Spotlight: Tan Jianci

Greetings Jellies, 

I wanted to do something different this spotlight and do a soloist and a Chinese singer. While some fans of Chinese dramas may recognize Tan Jianci from dramas like Under the Skin ( a personal favorite) and Love Me Love My Voice (also wonderful), he actually started out as a competitive ballroom dancer (something I learned recently).  Back in 2006 he became a trainee, before debuting in boy group M.I.C. While I know technically he isn’t fully a soloist because he started in a group, I want to focus on his solo music because that is how I got introduced, mostly through his OSTs. 

Chinese music is a lot harder to find. Sometimes I could find OST’s from popular dramas, but even that could be hard at times due to translation issues. Even with Tan Jianci, a lot of his music isn’t available, of the ones available I also was trying to avoid music videos with talking/spoilers or live performance with sound issues. 

This first song is the intro for Under the Skin. While it does have music video, it does contain scenes from the drama with talking. As I didn't want to spoil it if someone hasn't seen it, I opted for just the song. If you're unfamiliar with the drama, Tan Jianci plays an art student who is dragged into a criminal investigation after his art is used in connection to a murder. These events leave a deep scar on him and makes him step away from art to become a portrait artist for the police. He has gives lessons on art history to the police academy, including its long standing connection to the darker side of humanity. Personally as a history student, lover of art museums, and mystery enthusiast this one hit a sweet spot for me.

This is from a stage performance he had, I thought his live vocals were quite lovely. 

This song is called Dawn and Dusk, it's from the Love Me, Love My Voice OST. It's video also has a bunch of scenes from the drama so I'll just share the song. If you're looking for a soft and low angst watch, I definitely recommend the drama. Love Me, Love My Voice is a story of two people drawn together through a voice chat. One is a college student trying to compose historical music (think costume drama music) who loves a particular voice actor's voice and hopes to work with him. One day they both meet in a voice chat. This is the romance drama for people whom have a list of favorite actors specifically for their voice, they'll definitely understand the female leads feeling falling in love with a voice. Warning: this is a slow paced, chill, slice of life, romance. Slower dramas aren't for everyone and that's okay.

I am including a second song from the Love Me, Love My Voice OST. I felt that this was a very meta song to share as it is a song performed for a show within the show. Plus this demonstrates a different style of singing. 

Because I want to showcase his range, I’ve included this music video which has a very different vibe from the other music I’ve posted.

My final song I’m sharing is the newest one I found by him. 

I hope you've enjoyed this introduction to Tan Jianci. Please look into his dramas and music, I don't know if he has any upcoming music, but he has several dramas coming soon. 

- Rei

Spotlight: In X! Hello, we are CIX!

Hello Jellies,

It’s been rough year for Korean music lovers and we’re not even half way done. We’ve had legal disputes, hiatus’, restructurings, members leaving,  and an unfortunate amount of disbanding. I bring you the unfortunate news of another group succumbing to the seven year curse. Unfortunately this groups story is a too frequent story in Kpop especially for those who’ve been listening for a long time.  The monthly audience on YouTube music (at the time I write this) is sadly only 336K listeners, and Spotify lists 259K listeners. And while that feels like a large number to me who currently has 3 followers on Instagram (at the time I write this), Oneus a group that debuted the same year as CIX averages 1.06m listeners on YouTube music and 420k on Spotify. Even more popular group the same year Tomorrow x Together which averages 36.5m listeners on Youtube Music and 7m listeners on Spotify. 

 I’ve been listening to CIX almost since their debut having followed a member from his previous group Wanna One. Over the years I’ve been doing waking up lists for my sister their music has been feature several times. With some of their songs being on my most played personal playlists, I am sad that there will be no more music from them as a group. With that being said I’d like to introduce you to the members of the group. 

CIX’s name is an acronym for Complete In X. 
Their fans are known as FIX an acronym for Faith In X. 
They debuted in July of 2019. 

Members: Each name is a link to their personal Instagram
BX (Byounggon) - Leader, Main Rapper, Vocalist
Seunghun - Main Vocalist, Dancer
Yonghee - Vocalist, Visual
Bae Jinyoung - Main Dancer, Lead Vocalist, Center 
Hyunsuk - Lead Dancer, Lead Rapper, Vocalist, Maknae 

Narrowing down the list of songs to be included for introduction is always difficult. While going through my saved CIX songs, I was surprised how low the play count were for some of them on Youtube. I have decided to play the most played one off my saved list and then after that it's a selection of songs under 200k listens on Youtube. They're in descending order from most listens to least. I went off Youtube listens exclusively because the Spotify listens and Youtube listens numbers were vastly different sometimes.  I'll include listen count for both on here in case there are any data/statistic fans. 

Jungle (2020) at 34M plays on Youtube and 17.7m plays on Spotify. 

Bad Dream (2021) at 171k listens on Youtube and almost 2.5 million listens on Spotify

My Name is Shadow (2024) 161k listens on Youtube and 462k listens on Spotify. This song was released before Bae Jin Young left the group later that same year. 

My Everlasting Sun (2025) 127k Youtube listens and 286k listens on Spotify. This is from their first EP after Bae Jin Young's departure. 

S.O.S (2025) 122k listens on YouTube and 250k listens on Spotify 

Upstander (2025) 74k listens on Youtube and 177k listens on Spotify

Lost (2021) 29k listens on YouTube and 589k listens on Spotify.

Here For You (2021) 23k listens on Youtube and 597k listens on Spotify.

While not all together unexpected, the group’s disbandment was a very sudden announcement. Currently here is what we know about the future for the members. 
- Younghee is enlisting in the military May 10th as an active duty soldier. 
- Hyunsuk is currently filming a drama, so we will be waiting for more news about that. 
- BX hasn’t announced what’s next yet, but hopefully whether he goes solo, goes into acting, or decides to step away from the industry he finds what makes him happy. 
- Seunghan is retiring from the music industry according to translations of his instagram post. I have seen some say that his post was misinterpreted and he isn’t officially retired. Whether he is retiring or just taking a break, I hope that he takes the time he needs. 
- Former member Bae Jin Young is currently doing a small reunion with Wanna One his group before CIX, and released a solo album last year. 

If this was your first time listening to CIX, I recommend you explore some more of their back catalogue. I will continue to love the music we’ve already gotten from this group and look forward to whatever new music and dramas they release on their individual journeys. Thank you for reminiscing with me and listening to some of my favorite songs. Wishing the members of CIX all the best in this new phase.

Happy listening,

-Rei

Spotlight: From East to World! Hello, we are DKZ!

Welcome to my very first spotlight post!

I was trying to figure out who I wanted to introduce my readers to first when I saw the announcement that in a little over a month DKZ is going to disband. Though I’m really sad to see this news as I’ve always wanted them to get the funding and the attention they deserve. While we may not get any new music from them, I’d like to write up a brief introduction of the group and share some of my favorite songs by them. 

DKZ originally known as Dongkiz officially debuted in April of 2019.  Their name meaning Kids from the East, and their fan group took on the name Dong-Ari. 

The Members at Debut:

Jonghyeong (Now going by Juone) - Vocalist, Dancer (Original Maknae)                                                                                                        Jaechan - Vocalist, Producer, Visual, Rapper                                                                                                                                                    Wondae - Leader, Lead Vocalist, Main Rapper                                                                                                                                                    Kyoungyoon - Main Vocalist                                                                                                                                                                                    Munik - Vocalist, Main Dancer 

In 2022 Dongkiz went through a lot of changes. In March Wondae announced he was leaving due to health issues and that they were being renamed.  Shortly after that same month three new members officially joined the rebranded group DKZ.   This was a big second chance for the group that had been struggling, aside from the rebrand one of the members had a hit drama. Jaechan was in a web drama called Semantic Error, this drama was a BL (boys love) and it’s success took Korea by surprise as they got nominated for awards and even won best couples for the APAN Star Awards. While this definitely brought attention to their music from a whole new group of fans, there was also a lot of negative attention too. 

The members at Rebrand  (Names link to their instagrams if I found them)                                                           
Jonghyeong (Juone) - Leader, Vocalist, Main Dancer                                                                                
Jaechan - Vocalist, Producer, Visual, Rapper
Sehyeon - Rapper, Vocalist, Dancer
Mingyu - Main Vocalist, Dancer
Giseok - Vocalist, Dancer, Maknae
Kyoungyoon - Main Vocalist (till he left in 2023)
Munik - Vocalist, Main Dancer (He was on hiatus during these changes and also left in 2023)

Now that you’ve met all the members let me share probably the first song I ever heard of theirs back in 2020.  I was 100% being annoying roaming my home during lockdown singing  “Let me be your honey” and my pet bunbun was not amused.

Another pre-rebrand song that was on repeat during covid era.

Post rebrand group minus Munik who was on hiatus. 

Their song with the most views and a very different vibe from Cupid ( I personally like Cupid more)

Then 2023 happened Munik officially left the group after being on hiatus more than a year. Later Kyoungyoon left the group due to health/personal reasons. We got only a couple songs from the group, a sub-unit with three songs and a Jaechan mini album.  In 2024 we got a new mini album with the new 5 member line up. 

Then in 2025 we got another mini album

This brings us to now, seven years after their initial debut. It’s sad to see another group fall to the seven year curse. I hope that the members all do very well in their solo activities. I will keep listening to their old music and keep my eyes open for solo releases.  They have a lot of covers on their YouTube channel and I hope they continue to release those as well.

If you’re new to the group I hope you enjoyed learning about them and experiencing a little bit of their music. Please look them up and listen to more of their music including sub units, OSTs, and solos. For those of you whom have been fan for a while, I hope you enjoyed this walk through memory lane and celebration of their time and music they have given us. 

- Rei