Petrén – producer, composition, arrangement * Ju Chan-yang (Iconic Sounds) – vocal directing, background vocals * Deez – vocal directing * Oaisle – background vocals * Glowingdog – background vocals, keyboards * Koo Won-chan – background vocals * Yang Geun-young – background vocals * Jo Won-sang – bass * Park Ji-hwan –

guitar The guitar is a stringed musical instrument that is usually fretted (with Fretless guitar, some exceptions) and typically has six or Twelve-string guitar, twelve strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming ...

* Jung Eui-seok – recording , mixing * Jeong Eun-kyung – recording * Lee Ji-hong – recording , engineered for mix , mixing * Jang Woo-young – recording , digital editing * Min Sung-soo – recording * Lee Min-kyu – engineered for mix , mixing * Noh Min-ji – engineered for mix * Jeon Hoon – mastering * Kwon Nam-woo – mastering )

Charts

Weekly charts

Monthly charts

Yearly charts

References

External links

U-Know Official WebsiteSMTOWN Official Website
{{Authority control 2019 debut EPs Albums produced by Lee Soo-man Albums produced by Thomas Troelsen Albums produced by LDN Noise SM Entertainment EPs Korean-language EPs