<aside> <img src="/icons/note-sixteenth_gray.svg" alt="/icons/note-sixteenth_gray.svg" width="40px" /> Shirts off for Choi San (최산) week!
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San is a main vocalist and dancer of ATEEZ.
Often allergic to shirts and despite being known foremost for his commanding stage presence, offstage San is an earnest, warmhearted and sweet marshmallow. He cares deeply for the members and is their biggest hype man.
His emoji is a mountain ⛰️ (his name 산 in Korean means ‘mountain’). His Aniteez is a purple cat named SANdeoki.
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Friendship Dynamics and Fan Lines
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Have some memes! 🙌
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We’ve seen a lot of San’s performance talents already through videos in previous weeks, so this week we’ll be highlighting not only his stage presence but also his strong vocals (which sometimes get overlooked!). This week we’ll be watching or listening to This World, Turbulence, and Dancing Like Butterfly Wings.
This World is the first track from THE WORLD EP.2 : OUTLAW (June 2023), and its lyrics talk about the necessity of navigating and embracing darkness and change within yourself. Its staging is quite dramatic, and San’s performance is once again a standout. [also Yeosang is seriously doing demon line work here]
San is featured in the intro, 0:23 (with Wooyoung), 0:55, and 1:32.
https://youtu.be/9PIr66cXqKk?si=fesFCk5aEu5kQWaN
<aside> <img src="/icons/language_gray.svg" alt="/icons/language_gray.svg" width="40px" /> Korean Time y’all
Another theme often explored in ATEEZ’s more cinematic songs such as This World is darkness and light, both physical and metaphorical. We’ve seen this previously, in Silver Light and Cyberpunk for example, but This World explores a different angle where darkness and light are blurred. You need the darkness, both inside and out, and you need the change that it brings you.
You’ll hear Wooyoung sing 어둠 (eodum) in the intro (0:40), meaning ‘darkness’, and Mingi at the start of his verse (1:43) references the place where darkness and light meet: 빛과 어둠이 맞물리는 곳 (bichgwa eodum-i majmullineun gos), where 빛 means ‘light’.
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Turbulence was released as the title track for their repackage album *Zero: Fever Epilogue *****in December 2021 (this album also included official releases of many of their Kingdom arrangements). They wrote this song during a difficult time for ATEEZ; it was during COVID when they were separated and unable to perform live, and it was also amidst the stresses of Kingdom and the uncertainty surrounding Mingi’s hiatus. The song is a masterpiece and a love letter to anyone feeling lost or experiencing anxiety or depression. [I definitely recommend watching the official MV as well; there are English subs available there. It is so beautifully done, and is the only MV of theirs where the members appear only in solo shots and never together 😭]
The group’s vocals truly shine in the following arrangement of Turbulence, where they are accompanied by a live band. While previously we saw Yunho and Yeosang’s vocals playing off each other to great effect (and they do so again in the verses here!), the same can also be said of San and Jongho. San’s vocals have a more fluid and silky tone while Jongho’s are more powerful, and they compliment each other quite well.
San sings at 1:05, 1:47, and 2:39 (with Jongho) 🫠.
https://youtu.be/BycpPeGWM-c?si=xLMEBDaCjpw6zh6F
San wasn’t always the intense, demon-line performer that he is today; indeed he is probably the member that has changed the most over the years. At debut his position in the group was solely a vocalist, and he has since worked hard to get his dancing and performance skills to where they are now.
Dancing Like Butterfly Wings is one of their earlier songs, a still-beloved track from their album Treasure EP.3: One to All (June 2019). It’s an uplifting song that talks about trying to reach their dreams. In this video and especially in comparison to some of the more recent performances we have watched, you can definitely see the evolution that San has undergone from pure vocalist to one of their most standout performers (and in a group of all-around excellent performers, that is saying something!).
San is (almost unrecognizable!) in the yellow sweater here, and he sings at 0:34, 1:10, 2:07 and 2:44.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FW58FeGLuHA
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