"I cried a lot": Cha Eun-woo opens up about the tough aspects of working on his debut album, ENTITY during his appearance at Lee Hyori's Red Carpet

On Friday, February 23, Cha Eun-woo appeared as a guest for the latest episode of Lee Hyori's talk show, The Seasons: Red Carpet, to promote his solo debut album, ENTITY. While the idol hasn't been active with the promotions as he wanted his fans to freely engage with his music at their own pace, he felt that appearing at Lee Hyori's show was the perfect space to express what the album means to him.

Therefore, he took the opportunity to state that he didn't feel like actively promoting the album and asking people to listen to his songs since he attached very personal emotions to ENTITY. He added that he created the album during one of the toughest times of his life, which most likely aligns with the unfortunate death of his fellow member, Moonbin.

While he tried his best to communicate what the album meant to him, he soon got emotional and wasn't able to express himself fully. However, Lee Hyori helped to dissect what he wanted to say and also motivated him to talk more about the emotions he felt while making the album. Cha Eun-woo then stated,

"It was not easy. I cried a lot. But I’m proud of what I was able to put together. And I hope that my messages get across as I intended."

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Cha Eun-woo gets emotional as he opens up about the tough parts of creating his solo debut album, ENTITY

On February 15, Cha Eun-woo released his solo debut album, ENTITY, and fans were thrilled about the same. Given that fans were able to get a new glimpse of the idol's musical personality, the album naturally garnered a lot of attention. However, unlike the other debuts of K-pop idols, fans noticed that the idol didn't appear on any talk shows or variety programs to promote his album.

Regardless, he did make an appearance at Lee Hyori's The Seasons: Red Carpet talk show with a specific intention to express his album and what it stands for. As the interview kickstarted, Lee Hyori asked the idol why he wasn't active in promoting the album. To which, Cha Eun-woo replied,

"I did. I didn’t want this album to be… all about sales or rankings. So, I told the management I didn’t want to schedule activities that could become too commercial or promotional. I mean, it’d be great if more people listened to the album. Sure. But I didn’t feel like putting myself out there and actively promoting it, like, 'Please listen to it!'"

When the host asked what reason lay behind the same, Cha Eun-woo immediately started to get emotional. He stated that during the creation of the album, he went through one of the toughest times of his life and wasn't handling it well. However, when he tried putting more words into the same, he couldn't find the right things to say.

"So last year has been, personally, one of the toughest times of my life. So, yeah. I don’t think I can finish talking about this."

Lee Hyori helped out with the idol by stating that it could be because the album holds a complex set of emotions that can't be verbalized, and the idol agreed to the same. However, when the idol talked about how last year was a challenging time for him, fans were immediately able to make out that he was referring to the passing away of Moonbin, his fellow ASTRO member.

On April 19, 2023, Moonbin was revealed to have been found dead in his apartment and the reports stated that the idol had decided to take his own life. Following the news, the entire industry and all fandoms grieved his loss. Naturally, his fellow group member, Cha Eun-woo, was also struggling to deal with the loss of his close friend.

Since his solo album was created around the same time as his teammate's passing away, it led to a complexity of emotions getting attached to his solo album. Therefore, though he feels better that the album is out to the world and he's able to express his emotions now, he stated that these emotions are something that he'll carry with him for a lifetime.

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Upon watching the interview, fans couldn't help but get emotional at his confession. Additionally, they've only grown to see a different dimension of Cha Eun-woo's solo debut album, ENTITY.