Jessica Jung, a former member of the K-pop group Girls' Generation (also known as SNSD), has spoken out about what it was like leaving the band.
The singer was allegedly booted from the project in 2014. At the time,Jung claimed the other members decided to kick her out after she started a fashion brand called BLANC, according to a public statement from the singer obtained by Soompi.
The singer claimed she was kicked out of the band after she started a new fashion company.
Jung spoke more about that part of her life in a recent episode of the Singapore-based podcast series The Daily Ketchup.
"I try to put the past behind me, and I always try to look at the brighter things," she said. "Of course, that time was one of the darkest times of my life, darkest periods of my life. But I had my family and friends to really support me, and my fans were always there… I felt like it was a good transitioning period and a good time for me to grow up."
Jung also spoke about how decisions like this are made in Girls' Generation and other similar bands.
"If you’re in a group then the majority wins," she said. "So if you don’t want to have black tea, you need to have black tea if five people want to have black tea." Jung explained how that can create interpersonal tension. "This goes for every single thing from little things to the big decisions. You need to learn how to deal and cope with that and be okay with being in that type of system. Which I was, I was fine."
Jung said she prefers operating solo.
Nowadays, the singer said she prefers operating solo. The revelations stirred up some negative social media comments from members of the Girls' Generation fandom, who are sometimes known as "sones."
"Every group member who became a soloist gets asked about the transition process and differences between the two but jessica somehow shouldn’t be allowed to do that because yall twitter bitches say so? you sones are NOT," one person said on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter.
"We wanna know who in snsd voted Jessica in and who voted her out," another user said.
Jung recently played a show in Singapore as part of her Diamond Dreams tour.
Jung, 34, was born in San Francisco to parents of South Korean descent. Her K-pop began on a visit to the country in 2000 when talent agents spotted her at a shopping mall. The singer was featured on all of Girls' Generation's first four albums. Three of them made it to the No. 1 spot on the Circle Album Chart, which tracks popular LPs in South Korea.
After leaving the group, Jung went on to have a successful solo career. Her most recent EP Beep Beep came out last month on Warner Music. She traveled to Singapore to play as a show as part of her Diamond Dreams tour on Dec. 13. Jung will also perform in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, on Jan. 13.
